A NEW TITLE HAS ENTERED
As a fan of action-fighting games, from Tekken to Super Smash Bros and everything in between, I had high expectations for this new title Dragon Fury. Choose from a large pool of fighting masters and climb to the top of the food chain in this fast-paced smooth functioning 2.5D fighting game.
Infused with some Mortal Kombat DNA, the game features a tower mode, where you choose between 3 towers and fight your way to the top. The first offers a three-person list to fight through, the second offers seven, and the third offers 11. If you’re looking for one match at a time, single player is more your speed; pick a fighter and fight the computer with a randomly chosen opponent.
Win or lose, head back to the character select screen and repeat. Or go head to head with your friends in 2 player, battling it out to see who earns the bragging rights over this game. Need some training? Head into practice mode and beat up a static opponent, learning all those tricky moves. So what exists behind this new title, and is it worth the play? Let’s find out.
THE DESIGN
Dragon Fury has a few positives worthy of mention. To start, the characters. As we’ve seen throughout the history of fighting games, one major gripe from players was the lack of character options. The farther along the timeline, the more we see games opening up the floodgates of character choice, providing more and more options to the players. Dragon Fury made sure not to miss this boat.
With over 200 characters to choose from, there is more than likely a warrior for you. Into big bad menacing characters? Choose from a list of orcs, ogres and animal-based fighters. A powerful gorilla, deadly shark, barbaric werewolf and more can be taken into the fight.
Maybe you’re looking for something a little more zany and arbitrary? Aliens, demons and mummies all have a spot on the game’s roster. What about the classic human warriors? Most definitely. Modern military soldiers, samurais and Vikings occupy a significant space in this game.
Along with the immense character choice, the game showcases great effort toward character design. Although not applicable to every character, the game offers various apparel and look options. Different characters have anywhere from 1 to upwards of 12 different style options. One character has 48. Want your alien’s skin color a different shade? Want your samurai wearing his battle armor? Cycle through the options and determine what best suits you.
THE DETAIL
The detail in this game deserves all of our applause. The shading, facial features and details behind uniforms contribute to each character’s individuality. Kruncher the Shark stands there with his fangs out, blood running down his mouth and chest. His thick hands with sharp talons for fingernails were also soaked in blood. The design captures the strength behind the character’s species with his bulging muscles and protruding veins.
Gorlor the Ogre stands there with his decaying sharp teeth visible. Who knows what kind of bacteria lives inside that mouth? His massive arms, legs and stomach are covered in what appears to be dirt, authentically highlighting the dirtiness associated with ogres. Every muscle, scar, battle wound and stitch on articles of clothing can be seen. This level of detail makes the characters extremely enticing to play.
The maps are just as equally worth a mention. Each map is beautifully designed, encapsulating the desired feel of the level. It makes you feel as though you are there, not on the same stage with a randomly rendered image pasted in the background.
When fighting it out in front of the Western Saloon, it looks as though you can walk right into the bar after and buy a drink. The loser pays for the first round. With an endless amount of bones scattered about the ground, Snake Mountain screams the kind of place the loser and even possibly the winner won’t make it out of. While enlarged snakes and scorpions patiently watch this brutal beat down, you better hope your bones aren’t added to the piles of death around you.
THE ANIMATIONS
Great animations are essential to making a game feel polished. When fighting, the punches are fluid, the kicks are smooth, and all of the movements look authentic. The kicks mimic something out of an MMA fight, and the punches rotate your character’s shoulders in a realistic fashion. Even Krill the Alien looks like he spent some time training in Floyd Mayweather’s boxing gym.
What fun is a game without some taunting abilities? The game made sure to capitalize on a player’s desire to throw a successful win in their opponent’s face. Flaunt your muscles tauntingly, or get the blood pumping with jumping jacks and squats. Although it doesn’t affect anything, it’s a fun feature the developer chose to add, emphasizing the authenticity of the game’s animations.
NO PAYWALL
Huge shout out to independent developer Grzegorz Slazinski for not including a paywall in this game. As already mentioned, the characters come with included clothing presets, and unlockable characters are earned by defeating the towers, not by opening up your wallet.
This is a highly refreshing experience. Hard work and dedication will earn you the right to play as Banana Man or Broman, the vicious piece of broccoli. Even on console, oftentimes you will see fighting games contain characters you want to play with so badly, but only if you’re willing to pay. Bravo to Dragon Fury for separating itself from the stigma of mobile games being a complete money pit.
WEAPONS
The implementation of weapons is a nice feature in this game. Many fighting game characters contain their own weapons and some are used as a standard tool in most combos; for example, Spawn in Soul Caliber 2 and his deadly battle axe. Some weapons exist to be used as a more complex or special move; Injustice’s Deadshot fits this description. His long ranged rifle and wrist guns send bullets ripping through the air, keeping opponents at a distance. Dragon Fury goes its own way.
After you choose your warrior, you must choose a weapon. Whether just your fists or some type of melee weapon, swords, axes, scythes and more, the computer will match your choice and the fight will drastically change based on that decision. Each type of weapon comes with its own set of moves, and it’s up to you to master them. Quickly slice through your opponent with a pair of daggers, or mercilessly beat them down with a hammer. The choice is yours.
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?
Unfortunately, a handful of negatives about this game must be broken down as well. Sadly, the individuality of each character begins and ends with the character image. Didn’t anyone teach Slazinski that it’s what’s on the inside that counts?
Without a storyline highlighting character backgrounds, it is nearly impossible to have an authentic attachment to them past their aesthetic appeal. Knowing who a character is and where they came from is essential, especially if you intend to use them in the long run.
Some characters are household names, and it’s easy to decipher those apart. For example, Bjorn from the show Vikings made his way onto the roster. The game also features Medusa. With her iconic snake hair and piercing, haunting eyes, it’s easy to pick her out of the crowd.
But what about Zorg and the other aliens, or BloodMoon and the other Native American warriors? Who are they and how did they all make their way onto this list of top-tier fighters? Even something as simple as a character bio available to read can go a long way. I can’t be the only one that needs to know Banana Man’s history or where he got those awesome sunglasses.
VERY BASIC MECHANICS
The game has very basic mechanics. To block, hold the block button, and your character will raise their arms slightly in a blocking motion. This will work against hits to your legs as well. If your opponent goes for a low attack such as a sweeping leg kick, keep holding that block button. With your character’s arms in the same position, they will somehow block that crushing low blow. No need to duck and block.
Although it’s made a selling point on the game’s listing, this is not a good feature. This eliminates any attacking strategy used to get past a fighter’s guard. Anyone that plays fighting games knows the strategies behind attacking high then low or Vice Versa. Even more so, the frustration that comes with fighting someone that somehow blocks everything as though they’re Neo from the Matrix. In this game, it does not matter. High, mid, and low attacks are one in the same.
IT’S ALL THE SAME
There is one move list applied to every character. Punches, kicks and movement are the same for everyone. A diverse fighting portfolio is one of the best elements of a fighting game. Also called a character archetype, it’s a huge contributing factor to a player’s decision when selecting a fighter. Some archetypes are born from a specific game franchise; for example, Shoto comes from Street Fighter’s Ryu and Tekken has the Mishimas, but there are some generic archetypes as well. Some examples include Zoner fighters and Grapplers.
Very different from each other with different strengths and weaknesses, a Zoner character has an arsenal that allows him to remain distant from his opponent. Equipped with a long-range weapon or projectile to keep the distance, they also contain power moves that can knock their opponents back if they get too close.
As the name suggests, Grapplers like to get up close and personal. All their attacks are based on short-range hits and throwing their opponents. Usually the strongest with the most health, they’re also slower and struggle against Zoner characters that can keep them at bay.
None of this exists in Dragon Fury. In what universe does a giant ogre have the same speed and agility as Bjorn the Viking? No argument will convince me that these gigantic monsters can do a backflip. Without character archetypes, you don’t have a true fighting game. If you’re looking for a character to get attached to and develop a strategy behind, you won’t find it here.
HEIGHT DIFFERENCE
This game is too imbalanced for too many reasons. To start, the height difference does not work. It is easy to see what the developer was trying to accomplish. Keeping characters proportionate to one another is a great idea. It makes sense that Tev the Goblin would only be the size of Dur the Cyclopes’ leg.
This unfortunately won’t work in this game genre. Due to this extreme height difference, most moves will be unusable for the taller fighter, putting them at a significant disadvantage. Punching, high kicks, and even a decent amount of low hits will go right over your tiny opponent’s head.
Another imbalanced element is the weapons system. If you choose to fight with weapons, the game re-sizes it to fit your opponent’s hand. Again due to unnecessary size differences among some characters, the bigger characters will be up against what looks like a toothpick being waved at them. Stand at the edge of the map, swing your gigantic sword, and watch your opponent get annihilated without even remotely getting close to you.
UNBALANCED FRAME RATE
Fighting games use frame data to determine the speed of attacks. With the standard 60 frames per second play, one frame equals 1/60th of a second. The higher amount of frames a move has, the longer it takes to carry out. Each move contains a start-up, active and recovery phase. The start-up is the beginning of a move, active is where the move inflicts actual damage, and recovery is the cool-down after an attack where the character resets.
A game’s design should balance lighter, quicker moves with heavier, stronger ones. A quick jab might only have a start-up of a few frames and a minimal amount of frames for recovery, while a powerful roundhouse kick might have double the recovery frames.
This is where certain strategies like punishing are born. When your opponent throws a wild haymaker that you either block or misses you, their recovery time for that move might be somewhat lengthy. This small window will give you the perfect opportunity to strike, punishing your opponent for attempting such a move.
Dragon Fury does not follow this system. Yes, some moves have a start-up with more frames because the physical body needs to move a certain way to carry out the attack. Just think, how funny would it look if a front flip kick had the same amount of start-up frames as a simple right hook? The recovery, however, all feels the same.
Blocking a punch has the same recovery time as a spinning butterfly kick. This is extremely imbalanced and again eliminates the ability to punish your opponent for getting too aggressive or building any kind of strategy behind move completion. With this design, hit that attack button repeatedly and keep swinging so long as they’re not hitting back.
NO COMBOS
Where are the combos and grabs? Slazinski forgot another major factor that individualizes a fighting game; combos and grabs. This game doesn’t contain even a simple grab-and-toss mechanic, so for all you grapplers out there, this game is not for you. There aren’t any combos either.
The player essentially creates the combos; you make them by quickly smashing the buttons. Jab cross, jab cross, sweeping leg kick, roundhouse, jab cross. Whatever buttons you hit, your fighter will wildly throw. Although this may seem functional at first, it quickly becomes redundant once you realize there isn’t much skill behind this. This game is a button masher at best and meant for those looking for casual play. In fact, Dragon Fury feels like it’s still in its infancy stage overall.
