Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly.

Reviews/Previews/Features/Goodies/Anime/Classics/Links/Contact

Platform: Playstaion2

Developer: Saffire

Publisher: Titus 

Genre: Fighting

Barbarian

Fighting games have always been popular, especially among console gamers.  Sometimes though, they struggle to bring something – anything – new to the table.  Barbarian, in development by Utah-based Saffire, looks to bring some depth to the genre while still giving us that “beat the hell outta them” experience.

Each of the ten upgradeable characters has a back-story and quests to go on but they all have the same goal: defeat Zaugg.  (Zaugg is your prototypical bad guy who has taken Barbaria as his own, his evil influence has spread to the far reaches and threatens to destroy everything.)  There’s a prophecy involved too – this is all starting to sound vaguely like an RPG.  Well, there’s a reason.  Barbarian is trying to fuse RPG elements with arena-style fighting.  Two points in the official run down caught my eye: “30+ in game choices = 300+ different quests to follow” and “choose your own adventure gameplay with a navigational storyline.”  Both claims sound a little outlandish, especially for a fighting game. 300 different quests?  Cripes!  How do you plan for something like that?  In my mind the “navigational storyline” means you’ll be able to choose a path to take – like Golden Axe 3.  But 300 different quests?  We’ll have to wait and see.  However, it would add some – okay, a lot of – replay value.

The arenas of conflict appear to be huge, officially “multi-leveled battle realms that span several screen-lengths.”  And by the looks of it they’re not exaggerating.  Necessitating this is the fact there can be up to eight fighters on-screen at once (with the multi-tap).  Arenas are varied but they tend to be on the dark side.  Another touted feature is being able to “use almost anything as a weapon.”  The fighters themselves are of your basic type.  Take the character Number 21.  He’s derivative of Blanka from the Street Fighter series – “Number 21 knows nothing of his past… no home, no family, not even a name.”  However, the chance to upgrade your skills and even specialize sets Barbarian from the norm.  (I have a feeling this combination of the somewhat familiar with the new will be a good mix to attract gamers.)  Characters models are fairly detailed but more importantly they move fluidly – whether they’re using one opponent as a weapon to beat the hell out of another opponent or casting a spell, the speed remains constant.

First and foremost for fighting games is control.  It’s got to walk the fine line of accessibility and rewarding more experienced players with more complex and damaging combos.  This can make or break a game, but also of concern is the camera work.  The size of the arenas and number of players means there will be a lot of far-out viewing.  The danger is that the characters will just be too damn small to see what you’re doing.  Traditional fighting games haven’t had this problem because the arenas are very restrictive.  The freedom to go all over the place could be a problem, with very long drawn out fights.  This could be offset by the number of people you have playing – three players fighting in a pile would mean close up viewing.  It will also be interesting to see just how the quests will be organized and implemented, and how the upgrading process works. (Will you trade in experience points, or spend cash like in the Tony Hawk series?)  Another downside is the small stock of playable characters.  Hopefully, more become available as you progress.  (On the other hand, the 10 characters included could be so well defined we won’t need any other ones.)

I never like to tell everyone “this is the game to watch!”  As with all games in development we’ll have to wait and see.  It’s got some promise, I’ll give it that, and it will be interesting to see how some of the gameplay elements are executed.

- Omni