Fighting Force Collection Review - Some Brawlers Should Stay in the Past

Ole Gamer Joe
5 minutes ago
5 min read

Do these PS1 releases hold up?

The late 90s were a wild time in gaming history. With the push towards 3D games as the standard, classic genres that were more known for their 2D gameplay were being dragged by their feet into an entirely new, polygonal direction. At the center of this transition was a bizarre PlayStation 1 game called Fighting Force, Core Design’s attempt at reimagining side-scrolling beat ’em ups as we knew them. The developer was riding a massive wave of success after Tomb Raider took the world by storm, and so naturally, expectations were high. Could this be the new, exciting take on classic brawlers the likes of Final Fight and perhaps more notably, Streets of Rage that players had been waiting for? I place emphasis on Streets of Rage not to take away from the greatness of Final Fight, but rather to highlight the fact that Fighting Force was originally pitched as a fourth entry in the series which Sega passed on.

Upon release, the game was met with mixed emotions. Some players praised the destructible environments, simple gameplay, and 3D visuals, while critics found it a bit rough around the edges with stiff controls, lackluster level designs, and little innovation to be found. The game did find an audience in the end and even received a Nintendo 64 port, managing to sell over a million copies and ultimately, getting a sequel… a very strange sequel but a follow-up nonetheless.

It’s been decades since Fighting Force originally released, but now it's back in a brand-new collection from Limited Run Games, bringing this retro relic to modern platforms for the first time. But should Fighting Force 1 and 2 have stayed in the past? Or do these games still have something to say in this new era of gaming? Why don’t we find out now, in our full review!

The Fighting Force Collection gathers both Fighting Force 1 and 2 into one singular collection without many bells and whistles, and for better or worse, mostly leaves these games as they were. A few visual updates have been made such as upscaling and CRT filters, but these serve to only lightly paint over what are still ultimately very old, blocky releases that, like many PS1 era games, haven’t aged incredibly well visually. Players will also be treated to a very basic art gallery along with the ability to save and rewind gameplay, but other than that, this is a no frills release that is mostly barebones. Not much of a celebration of the history of these games if you ask me. Players are given a few different control options, but there’s no escaping how clunky and downright painful both games can feel to play, particularly Fighting Force 2. At the least, framerates have been improved for these releases, alleviating at least a small amount of the pain of playing these games, which never felt all that mechanically sound to begin with in my opinion.

Let’s first discuss the original Fighting Force, which is indeed a 3D brawler for up to 2-Players that allows gamers to select between four different characters. Hawk, Mace, Alana, and Ben all play a bit differently from one another with Hawk being quite powerful, Mace being a bit faster, Ben your usual brawler brute, and Alana having quick kicks that don’t deal out much damage. They are all equipped with a special move that, as fans of the genre likely would expect, costs a small portion of health. On their quest to stop the evil Dr. Dex Zeng, they’ll encounter no shortage of goons whom they’ll need to punch, kick, grapple, and toss across 22 levels featuring various destructible objects. There are a few weapons to be grabbed as well, which can batter foes into oblivion. This version of the game sadly does not include an online mode.

When playing Fighting Force today context is important. This game wasn’t amazing to play even in its heyday, but it certainly feels markedly worse in 2026. One could argue that Limited Run Games could have gone the extra mile in making these games feel far more playable than they are, but this would come at the cost of upsetting purists that want the original experience mostly preserved. It's a tricky situation to navigate, but important to understand just what you are buying here. Fighting Force is an old game, it looks old, it feels old and unresponsive, its levels are bland and boring, its graphics are laughable in spots (though not without some charm) and it doesn’t sound great either. Thus, it's a game for fans of the original that want to support a modern re-release, and nobody else.

Fighting Force 2, on the other hand, well, even when viewed through the lens of nostalgia, it's just a very bad game. I understand that stealth action games were big in this era of gaming, just look at the Metal Gear Solid and Syphon Filter series, but sadly, Fighting Force 2 is rather pale in comparison. The game pivots away from its brawler roots to some degree, offering more of a single player action experience where you play as Hawk and Hawk only, and explore blocky, lifeless environments, bashing enemies who feature atrocious AI while collecting up keycards to advance further. The controls are somehow even worse than the original game with a God awful camera, platforming sections that are miserable, and really, this is barely a functioning video game at all that should have been left in the past, as it did ultimately kill off the franchise, leading to the cancellation of a planned third game. If it weren’t for cheat codes, I am not sure I would have been able to get through the second level.

And so, with The Fighting Force Collection you’re really buying one somewhat playable game and an absolutely miserable one, with very few improvements, lacking in extras, and banking on nostalgia to carry the way. The reality is, nostalgia only gets you so far. With some developer interviews, cool bonus features, or actual tangible improvements made to the gameplay, Fighting Force Collection could have been a cool piece of gaming history worth owning. But as it stands, you don’t gain much by having these two games on newer hardware if you’ve already played them or have physical copies of the originals. Some things are better left in the past.

Broken Lamp

Pros

Includes both Fighting Force 1 and Fighting Force 2 in one package (2 sucks tho…)
Visual upgrades like upscaling and CRT filters
Save states and rewind functionality
Improved framerates compared to the originals
Basic art gallery included