Fighting Force

Fighting Force is a beat 'em up video game developed by Core Design and published in 1997¹ by Eidos Interactive for PlayStation and Windows. A Nintendo 64 version was published by Crave Entertainment in 1999¹. The Japanese version for the PlayStation was published by Electronic Arts Victor. Announced by Core shortly after the success of Tomb Raider, Fighting Force was highly anticipated and commercially successful but met with mixed reviews. It was followed by Fighting Force 2.

Fighting Force is a beat 'em up video game developed by Core Design and published in 1997 by Eidos Interactive for PlayStation and Windows. A Nintendo 64 version was published by Crave Entertainment in 1999. The Japanese version for the PlayStation was published by Electronic Arts Victor. Announced by Core shortly after the success of Tomb Raider, Fighting Force was highly anticipated and commercially successful but met with mixed reviews. It was followed by Fighting Force 2. ==Gameplay== Players control one of four characters as they move through urban and science fiction environments, battling waves of oncoming enemies with weapons including soda cans, knives, cars, and guns. The player can make some choices as to which territory to travel through. ==Story== The four characters have various reasons for taking on Dr. Dex Zeng, a criminal mastermind with an army at his command who predicted that the world would end in the year 2000. After New Year's Eve 1999, Dr. Zeng believed that there was an error preventing the apocalypse, so decides to correct it by destroying the world himself. The action starts with a police cordon around Zeng's office skyscraper, moving to such locales as a shopping mall, subway and Coast Guard base before finally ending at the top of Zeng's island headquarters. ==Characters== Players choose from a selection of four characters: Hawk Manson, Mace Daniels, Alana McKendricks and Ben "Smasher" Jackson. Hawk Manson and Mace Daniels are two all-around characters. Hawk is somewhat stronger than Mace who is in turn faster than Hawk. Ben "Smasher" Jackson is a large and slow bruiser capable of lifting and throwing the engines of cars at enemies. Alana McKendricks is a fast but soft-hitting teenager with an effective jump-kick. All four characters have a special move that can be performed with the loss of a portion of health. ==Development and release== Core Design originally pitched the game to Sega as a potential fourth entry in Sega's Streets of Rage series. Sega declined; according to Core, Sega explained that it had its own plans for continuing the series. Core opted to go ahead with the game as a standalone, multi-platform title, and started work on it. Core Design collaborated with ten coders from EA Japan in making the game. The story line and character designs were done by Marc Silvestri. The character of Dr. Zeng was inspired by Heaven's Gate. A "Battle Arena" mode was added to the game during development, but it was cut from the final version. In addition to the PlayStation, Windows, and Nintendo 64 versions, a Sega Saturn version was developed and eventually completed. After Eidos decided against publishing this version, Sega Europe secured the publishing rights and announced a European release date of November 1997, but ultimately cancelled the release. An early prototype, with older character designs, was leaked in November 2008. In February 2024, the released Core running demo disc (which provided a real-time demo of multiple Core Design Saturn titles), which post-dates the leaked beta, was hacked to be playable. Eidos demonstrated a playable Nintendo 64 version at the 1998 E3. Eidos later cancelled this version of the game, but in February 1999 publisher Crave Entertainment purchased the rights from Eidos and put the game into its release schedule. The Nintendo 64 version was released in North America and Europe in 1999, under the title Fighting Force 64. Differences include partially improved graphics and changes in the available number of player lives. In June 2024, Limited Run Games announced that they are working with copyright owner Square Enix to release the game and its sequel in Fighting Force Collection for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Windows (via Steam). The collection was released on 23 January 2026. ==Legacy== A sequel, Fighting Force 2, was released on December 13, 1999 for the PlayStation and Dreamcast. Unlike the first title, Fighting Force 2 focuses on the character of Hawk Manson exclusively, and rewards a more stealthy approach. A second sequel, Fighting Force 3 was also in development for the Xbox and PlayStation 2, but was cancelled during development. ==Notes== ==References== ==External links==

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