Video Game Gazette
Mortal Kombat was the first of a new genera of fighter, the digitized live action beat em up. These games featured dark characters and plenty of blood. They were so popular that a digitized version of Street Fighter was made to coincide with the premiere of the motion picture. However, there were very few great digitized fighters. Mortal Kombat was, of course, one of them. Another was Way of the Warrior by Naughty Dog. It had killer game play, great graphics, plenty of gore, and tons of secrets. Sadly, the game was only released for the 3DO so many people never got a chance to play it. Now that the 3DO no longer costs an arm or a leg, you may want to try to find a copy and experience fighting bliss.
For those of you who have never heard of Way of the Warrior before, it is best described as a fighting game in the tradition of Mortal Kombat II. There are nine playable characters as well as an unlockable boss. Each character has over sixty moves including fatalities. Like Street Fighter II, Way of the Warrior uses three punch and three kick buttons. It makes use of a block button like Mortal Kombat. There are also special moves like uppercuts, head stomps, and taunts that require button combinations. The fighting system is rounded out with the use of a point system to access magic super moves. The point system prevents people from defending themselves with flying uppercuts all day long, as you must earn points to access such moves.
Good control and collision detection are essential elements of all action games. In fighting games they can be difficult to implement because of the large sprites and button combinations. There are many fighters that lack good control, or fail to achieve greatness because of their collision detection. Fortunately, Way of the Warrior is not one of them. It has very tight controls and excellent collision detection. In some games all of this comes at the cost of the speed of play or frame rate. This is not the case with this game. It plays very fast, and its animation looks as smooth as glass. There was even enough processing power to include scaling to zoom in on the fight.
Most people who play fighting games just want to bash some heads. Once you have mastered the system and its various characters, other elements of the game come to the fore. One of these is the story. Way of the Warrior has a good story line, complete with alternate endings. Here is a brief recap. The Book of Warriors has been kept in a Citadel high in the Himalayas since time immemorial. Once every century the Guardian of the Book convenes a tournament of the mightiest heroes in the world. The legend of the winner of the tournament is magically inscribed in the Book of Warriors. The book is more than just a list of the greatest fighters in history: it is a record of the balance of power in the world. The forces of good and evil are equally represented throughout its pages. This will be the final tournament, as the book has only one remaining page. The winner of the tournament will do more than survive, he will determine the balance of power for all eternity.
As is mentioned above, the game has tons of special moves and secrets. The following is a partial list of special moves to get you started.
The Ninja
Lightning: D, DF, F + Left Shift
Jump Kick: D, DB, B + Right Shift
Konotori
Fan Toss: D, DF, F + Right Shift
Spin: B + Left Shift
Major Gaines
A+B+C
Ball Attack: DF + Right Shift
Shaky Jake
Breath Fire: D, DF, F + Right Shift
Flying Charge: Hold B, F + Right Shift
The Dragon
Fireball: D, DF, F + Left Shift
Split Kick: U + B + C
Nikki Chan
Hair Whip: D, DF, F + Left Shift
High Kick: D, DB, B + Right Shift
Nobunaga
Projectile: D, DF, F + Left Shift
Sweep: D, F + C
Fox
Projectile: D, DF, F + Left Shift
Ball Attack: DF + Left Shift
Crimson Glory
Bottle Toss: D, DF, F + A
Flying Knee: While jumping forward press U and Left Shift
