Fighting Force

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. The story line and character designs were done by Marc Silvestri. 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 The collection was released on 23 January 2026. == Reception ==

The original PlayStation release received mostly mixed reviews. Critics overwhelmingly commented that the game has a satisfyingly large amount of interactive scenery to destroy or collect weapons from, IGN, while contradicting GamePro by actually praising the game's controls, offered a somewhat more pessimistic overall take: "With solid graphics, impeccable control, yet almost zero innovation or variety, Fighting Force is a mixed bag. If in doubt, rent before you buy." In Japan, where the game was ported and published by Electronic Arts Victor under the name on 15 January 1998, Famitsu gave it a score of 25 out of 40. However, PC Gamer UK gave it 62%, calling it "A middle class game without fire in its belly that refuses to strive for better things." GamePro and Nintendo Power gave the Nintendo 64 average reviews while the game was still in development under Eidos, months before the company handed its development rights over to Crave. In the United States, the game sold 596,404 units. ==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==