Fighting Force Becomes Latest PSOne Classic

One of the more popular Playstation game will soon be available as a downloadable title on the PSP and Playstation 3 via the Playstation Store. Fighting Force is the latest game to become a PSOne Classic title. Fighting Force was first released in 1997 on the PC and Playstation. Originally, the game was supposed to be exclusive to the Sega Saturn. That is because developer Core Design had a publishing deal with Sega to release the title under the name Streets of Rage 4.

The Streets of Rage series is a trilogy of old-school 2D beat 'em up titles that were popular in the early 1990s. Streets of Rage, Streets of Rage 2 and Streets of Rage 3 were all developed internally by Sega. Streets of Rage 4 was to marked many firsts the classic series. For one, Sega would have outsourced development to another company, which is Core Design. Streets of Rage 4 would also be the first 3D addition to the series.

It was never meant to be, however, as Sega and Core Design went their separate ways after a disagreement about porting the game to other platforms. Instead, Eidos Interactive became the publisher. Therefore, Streets of Rage 4 became Fighting Force.

Despite losing the name, Fighting Force retains a lot of elements from the Streets of Rage series and other similar games in the genre. You can choose between multiple playable characters with different style to fight through numerous levels. Further more, pretty much every item in the environment can be used as a weapon. Finally, a boss is usually waiting for you at the end of a level in Fighting Force.

Fighting Force 2 was released two years later for the Playstation and Sega Dreamcast. Unfortunately, the sequel was missing an important aspect from original and other beat 'em up games: cooperative play. As a result, Fighting Force 2 wasn't nearly as fun as the original.

Despite some mediocre review scores, Fighting Force did well enough in the market to become a Greatest Hits game on the Playstation in 1999. The prestigious label is only rewarded to games that reach a certain sales milestone.

Fighting Force is earning another prestigious label with being a PSOne Classic. In the near future, you should be able to download the game off of the Playstation Store for your PSP and/or Playstation 3.

Given that the beat 'em up genre has all but died off in recent years, Fighting Force should be a welcome addition to the PSP and Playstation 3 library of games.