Day three at PAX East was my busiest day at the convention thus far. I had done a good job keeping the appointments to a minimum the first two days of the show, but that went out the window for the weekend. We started with an appointment to see Poly Fighter. Poly Fighter is a roguelike fighting game that feels right out of the Street Fighter universe!
A roguelike is a game that is different every time you play it. You’ll be given different scenarios to pick from. In a way, you’re building your very own unique gameplay session. The cool thing about Poly Fighter is that instead of a playthrough, you’re building your very own fighting game character. It’s an interesting take on the fighting game genre because you could have a character have moves that aren’t native to them. There were quite a few characters to pick from, but I went with the smoking hot boxer, Mackenzie. I like all the designs of the characters, but Smackenzie was my favorite from the demo.
You start with the basic fighting game maneuvers and build up new moves by defeating the scheduled opponents. You’ll be given two choices on who to fight, as well as new moves after you win. You get three lives throughout the whole run, and when those are gone, it’s game over. One of the best parts of the game is that you can make the controls basic if you aren’t great with fighting game mechanics, or make them standard, where you have to change control directions to attack. I went with the basic controls, and it was really fun. I also like that you can spam special attacks like in most fighting games, but at times, it felt like the opponent was learning my strategy. You could still get them caught in a damage loop, but I liked that the game was trying to not allow you to spam attacks.
Try to take as little damage as possible during fights. You’ll regain HP when you win a round, and that could be crucial to longterm success in the run. I found myself with little health, took only one hit from the computer fighter in the next round, and survived a little bit longer. You can also get to a health station on the path and either get more max HP or replenish your lost HP. Also on the path, you can get new moves without fighting, you can fight a stronger opponent or run into a training session. New moves could be all you need to have a great run. The fighters you run into during the run are much tougher than the regular opponents. I’m not the biggest fighting game fan but this formula works for a fighting game and I’m looking forward to full version of Poly Fighter.