You know, I gotta say, while I do like to be positive a lot, look on the bright side of everything I come across, whether it be a person or a product, sometimes… it feels nice to be mean to something. Not necessarily to another person, but to a bad game, movie, or what have you that you just need to complain about. You already got a lot to deal with in real life, it can all pile on and be really stressful, so you gotta get rid of that stress somehow, so to do that, we are gonna pick on an easy target today! Yay! And to find this easy target, I took a trip to the NSO online selection, which has some of the most garbage, bargain-bin-ass trash games that you can find from the SNES/NES/whatever libraries. So, after taking a look at the selection, I decided that I wanted to pick on a game known as Doomsday Warrior, which I had never seen or played before, so I was already in for a good time.

I have played a LOT of fighting games over the course of this year, way more then what I would typically play in even one year, and I am glad that I did. Not only have I discovered a lot more franchises, but I have also gotten a much better understanding with what makes a traditional fighting game work and what doesn’t. So, with that in mind, I can confidently say that Doomsday Warrior FUCKING SUCKS, but, I wouldn’t say that it is complete garbage. It does what it is supposed to do, and I guess if this was your only option for a fighting game, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to play, but I would definitely give you a pretty concerned look if I ever saw you playing it unironically to have fun.

The story is essentially just fighting to take down an evil force, while also beating up the rest of your friends, so it is one giant quest to prove that you are the ultimate Doomsday Warrior, the graphics are good for the SNES, and the designs of the characters are alright, but they are pretty bland from other fighters of the era, the music is some of the most generic and forgettable from any game I have played in the past two months, which may or may not be a good thing, the controls are pretty awkward to get used to if you are used to fighting games, because B is the jump button (why), but you can get used to it quickly, and the gameplay is pretty much exactly what you would expect from a fighting game, but with some additional features that make it somewhat unique from others.

The game is your typical 2D fighting game, where you take control of one of seven warriors, and if you pick anyone other then Nuform, you aren’t cool, sorry to say, face off against all the other characters as well as several hidden foes, throw out a series of punches, kicks, and special attacks to deal damage to your opponent, make sure to dodge and block all attacks that you can, and climb your way up to the top to take down the evil sorcerer behind all of this… Main. That is his name. Good god, that is terrible… ok, anyway, most of this is what you would expect from your typical fighting game, but there are some elements that make this unique when compared to others.

Undeniably the most unique feature that can be seen in this game would be with the Ability Point system, where after a fight, you are able to spend up to four ability points upgrading the power of your punches, your kicks, your Soul Power, and more, which will obviously allow you to become stronger as the game goes on. Now, I think this is actually a pretty neat idea to put in a fighting game, but here is the problem… I didn’t feel any kind of growth whatsoever. I didn’t really diversify my stats at all, I tried to keep things pretty balanced, and throughout all of it, I didn’t feel like I got any stronger. It just felt like a generic fighting game through and through, so I’m not sure if this actually works, but it certainly didn’t work for me. Other then that though, the other unique aspect of this game is the selection of characters not being what you would typically see from this era, such as there being a human-plant girl, a dragon lizardman, and whatever the fuck Nuform is supposed to be. They aren’t exactly all too creative, but for the fighting genre at the time, it was cool seeing these kind of characters be playable.

However, with all that being said, this game is still pretty bad, and ignoring the meaningless upgrade system, the one thing that drags it down is simple: it doesn’t feel good to play. Fighting games need to have a smoothness to function, having the right speed and the right feel when it comes to landing hits on your opponent. Doomsday Warrior has neither of those things. You move pretty slow compared to other fighters, and whenever you try to land any attack, it just feels like you are slapping your fleshy skin against each other, which feels awkward and has no real impact other then just bringing your forward in the fight. Sure, there are some stuff here that makes the fights more exciting, like the combos and special moves you can pull off, but frankly, if I don’t feel good when beating the fuck out of dudes, then you are doing something wrong.

Overall, despite having some creative ideas for the genre at the time, Doomsday Warrior completely botches it all up with sluggish gameplay, fighting that just doesn’t feel right, and an upgrade system that feels incredibly meaningless at the end of the day. If you are a massive fan of the fighting genre, I guess you could probably get some enjoyment out of it, preferably with another person, but really, there are MANY different options out there that I would recommend you play instead. Hell, I would tell you to play World Heroes before this, and I think that game sucks too! But whatever, either way, I think after all this, we can all learn a very valuable and important lesson here… Nintendo Switch Online sucks, and you shouldn’t pay for it. The More You Know!

Game #373

Shitty fighting game made to cash in on Street Fighter II's success, presumably failed because it was shitty. Can't imagine being the kid who owns this instead of the latter.

The B button jumps instead of up like pretty much every other fighter, makes the rest of the controls feel surprisingly awkward as a result. Everybody's really stiff and slow anyways, when I went to test out the two player mode on fightcade it felt fucking dreadful just moving around with a controller. Music is terrible, but mostly in a funny way. Except for P. Lump's stage which just spams the oriental riff. Not great.

Apparently this is on Nintendo Switch Online. The amount of Jaleco games and other Great Value ass stuff on there is mind boggling to me. Wonder what the deal with it is.

one of the absolute worst fighting games i've ever played - though it is technically functional, which gives it an up against some legendarily poor cohorts of its time. essentially the only positives that keep this from the lowest possible score are the pretty solid sprite art - especially for the scrolling backgrounds - and its interesting skill building system prior to the final stretch. terrible gameplay, terrible roster, terrible music, terrible multiplayer... on a console with some real classic fighters on it? ick. i'll pass. this is one of those bargain-bin all-in-one romdump type games that should've been forgotten about, and i can't believe the balls on nintendo to pass this through switch online. it's ass.