Dark Rift
Reviewed by John Zackel
How to begin? Dark Rift is from Vic Tokai, the makers of the superb,
cough, game Criticom for the PSX. If you're lucky enough to have ever played
it, forget that piece of crap! BUT, the game has enough bad, dismal control
problems to choke a horse. Now I'll stop the whining and get to the review.
Graphics
The graphics are really good , and sort of reminded me of
Tekken. I personally didn't like the backgrounds which are hand drawn.
The characters are surprisingly diverse but there's only two interesting
ones, I think so anyway. Morphix, a being who can morph his arms into
blades, a la T-1000 in Terminator 2, and Demonica, a demon from "the dark
side". Oooh. But the rest are standard fighters. The animations are most
impressive. Minus the backgrounds, which are very flat. Me score: 4/5.
Sound
The music is pretty good, reminiscent of Doom 64. Morphix's
music is easily the best. The grunts, groans, etc., are normal, but
the ladies' groans are kinda kinky, ahem. Now with that, let's quickly move
on. Moi score: 3.5/5.Control
Siiiiiigh. The big dent in the nice red convertible. This category
makes this game an average rental and an average paperweight.
While I may be exaggerating, the control is sloppy. The pad is better to
use than the stick, but it makes the oh-so wonderful N64 controller look
like a vodka-sipping clown. Trying to be good but coming out like a, well,
a drunken clown. The buttons have a delayed reaction to the fighters' moves.
The combos are tough to link moves, and there's a incredibly non-helpful
sidestepping move. This is easily the worst part of the game. There also
could have been more special moves. Sigh-my score: 1.5/5.
Overall
This is an easy "do not buy - just rent once and never again"
game. So, if your a fighting fan, definitely rent this one and wish this
was KI Gold. Everyone else, go rent Wave Race or Star Fox or Turok, or some
other great game you don't own. P.S. the story is a sci-fi b.s. story but
each characters' story is actually kind of good.
Bottom line: Pretty good rental, but not as fun as KI Gold or even MK
Trilogy. Graphically wow, control is sad.
Overall score: 3/5