French development studio Piranaking released LastFight onto Steam with some strong feedback from the gaming community. The indie title is a 3D throwback to Capcom’s iconic Dreamcast game, Power Stone. The community actually seems to love the game a lot, despite the fact that they have a few issues with it when it comes to content variety and depth.
LastFight is a one-on-one or two-on-two 3D fighting game that takes place across eight different stages, featuring 10 different playable characters. The art and designs were inspired by the comic book LastMan.
There’s a story mode where players can battle through a variety of stages with two different characters, and then there’s the standard local multiplayer mode where up to four players can duke it out in two-on-two matches.
You can see what the gameplay is like with a 20 minute video below from YouTuber runJDrun, which goes through a few of the single-player story mode missions.
The gameplay is fast and furious and each of the 10 characters are lovingly made by Piranaking. The bright 3D visuals and fast-paced combat are highlighted as some of the top selling points for LastFight.
TheGameTutor explains in his review…
“Last Fight is essentially the Power Stone game we have been waiting for Capcom to make for the last 16 years.
“The story mode follows Duke Diamonds or Richard Aldana in a mission to save Richard’s girlfriend who have been kidnapped by a secret organisation amongst an epidemic of drug crazed rioting. Its pretty silly but fits the theme of the game well.
“The cast of 10 characters features a nice wide range of characters from aliens, to hobos, to goat faced businessmen but generally playing as them is pretty similar and there is not a massive diverse range of abilities. There are 4 different transformations to experience and these radically alter the style of play and are all pretty different. Some are better than others but all were fun to be and were always a key part of winning a fight.”
Others also enjoyed the transformation abilities, which can be unlocked by collecting special power-ups scattered across the stages.
It’s also possible to pick up items and weapons – as showcased in the video above – to throw them at opponents or use them to whack the living daylights out of them.
Brudda explained in their review that playing each character and mastering the moves is easy thanks to the simplified control scheme, writing…
“Gameplay is fairly straightforward and with simple controls, you have: attack, special attack, grab dodge, jump, block and dash. There are no special inputs that you need to do to pull off combos they are all preset, so you just keep tapping the attack button and the character will pull off their unique moveset.”
BlackBlitzkrieg noted that the controls are loose and similar to Power Stone, but not quite as tight as the Capcom fighter, he also notes that the transformations, while cool, are somewhat limited in their versatility…
“While I wasn’t a fan of the characters or the inital art design, the gameplay is a solid nod to the original Dreamcast party fighter. The addition of a dash and block are good but I hardly used them since I’m coming from the school of Power Stone where those things were an illusion. Controls feel ok but a tad loose.
“Also regardless of who you are you can only tranform into four monsters from what I can tell. They have interesting powers and they definitely turn the tide of battle which to some extent helps with balancing but the uniqueness of the characters doesn’t get a chance to shine through.”
Most user reviews note that the story is passably decent, basically designed to be an anti-drug ad while sending players on a quest to find the captured girlfriend of one of the main characters. It’s a basic incentive to see the two characters pummel their way to victory.
The stages, while varied, are not quite at the top of the praise-list for most players. A lot of them state that the stages are just a little too small and that there aren’t enough hazards to keep them interesting. Blackblitzrieg mentioned in his review…
“The stages themselves are an ok romp. Some are simple stages and some up the ante with hazzards that make you think of Power Stone 2 but you’re still relegated to one arena. “
Aromox also felt the stages were “stagnate” and that more variety would make the game more replayable, writing…
“Lack of free for all mode in versus: brought over two friends and one of us always had to have an AI as a partner. The map layouts are kinda stagnant, but that could just be me comparing it to Powerstone. Also online multiplayer would really benefit this game.”
Brudda had mentioned that they enjoyed most of everything that the game had to offer, but that the stages and characters were a little thin when it came to content depth, and adding more would easily make LastFight more appealing…
“I have no gripes with this game. All I want is more characters, modes, and stages. From a hours to money standpoint I would say you will get your money’s worth if you have friends over. Playing solo can get tiring and not really worth it at full price.”
RickyTheVoice was another one on the list who enjoyed LastFight but wished it just had more oomph on the content side of things, citing the lack of online multiplayer dampened the replay factors…
“I kind of wish there was a bit more variation in dropped weapons and maybe larger levels to roam around, plus more unlockable things. It is a bit tough going back for more knowing that there is no online multiplayer for now since it really is a game to be enjoyed with others (there is local multiplayer but most of my friends are online), though here is hoping it is included later down the road.”
Kur4ido tries to keep things in perspective, noting that for an indie game it offers pretty much what you might expect from the game, even though he wish that there was a Towerfall-type story mode added, writing…
“The story mode is really short, it would have been great to have a Towerfall-like story mode with mobs. Look at it as an indie 4 multiplayer local game only.”
While a lot of players praised the short vignettes between the stages in the story mode, liked the combat and moves, enjoyed the items that could be employed during the match, and liked the multiplayer modes, they did feel as if online multiplayer and free-for-all modes would have made the game even better yet. A few also wish the story mode was a bit longer or they made it where other characters also had their own mission modes.
Additionally, some players noted that the system requirements can be a little steep at times but the overall playability factors are high. LastFight is available right now for $14.99 over on the Steam store. You can also learn more about the game by visiting the official website.
