VIOLENCE FIGHT
Original Release: Taito, 1989, Arcade
Other Releases: PS2/Xbox/PC (in Taito Legends 2, 2006), Switch (in Taito Milestones 2, 2023)
Can you become the #1 Quarreler? Do you even want to? Taito's answer to Street Fighter has some interesting elements but misses the mark with clumsy gameplay
Violence Fight (Arcade, Taito, 1989)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
Taito put their fingers in a lot of genres during their arcade heyday, but they were rarely pioneers after the mid-80s; they usually followed someone else's big hit with something similar that wasn't as original or quite as good, but nevertheless often still interesting and fun. Violence Fight is clearly Taito's take on the original Street Fighter, pre-dating that game's world-changing sequel by about three years. But one of its interesting twists is that its "underground fighting" arenas that allow for free vertical movement also came about a year before Pit Fighter, which is usually assumed to be the first fighting game of this particular type.
If the game has any appeal it's in that underground "fight club" atmosphere. This is the first game I've played from the period that really captures the ambience of those 80s Van Damme type movies, between the look and the well-done sound of the screaming crowd and the trash and bottles being thrown at you as you fight. Some comic book "GOOON" and "DAGOOON"s are a bit idiosyncratic, but manage to work.
Taito in this period is also famous for its terrible Engrish and goofy plot setups, and this game definitely has that in spades. The attract screen is worth sticking around a second for as it describes how our underground fight tournament's demographics are the Mafia, reckless drivers and "general businessmen." The "reckless drivers" part didn't make much sense in the 80s, but I'm starting to wonder if all those psychedelics gave the developers a glimpse into the future of "street takeovers" that the civilized world has recently been blessed with the diversity of. Anyway, our battle for the title of "#1 Quarreler" never really becomes any more comprehensible from there.
You can pick from four characters, and you'll have to defeat the other three (with a bonus round pit stop to fight a somewhat lethargic tiger) en route to showdowns with a sub-boss and then the organizer of this whole Violence Fight. It's mostly uninspiring designs but the best of these is Lick Joe, apparent tougher brother of Glass Joe, who flips you off like Craig from South Park whenever he wins. I also wonder if he wasn't an inspiration for that fat slobby guy in Art of Fighting.
Anyway, the fighting action isn't absolutely terrible, but it's poorly animated (very low frame count) and definitely clunky. It also has a cheap difficulty curve; the first two enemies are jokes, but the third suddenly gains magical move priority and super powerful hits, which just gets worse with the two bosses. It also occasionally ditches the fun fight arena stages, really the biggest selling point of the game (outside of how goofy the text is), and puts you in some weird 2D flat-plane Super Smash Bros level with basically no background detail at all. So it's really not worth a look except for comedy value.
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