TOUGH GUY
Original Release: Panda Entertainment, 1995, PC
Other Releases: PC (Windows remake, 2019), Sega Dreamcast (2021)
The third and last of Panda Entertainment's mid-90s fighting games for MS-DOS, Tough Guy has some impressive qualities but also some that really hamper the game
Tough Guy (PC, Panda Entertainment, 1995)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: MS-DOS Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
Panda Entertainment is an interesting little obscurity in the history of PC gaming, a Taiwanese publisher that was only active for a few years in the mid-90s but during that time kicked out some of the most technically impressive fighting games available for home computers. Best known for their two Sango Fighter games, Tough Guy is sort of an unofficial third (and final) game in this series, using either the same or an extremely similar engine. But it drops the "Three Kingdoms" historical theme for a more modern setting in the vein of Capcom and SNK's big hits of the time, and also (ostensibly) puts more of a focus on blood and brutality.
I say "ostensibly" because there's a "Blood" score for every match that adds bonus points for what I assume are moves that make the opponent bleed ... but it's never actually very graphic about this. Otherwise it proceeds like a typical 90s fighter: pick from one of eight characters (with three more unlockable eventually), beat up everybody else on the way to a simple ending.
I won't get sidetracked into the technical hardware details of the time, but suffice to say it was almost impossible to get arcade- or console-quality competition in action games on DOS computers even though they technically could have much more horsepower. Fighting games that kept everything to two characters and a single screen with limited scrolling had better prospects than most, but there was still a hard cap in terms of smoothness of movement and animation and overall "feel," especially if you wanted elaborate graphics. Panda was noteworthy for being among the best of the bunch in going as far as possible within mid-90s DOS PC limitations, with this game being even more impressive than the prior Sango Fighter games.
So the game looks great (for the time and circumstances), with nice sprite work and animation, has alright original music, and an array of visually impressive special moves. The feel is acceptable enough to play, clearly not the same as a Street Fighter 2 Turbo or a King of Fighters but as close as you could reasonably expect DOS to get. What trips it up is having some avoidable gameplay hinks and design decisions.
The first is the control layout. The game may initially frustrate you as it defaults to the very odd RDFG setup for the directional keys (and the A key as the menu selection button), with the attack buttons to the left on the keyboard. Maybe this was a convention in Taiwan at the time, I don't know, but on an English keyboard you kinda have to cramp your hands together in an odd way to play. This can be changed outside of the game via the "setup" executable, though you have to pick around with some of the ol' runes of the moons if you don't speak Chinese. There is also possibly an option in there to active gamepad or joystick control, though I couldn't get it to work through DOSBox.
But the worst element is that characters can rapidly recharge health at any time. The computer is programmed to abuse this anytime that it calculates that you can't reach it. This can make matches take forever and that would be bad enough by itself, but for most characters the recharge is also accompanied by a constant annoying groan (in general there is an impressive amount of voice clips for the time but a lot also tend to be irritating).
Aside from the general quality, the other point of interest is a lineup of some kinda wild characters for a mid-90s fighter. Your US entrant in the Kumite here is a tall buff black lesbian who looks like a beefier riff on Grace Jones. Romania gives us a sexy and lovingly rendered gymnast who I think might be based on that one Seinfeld episode. There's a death metal Muy Thai guy with his patented "Mercedes Kick." But the piece de la resistance is a sub-boss that is another addition to the collection of Video Game Hitlers, this time a hulking karate fuhrer who goes by the handle "Wacker" and throws giant spirit swastikas at you.
While this original DOS version is an interesting curiosity piece to maybe watch on a video site, I don't think it's really worth playing. A group called Super Fighter Team acquired the rights to Panda's catalog some years ago and is gradually releasing revamped versions of their old games with all sorts of improvements, and they've done one for Tough Guy (linked below) that might be worth checking out.
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