A Look at the Indie Fighting Game Scene

We thought it might be nice to have something a little different in the blog section every once in a while, so with that in mind, I'm going to step away from the limelight of major companies' video games and delve a little deeper into the world of independent games. Now, I'll be honest and admit I could be considered a fighting game fanatic; it's the majority of what I play, and the recent surge in the genre, both mainstream and independent, has been a huge source of joy for me. What I'd like to do today is bring to light three recent, excellent fighting games that are lesser known because they were not majorly published: Pokemon: Type Wild, Touhou Hisou Tensoku, and Ougon Musou Kyoku.

The first game, Pokemon: Type Wild, is a fan-made game based on, obviously, the Pokemon series. It was revealed in the US during the recent fighting game tournament in Los Angeles, RevLAtions. The game features various Pokemon, beautifully animated in 2d, including favorites such as Blaziken, Combusken, Snorlax, Gengar, Gardevoir, Lucario, Breloom, and Swalot. It plays similar to Street Fighter, in that the gameplay does not rely on heavy combos and revolves more around mind games, pokes, and timing. The game is still fairly new and hasn't developed a hardcore following that some other games have, so there is not much of a scene for it yet. With it finally being out in the open now, though, there is sure to be some underground tournaments happening around the country for it soon.

Next, Touhou Hisou Tensoku, or Soku for short, came from 'project Touhou', which is a series of independent games developed by Tasogare Frontier and Team Shanghai Alice. Interestingly enough, most of the games in 'project Touhou' originally started out as bullet hell games, but Soku became a fighting game spinoff. About 20 different young girl characters are faced off against each other, with each of them having a weak attack, a strong attack, and a bullet attack they can utilize. Combining these attacks with special inputs creates long, in depth, and interesting combos that the gameplay heavily relies on. The gameplay is also incredibly unique, in that it also has a system where you combine the special moves with spell cards, which vary offensive and defensive capabilities. To make it even more chaotic and interesting, weather effects are also added to the experience, and can effect the way the game plays. Soku is a very intense fast paced game that requires a lot of practice but pays off when mastered.

Finally, Ougon Musou Kyoku is based off of an anime by the name of "Umineko no Naku Koro ni" (When the Seagulls Cry) which in-turn is also based off of a visual novel game (think interactive picture book with a robust story) developed by 07th Expansion. This is a wonderfully rendered game with high resolution sprites that are comparable to that of Blazblue or Guilty Gear in terms of quality. In this game you take control of 1 of 10 different characters from the anime to duke it out against the other characters. Its gameplay can be considered as a slower version of Guilty Gear, as it's very combo based, but the timing is easier and a bit slower. This is a must have for fans of the "When they Cry" (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni) anime series and is a lot of fun, and easier to pickup than some other fighting games out there.

Most of these are fan-made games and can be downloaded for free, and if not, they can be imported from Japan (then you have the disk and the cool cover art!). Unfortunately, all of these games are only available for PC (sorry Mac users!!), but if you have the means, and you are a fighting game fanatic like me, I highly recommend them.

Submitted By: Tom Ferko (Employee)