Dark Rift

The Good
Nice graphics, backgrounds merge nicely with the floor

The Bad
Absolutely nothing that stands out.

The Bottom Line
The N64’s early life was filled with disappointing arcade ports, but Dark Rift was the N64’s first fighting game that was specifically created from the ground up for it, so you would expect this to be more suited for home consoles, building upon what Killer Instinct Gold did. Unfortunately, this is another bare bones fighting game.

One thing that did impress me with the game was how well the flat square round and the 2D backdrop merged together, creating a more fluid looking environment – even if it made the levels feel like they took place far away from the distant objects. You have tournament mode and practice, and that’s it. The practice mode is also more basic than Killer Instinct.

The characters aren’t very memorable, but also aren’t as dreadful as War Gods, with a few interesting ideas. The actual fighting has special moves, which are often slow-moving projectiles which can be easily avoided by dodging (while the game never brags about being 3D, it works similar to War Gods). The main trick seems to be the c-buttons and mashing these and blocking at the right times seems to be the way to win.

While incredibly bare bones, this is slightly better than War Gods simply due to the characters being fine. For something specifically built for consoles rather than arcade, it still feels like just another poor arcade port.

The Good
The game looked great for being one of the first N64 games ( and the first real 3D fighter on the N64). The graphics were state of the art with plenty of pretty special effects. It was a weapon based fighter, which made it a nice change from what was out at the time also. The engine ran at a very smooth 90 frames a second, even with all the bells and whistles that made it into the game.

The Bad
Some of the moves were a little slow in their responsiveness. Projectile attacks could have been a lot faster. Only 8 playable characters with two unlockable ones.

The Bottom Line
A classic fighter for the time of 1997. A real look at what the N64 had to offer.