With the Vita release creeping up on us fast and the Japanese release set for December 17th, Sony are now pulling out all the stops and not hesitating to show off the power of the Vita. Me and fellow Koalitioner Carl Daniel were recently invited to drop in and play some of the upcoming Vita titles set for release next year and Reality Fighters happened to be one of the first ones to really stun me.
The first thing I did when picking up the beautiful Vita was enter the quick match menu to give it a quick go. I was presented with a character selection menu that was already full of faces from previous players who had used the Vita camera to create their own fighter. My immediate thought was “Ok screw this, I’m going to make my own fighter too” – so I went back to the main menu and entered the “My Fighter” menu.
I was first presented with a screen that allowed me to capture my face using the Vita’s front facing camera. You get a preview on screen so you can correctly position your face for the shot. Once you snap your mug the game renders your face and automatically determines the correct skin tone for your body. Once I was happy with my face I proceeded to the next set of options which allowed me to edit everything from bodily structure, clothing, to weapons.
Reality Fighters is not a game that takes itself too seriously, so you’ll find a vast selection of silly clothing items and weapons. Embracing the stupidity I chose to drape my digital fighter in geeks glasses, boxers shorts and a trench coat; with a plumber as a weapon, a nice finishing touch. For my fighting style I chose Capoeira in honor of certain characters from a more serious fighting franchise.
After outfitting my fighter it was time to hit the ring. I first played a quick match and dominated the A.I without much effort at all. Reality Fighters doesn’t exactly require as much skill as your average fighter, but it is surprisingly very fun to play. You have your basic punch and kick combos as well as special attacks that can be used once your meter is full. You can also use whatever weapon you assign to your character at any time during the fight. As you can imagine it was a fun sight smacking around opponents with a plumber.
The real amazing feature that is being pushed is the dynamic locations in which you duke it out in. Not only will moving the Vita around allow you to pan the environment as you fight, but the camera can even pick up your real time environment, allowing your fighters to clash in what seems like reality.
I also got to try out the multi-player, allowing me to play against Carl Daniel. Now although Carl didn’t fair so well against me, I can speak for us both when I say it was tons of fun, and I can imagine people enjoying creating their fighters and going up against each other for hours on end. At the end of the bout, win or lose, you are able to turn the Vita sideways and flick through a variety of poses with you and your buddy, which you can then save to your Vita’s memory.
Overall, after playing I feel as though I underestimated how much fun Reality Fighters was actually going to be the very first time I laid eyes on the game via a Sony montage. Although the whole game did feel somewhat like a tech demo, it was so bizarrely fun that It will make the perfect launch title to get into the Vita experience. Of course they’ll be more serious games on offer, but I feel like owning this game along side one of the more serious games will give you a lot of Vita variety. When dealing with handheld gaming, we all need that pick up and play game to enthrall us for a few minutes at the bus station. With the dynamic background capture features, Reality Fighters is the perfect game to carry around on the move.
