Dark Rift

Developer: Kronos Entertainment Publisher: Vic Tokai

Released: July 8, 1997 Rated: T 2/10

In an alternate timeline, the N64 would be the great bastion of 3D fighting games, spawning great series left and right that combine great mechanics of the genre with a unique new visual style. Instead we have release after release of derivative slop from most of the usual suspects in the world of off-brand copycats. Where Killer Instinct and Mortal Kombat Trilogy played it safe with their releases in the first quarter of the N64’s run sticking to their familiar 2D style, 1997 brought along Midway’s port of War Gods (a clear effort to avoid throwing Mortal Kombat to the wolves without working out the kinks) while Vic Tokai and Kronos turned tail and ran from the PS1 and Saturn to bring their next offering with Dark Rift.

Three quarters of the roster have a Hadouken as a “special move.” It doesn’t end up feeling very special.

Playing this game for the first time in nearly a decade myself, I was actually surprised that in presentation, Dark Rift doesn’t come off half bad. Yes, it’s certainly corny as all hell and a pretty extreme ripoff of Killer Instinct, particularly in its roster, but Kronos didn’t do a terrible job making Dark Rift look and sound pretty good, or at least hold up just fine. It doesn’t bode well at all when the actual fighting arena is a flat, Final Destination-style plane of nothingness, but turning attention to the backgrounds, they have their moments. 2D textures in each arena range from okay to pretty nice in their detail and quality, and the parallax scrolling is a nice touch. It even runs at 60 FPS which is a surprising but impressive feat for the time. Meanwhile the character models are also solid in design and cleanliness. Fairly well-detailed given the standard and, even looking at the carbon copy of each character to the likes of Killer Instinct, it’s tough to really dislike any of them. Rolling through their profiles and backstory is a bunch of word salad with no real value but there are worse fighting game rosters out there. The music is pretty decent too, opting for an epic, dramatic array of symphonic compositions that would benefit another, more competent game that much more. Are there any top tier melodies to take home with you? No, but considering how reserved and underwhelming a lot of its constituents tend to be, it’d get some points if you stick around more than a few minutes.

So in spite of some solid window dressing, Dark Rift shoots right to the bottom of the barrel because the gameplay is simply atrocious. In no uncertain terms, it barely functions. Fighting games are supposed to be fluid, quick, and impactful. Dark Rift has exactly zero of any of those qualities. Highlighted, in theory, by the sidestepping mechanic of the 3D arenas and an array of moves based on horizontal and vertical weapon attacks, Dark Rift, in practice, is defined by doing exactly nothing. It’s so committed to its designated array of special moves and combos that somehow, it’s programmed to do essentially nothing if you fail to execute one of these. A combination of direction and attack button that is either invalid or not in time with the game’s nonexistent sense of rhythm results in your character doing nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. It has no flow and no mechanics. Every moment of every fight essentially comes down to stumbling on an input that the game is okay with, triggering the attack animation and hoping it lines up to make contact with your opponent. You can grab, you can swing your sword, and if you’re really lucky, you can get two or three hits if your character has a combo that uses that button and you’re mashing it enough trying to get that first one off.

You can hardly even explain it beyond that. It just barely even works. Take away any goodwill it can earn with a half-decent presentation and even some pretty smooth animations when the moves actually work, and you have a game that feels like having a high-level Pokemon a friend traded you while you’re still pushing through Mt. Moon. Yelling commands at it incessantly waiting for it to do something. It’s not a good game, and even among numerous 3D fighting games that fall flat on the N64, it’s quite possibly the worst you can get.

Continuing Legacy

The Criticom Trilogy aka the “Trilogy of Terror” is quite honestly one of the late ‘90s most astonishing repeated bait and switches. The fact that an awful fighter from the early PS1 got a Saturn port, then an N64 sequel to taint all three systems of the time, and still got a third game back on the PlayStation from whence it came can only highlight an absurd lack of standards. The fact that Kronos only folded after rebounding with the two Fear Effect games on the PS1 is an absolute shame.