Old school beat down
Blazing Strike has been around since last year. It initially launched on Switch, PC, and PlayStation and was met with mixed reactions. I remember dipping my toes into the PlayStation version and enjoying its clearly retro-inspired visual style and simplistic mechanics and hidden depth. Now Xbox owners are finally getting a chance to check it out alongside a lot of polish and a host of new features. Smaller fighting games have a hard time making an impact a lot of times, but the pure heart and consistency of updates of Blazing Strike make it one that is hard to ignore. Nearly a year later, this game is still worth checking out.
One of the first things I noticed about Blazing Strike is its similarities to past Neo-Geo brawlers. The characters and animations give me the same feeling, and the simplistic control scheme makes it easy to pick up and play. There are 14 fighters right out of the gate, with two unlockable via finishing the arcade mode. I love this. So many fighting games skip character unlocks now and instead shoehorn them into DLC. I love playing solo, and having something to work towards always brings a smile to my face.
MSRP: $39.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $39.99
The character designs in this game are excellent. Each one comes with their own style, color palette, and design. Not only that, but each one also feels unique. There are grapplers, shoto-style characters, faster ones, and bulkier brawlers. I love the diversity, and it speaks volumes of a fighting game’s roster when each one is fun to play in their own way. I usually gravitate towards one style in games like this, but Blazing Strike pulls off something most other fighters do not, in that I wanted to play them all. Reminds me a lot of King of Fighters XIV, I loved almost that entire roster.
While the combat is simple to pick up and play, it does come with some caveats. Firstly, the number of special moves and attacks. The super moves feel a bit underwhelming, and the skill ceiling feels very low. That isn’t to say there isn’t strategy involved in the fights, far from it, but it does limit some of the more complex mechanics of others in its class.
What I did like though is the Rush Gauge. This is a simple mechanic that allows players to add combos and move or retreat at a brisker pace. It is dictated by a meter that drains as I hold the trigger. During this mode I was able to pull off new combos and attacks. Sadly, it doesn’t last long, and if it is drained your character goes into a dizzy state opening them up to attack. It is a risk/reward system that takes some getting used to. The bar fills back up once I let it go, but the timing to refill felt like an eternity during combat.
Blazing Strike comes with a decent selection of modes. We have versus, both online and off. The matches I got into performed fairly well. I didn’t have a ton of lag. There is a story mode to go through as well as standard Arcade for each character. The training mode is also highly detailed, complete with hitbox notices, which is really nice for a smaller title. I know larger fighting games that lack this feature.
As I mentioned earlier, the game looks great. I am not a fan of CRT filters, so it is striking when the game is set to one by default. I think turning it off really does this game a world of favors. The designs are outstanding, and the stages are diverse and fun. Performance is top tier and the animations retains that classic SNK feel. The sound and music are good, but nothing I would put in a playlist. The character voices range from decent to downright annoying at times, but they fit the characters at least.
Blazing Strike is a very solid offering from a very small team. Being a fan of classic SNK titles, I really enjoyed my time with it and am glad it is now available on all platforms. I definitely recommend checking it out if you enjoy classic Neo-Geo brawlers. It has some limitations and a lack of depth, but it is extremely fun with some great characters. I’m really looking forward to seeing what this team does next.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
