ARIKA is a name that has some real history in the fighting game genre. This is a studio that Capcom gave their legendary Street Fighter franchise to bring it into the age of 3D back on the original PlayStation. I absolutely adored those games and figured that’s were the future was heading.
The characters were all manner of crazy but were given real legitimacy standing alongside the likes of Ryu and Ken. So, when Capcom decided to take their own stab at a 3D Street Fighter with Street Fighter 4 last generation, I was a little sad but also excited since that game was was pretty fantastic.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”14″]Developer: ARIKAPublisher: ARIKA
Genre: Fighting
Platform: PC
Release: Nov 29, 2018
[/perfectpullquote]This meant ARIKA was essentially back to square one. Now, eighteen years later they’ve returned with a new entry (sot of?) in the EX series, but this time without any of the Capcom connection. It’s weird, man. I’m pretty sure these characters are considered cannon as they all have bio-cards in Street Fighter V, but there is no Capcom connection in this title.
Ignoring that, and having Terry Bogard fighting as DLC, Fighting EX Layer is still as fun as it was back in the day. The combat is fluid and everything looks pretty great running on the Unreal 4 engine. The cast of characters all pop and each have some sweet looking designs. That classic look and feel of the EX series is alive and well here which warms my heart.
Fighting EX Layer is simply a blast to play. It really feels like this is a fighting game designed for fighting game fans. The past few years have been a boon for fighting games with every console getting a plethora of titles. That being the case, so many of these titles are trying to expand and because of this have become more casual.
Super moves in many cases are single-button affairs that take ages to finish and while neat, means so many of these games will never see play in EVO or similar tournament. Look, I love games like Blade Strangers, but it’s not a long-lasting title that people still play. Heck, most of you probably have never even heard of that game.
So, having a game like Fighting EX Layer hit the market is a good thing for serious fighting fans. Pulling off combos is a lot of fun and moves flow really well between each other thanks to excellent animations. Learning patterns and understanding how characters play doesn’t ever feel like work, like it often does in so many other games.
The character selection really helps this because each feels unique and attractive to the player in various ways. I jumped into the game with Skullomania, because of course I did as an EX fan, but coming across the vets and new faces, I was already planning out who I would want to main next.
Mechanic wise Fighting EX Layer doesn’t do anything that we haven’t really seen before, it just refines a lot of things that we’ve taken for granted. If you’ve played a 3D fighter in the past decade you’ll feel pretty much at home here, only with a couple of neat tricks up its sleeve.
The most notable thing that you’ll see right off the bat is the move list and control implementation. Fighting EX Layer uses a two-in-one system that allows you to play classical (quarter-circle, punch into fireball) or with the new progressive system that simplifies things into a forward, punch fireball.
I think this a best of both worlds situation that allows new players to pick up the game while not pushing away veteran fans of the series. The other big change is in the form of the Gougi system that, well, sure is a thing. I’m not sold on it quite yet, but it has some real potential.
The Gougi system essentially adds a deck building card game into Fighting EX Layer. You select your deck and each gives you a few perks during your fights. These happen without you needing to activate anything once you pick your deck; they just sort of do their thing like an RPG buff.
Each deck has a name that sort of explains itself like Aggro, Juggernaut, Grab Master and so on. As you can probably figure, something like Aggro gives you a few strength buffs and Juggernaut benefits the defense side of things. Again, I’m not sold on the idea as the perks don’t feel all that integral to the core game.
They just feel a little too random for my liking and add an element into matches that you can’t really plan for. In competitive fighting games, or at least the best ones, you need to be able to understand what your opponent and their character have to potential of pulling off. These cards often feel like happy accidents at best.
Now, you may have read the title for this review and already dropped into the comments to yell at me, (probably because I actually made you read everything up until this point) but I don’t mean that Fighting EX Layer is a bad game, just one that is late to the party.
Fighting EX Layer is the most bare-bones fighting game the likes I haven’t seen since, well, for about a decade. You get 15 fighters which is a fair amount, especially since the games original release on consoles only provided a paltry 12. Now, 15 isn’t too bad, but this means you don’t get a lot of choices.
There really is only one style associated to one character unlike Street Fighter and other games that feature multiple characters of a certain style. You get a fireball dude, a grappler, a ninja and so on. So, if you are drawn to fireball characters like Ryu, Ken, Dan and so on, Fighting EX Layer gives you one. The same goes for other styles.
Thankfully, each character is damn fun and looks fantastic, but you are going to be left wishing you had some more options to play with. ARIKA has a great combat system and focused their small budget there (the right choice mind you) but you’ll want more options, especially since fighting games have expanded their options over the years.
Then there are the little details that Fighting EX Layer can’t keep up with alongside other modern fighters. There’s an Arcade mode which serves as the games impromptu story mode. Again, this wasn’t in the original console release and if I had played that I’d probably feel really let down, and maybe a little pissed for the price.
The arcade mode is nice but it’s not an actual story mode. We’re talking sub-Street Fighter 2 levels of storytelling. You pick a character, fight a bunch of people, reach a “final battle” against your rival (or at least I assume they are your rival) and then get a single static screen with some text. The text doesn’t even scroll.
You get about a paragraph of text that explains what sort of happens to your character. What’s worse is that when you kick of the adventure you aren’t given any reason for fighting. New players might feel let down, but those that at least know the story for these characters from past games, like myself, are going to be more than a bit ticked off.
Characters interact with each other and talk before each matches like they would in Street Fighter, but there’s no translation, which means unless you know Japanese your guess is as good as anyone’s as to what is going on. I figured the game had hidden the captions deep in the menus, but it’s just not there.
Fighting EX Layer is about as pure an arcade fighting game as it gets, and this is commendable, but with fighting games now being home release affairs, it feels like a step back. Ever since Mortal Kombat 9 pretty much mandated that a story be a core of the experience and can actually matter to the experience, Fighting EX Layer feels empty.
But it’s not as empty as it’s initial release was which means that ARIKA is really pushing out content and updates for fans. These sorts of fighting games from smaller teams usually release and you’re lucky to get a single DLC with a new character, so it’s nice they are still working to make the game as good as it possibly can be.
There are of course versus modes, both online and off, along with a training mode so that you can be the very best like no one ever was. And the expert mode is a lot of fun where the game sets out a number of challenges for you to complete. This mode comes in two flavors with a classic and progressive styles getting their own trees.
Look, I am loving my time with Fighting EX Layer and I keep coming back to it every chance I get. I want to explore each character and find out all the little quirks each has. This is something that I can’t say for other fighting games I’ve reviewed this year. SNK Tag Team Heroines was neat, but it’s already collecting dust, and that game features a female Terry Bogard with big ole anime boobs.
There just isn’t a lot of meat on the bone here, and while I’d knock 99% of the games that release in this state, the core gameplay here is so good that it almost makes up for it; and many of you out there will think it does. Maybe I’m just a little spoiled with fighting games and their extras.
I love unlocking new characters, opening up new stages, and trying out new costumes, all things which are missing from Fighting EX Layer. I love fighting games but I still consider myself a casual fan because I simply don’t have the time to invest training to be a top-tier fighter which is all you can really do here.
I like plying online from time to time if only to give myself a wakeup call when my head gets a little big from all the CPU fights. These extra modes and unlockables that fighting games offer give me the incentive to keep coming back for a long time. Something like the Krypt in Mortal Kombat is silly but it’s a huge incentive to keep playing, just like the challenge towers are.
If you love pure fighting games then you’ll really enjoy Fighting EX Layer, but it’s hard to recommend to players looking for a “complete” experience this might not be for you. It’s an old-style arcade fighter almost to a fault. Fighting EX Layer is a fantastic game that I just can’t recommend like I want and that feels really weird to say.
Thankfully, ARIKA is pushing out a lot of new stuff via DLC which is a huge deal for a game like this. It’s seems people are buying and playing this title and the developer is feeding fans more content because of it. This gives me hope that a few months down the road we’ll get what feels like a more complete package.
“Fighting EX Layer a great old-school feeling fighting game but lacks a lot of content and extras that the genre has become know for.”
Final Score:
3.5/5
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