E3 2002Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus impressions

A new contender has entered the resurging genre of fighting games. Composed of mostly ex-Midway developers, including Mortal Kombat cocreator, John Tobias, industry newcomer Studio Gigante has brought off the wraps on its first game, Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus. It comes as no surprise that Studio Gigante's first game is a fighting game, since the company has several other ex-Mortal Kombat team members on board as well.

However, that's where similarities end between Tao Feng and Mortal Kombat. One of the signature features of Tao Feng's fighting engine is the high level of environmental interactivity. Tao Feng's environment system not only allows fighters to break in-game objects or knock over things in the arena, but also lets the environment be used as leverage in attacks by allowing fighters to run up walls and swing around vertical poles to attack enemies. Practically every item in the game's environment is breakable--including the arena's floor, which can develop major fractures that split it wide open. Players can also hurl opponents through walls and glass windows, transitioning the battle to other arenas seamlessly. The designers want to ensure that the entire arena is left in shambles at the end of each heated battle.

While the environments are taking damage, so are the players. Bruising and cuts appear on the character's face and body, and clothes are torn as combatants fight to the end. Excessive damage or blocking increases the chances that the character will actually have an extremity disabled. An internal meter warns the players when their fighters are in danger of having one of their limbs broken. Once a fighter does have his limb disabled, the effectiveness of his attacks using that limb is handicapped, and he nurses the limb through the fight.

Throughout the game a special "chi" meter is filled by imposing damage on the opponent. Once the meter is full, the fighter can either heal a disabled limb or perform one of several special moves consisting of projectiles and other supernatural attacks. Many of the game's "chi" moves not only apply significant damage to the opponent but also apply significant damage to the arena.

Regardless of how much visible damage both the game's environment and the fighters experience, the effects do not hinder the gameplay--the frame rate is maintained at a swift 60 frames per second. The game currently is 50 percent complete and is estimated to be ready toward the beginning of 2003.