Capture on Nintendo Switch (handheld/undocked)
The arrival of a completely original pixel art fighting game in 2024 is definitely a welcome surprise. But what’s even more surprising is that we discovered that Mark Mingy Chung advertises himself as an independent game developer. Known by his developer handle “Rarebreed,” his name jumped onto Blazing Strike’s credits roll to confirm the seemingly impossible. And sure enough, he apparently did almost everything himself, from programming to art direction to netcode rollback implementation to sound. Where he got help, he still serves as lead credit for animation, character, and environment design for two people. So much of Blazing Strike really seems to be the effort of one man. A mind-boggling feat considering the all-encompassing nature of the final product.
There’s a lot of SNK about Blazing Strike, a love letter to fighting game hardcore. Incredibly tall, beautifully rendered sprites, tons of animation frames, scaling effects that zoom in and out based on the proximity of the combatants, and more. Indeed, the game’s graphical style is perhaps its most polished asset, with visual similarities to Rage of the Dragons. The spritework looks authentic, as if it was made with old-school tools, and boasts a quality close to CPS3 (the hardware that powered Street Fighter III and Red Earth). The color palette positively shines with an appealing blend, and while they sometimes look the same, the backgrounds are truly top-notch, featuring a variety of sci-fi cityscapes and an in-themed prison courtyard.
Capture with Nintendo Switch (docking)
The game offers a range of classic options, including story mode, arcade mode, and online multiplayer with netcode rollback. And while a lot of effort has been put into the story mode, it’s teeth-grindingly boring to sit through. Fighting games generally don’t handle JRPG-length episodic interactions or large amounts of mundane text very well, but that’s the problem here.
For the most part, it’s well-presented thanks to some great art presented as comic panels, but to get there you have to read tons of dialogue between bookends of characters that lose interest in 60 seconds. you need to fly it. The backstory is as follows. Climate change and impending catastrophes are hitting the world. When I finally got around to it, it was so long that I couldn’t remember the context of the plot. Many battles in story mode are also only one round long, and require the use of specific characters for certain bust-ups that tie the story together. If you’re someone who thinks Hideo Kojima writes interesting and meaningful dialogue, you might read it carefully once, but there’s not much point in repeating it twice.
Capture with Nintendo Switch (docking)
Thankfully, the arcade mode gets to the heart of it. Here we get some pre-game soundbites and a typical post-game down. The game features 14 characters, including a scrap merchant who handles weapons, a ninja who secretly protects the soul of her late husband, and a disgraced warlord who can transform into a demonic being, all filled with bold, unique, and brilliant ideas. It’s clear that the typical Ryu, Ken, Zangief, and Chun-Li isn’t the baseline intended here, and the character variations are on par with Guilty Gear.
That said, the play style is much less complex than the Arc System games, which makes it all the more encouraging. Punches and kicks have four attack buttons, divided into light and hard attacks. These allow you to form basic attack combos fairly easily, and you can always access your command list from the pause menu. Hits feel solid and the arc of the jump has a natural weight. Each character has a super bar that allows them to perform dazzling special attacks. There are also characters with unique properties, such as the pink bomb capsule.
However, what the system relies on is the rush gauge. Holding down the shoulder button will speed up your character and the gauge at the top of the screen will decrease, and once the gauge is empty it will recover in about 6 seconds. In Rush mode, characters have additional attack and defense characteristics. It can be used briefly to evade attacks or let out a roar to kill. There’s a touch of Mark of the Wolves about it, but it’s much more engaging and easy to understand, and it feels good to glue the destructive strings together.
Capture with Nintendo Switch (docking)
As an example, you can jump with a deep light kick, land two standing jabs, then start a rush to add an extra beat, then top off your work with a super. For beginners, deciding when to perform rushes and link attacks is not easy. You’ll also need to spend some time in training mode, as each character’s moveset is diverse. But the sensory reward when you nail the chain is thrilling. Cleverly, if you don’t press a button when your rush gauge runs out, your character will go into a dizzy state and have to shake the stick to recover.
There are subtle aspects to Blazing Strike that give it the reality of a one-man show. For example, in Arcade mode, there are stage obstacles that impede play, such as desert whirlwinds sucking players in, or crane hooks falling from above and throwing players out of the flow. These aren’t game killers, but I couldn’t find an option to turn them off either. Also, some of them are a little annoying. One of the worst offenders is the prison stage. If you reach the edge of the screen, you may be momentarily grabbed by an inmate and beaten to death. I can’t imagine the fighting game community being warm to this idea in a competitive setting. Small details in the background art, such as certain bystander characters, range from really great to a bit lame, and the music ranges from great to pretty perfunctory.
Capture on Nintendo Switch (handheld/undocked)
There’s room for improvements and balance adjustments in future sequels and upgrades, but for now, most people will enjoy Blazing Strike as an original, deep, and well-crafted fighting game.
conclusion
One might think that Blazing Strike, programmed in Unity, is a feat in itself. But the fact that so much of it was built by one person is nothing short of amazing. It’s original and aesthetically pleasing, and the wide range of character possibilities feels fresh and exciting. This isn’t a game for complete beginners, but newcomers and enthusiasts will find its rush system to be an engaging and well-implemented combo string. It remains to be seen if they can pull the community away from the current Marvel vs. Capcom online craze, and if so, for how long. In any case, it is a noteworthy title that will be active at the professional tournament level. As with most first versions of fighting games, there are some areas that need some tweaking, but such an impressive first attempt definitely bodes well for the future.
