|
News
Game Reviews
Hardware Reviews
Cheats
Features
Editor's Choice
Beyond the Box
Forums
Newsletter
Contests
Links
True Crime Hardcore
MySpace Bear
LOL Center
The Animation Blog
|
 |
News: Tom Morello stars in Guitar Hero III
Activision has announced that Tom Morello, from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, will guest star as a boss character in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Click here to read the article.
|
 |
Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus
You are in Metro-China, the largest population center in New Chine, a fictional country occupying the Pacific coast of North America. With Mexico to the south, Canada to the north, and the United States to the east. The story is based on the rivalry of two ancient Chinese sects: the Pale Lotus and the Black Mantis. The leader of Pale Lotus is Master Sage and the leader of Black Mantis is Wulong Goth. Now these two groups are battling each other over two tablets that contain riddles revealing the hiding places of the long last Pale Lotus temple. These tables can lead to immortality and now both sects battle for them... and so you begin Tao Feng.
There are thirteen characters in Tao Feng, one of which is a hidden character. Here are the twelve characters that are playable right off the bat: Pale Lotus: Fiery Phoenix, Iron Monk, Fierce Tiger, Divine Fist, Jade Dragon, and Master Sage. And in the other corner... Black Mantis: Exile, Geist, The Fatalist, Divinity, Vapor, and Wulong Goth.
From the main menu, you can choose from the following options: Versus, Quest, Survival, Team Battle, Tournament, Training, Game Options, and Game Demos. In Versus mode, you go up against the computer or battle it out against a friend in 2 player action. In Quest mode, you play through the Tao Feng story by choosing a character and trying to recover the sacred tablets. In Survival mode, you will try and stay alive as long as possible by battling enemy after enemy. In Team Battle, one or two players select two to six different characters and the order in which they will fight. The team that runs out of characters first loses. In Tournament mode, you select four to eight character. You are ramdomly paired off and the one who defeats all the others wins. In Training mode, you learn and practice your moves against the computer with the aid of a ticker-tape that displays button presses. Game Options allows you to adjust game settings, controller settings, audio settings, and view high scores and instant replays of how those high scores were achieved. Game Demos allows you to view trailers for Fable, Sudeki, Phantasy Star Online, and Shenmue II. There are no playable demos.
Tao Feng is one of those games that you have to stick with in order to fully enjoy it. The level of difficulty is not for the weak of heart. One word of advice to those that might be turned off by the game after fifteen minutes of playing, keep playing! When I first got the game, I was a bit turned off by the difficulty. I don't mind difficulty in games, heck thats what maked them fun and challenging but I was surprised by how quickly Tao Feng becomes difficult. So to all those that may be turned away by a challenge, stick with it. Once you get the hang of the combo system and the overall vibe of the game, you'll be on your way to getting the sacred tablets!
Tao Feng has some cool features that other games don't have. One of them is called Chi. Each character has a special attack called a Chi Attack that can be executed when your Chi Meter is filled up. Each characters possesses three unique Chi Attacks which have different ranges and each is more or less poweful than the other.
Some other cool features in Tao Feng are the ability to swing from poles and environmental damage. You're probably wondering why you would need to swing from poles in a fighting game, well you're not the only one. I too was skeptical about this addition. Would it work well or would it be a sad attempt at innovation? Well worry no more, this addition is awesome. Imagine yourself fighting off your opponent then in the middle of the building you are in there is a pole... just head on over to it and wait until your opponent is close enough then press the Right Trigger and the D-Pad to swing around from the pole and attack with style. Now the other nice addition, environmental damage. If you throw your opponent or are thrown by your opponent against a wall or againt an object or the ground then it will most likely crack and break accordingly. Imagine body-slamming a 300 pounder, like Exile, on the pavement and then the pavement cracks and shatters! A nice visual treat.
The Left Thumbstick or D-Pad are used for movement. The Left Trigger is used to block and heal limb damage. The Right Trigger is used to attack off an object. X is Lead Kick, Y is Lead Punch, A is Trailing Kick, and B is Trailing Punch. The Black button is used to taunt your opponent while the White button is used for your Chi attack. Overall, you should get down the controls and overall flow of the game in 30 minutes or less. It is a bit overwhelming at first since you'll probably be getting your ass handed to you by your opponent. Learn the controls and combo though and you'll be on your way.
Visually, Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus is mighty impressive. Character designs are original, well most of them, and are all well modeled, detailed, and animated. Environments vary from a museum to an arcade all with destructible objects. Good detail on the environments but more would have been nice. Overall, Tao Feng delivers on the visual side.
Now onto the audio section of this lovely review. Why must games have cheesy music? Why not some actual rock bands or something to go with the intense action of fighting games instead of some cheesy PC made music. Bad background music in Tao Feng. Sound effects are average in quality. You got your normal 'karate screams' ...you know those 'hiya!' and 'hiuh!' screams. Voice overs are also nothing special.... to me the problem with voice actors is that they try to hard to fake a voice which they clearly cant do instead of actually hiring someone that goes with the character companies just so 'Close enough'... well close enough is not good enough. Overall, sound is nothing special... as with most other games.
Overall, Tao Feng has nice visuals, a hard learning curve, cool features such as Chi but also some ho-hum sound. Though some things could have used some work or tweaking, (what game doesn't?) Tao Feng is still a great game. The good outweighs the bad making Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus a game the should be checked out by any fighter fan.
Report Card:
Gameplay = 8
Graphics = 9
Audio = 7
Replay Value = 8
Overall: 8/10
Click here for the Tao Feng screenshots gallery!
|
|
|
|
