Pit-Fighter

The Good
The intro with the digitized meatheads! :-D

The Bad
A whole lot, but especially its brief duration.

The Bottom Line
This beat em-up is a conversion of the homonymous Atari’s coin-op arcade game. It introduces us to the cruel and brutal world of the illegal sport of Pit Fighting. Our goal is to win the championship and make money in the process. There are three available fighters to choose from: Buzz, Ty and Kato. They excel in power, agility and speed respectively.

Probably the best part of the game is the introduction. Here, with a nice tune playing in the background, the three challengers demonstrate themselves: Buzz clashes the heads of two of his opponents together, then he shows off his muscles and does some weightlifting. Ty is doing crunches, eliminates a foe with a kick in head and afterwards relaxes with some feet stretching and some rope jumping. Kato neutralizes an attacking enemy blindfolded, meditates on a hill top, smashes a block of ice and spins a wooden sword.

After we choose our contestant we enter the pit. There, we will face eight lethal competitors. Let’s meet these distinguished citizens, from the eighth in rank and going up:

‘The Executioner’ occupies the last place. The only thing that will get executed is his will, for he is not much of a challenge.

Then we have ‘Southside Jim’, he is small and fast. Apparently, he fights to cover his mother’s medical expenses. He is probably the reason for them.

There is also a female participant. Her name is ‘Angel’ and she should reconsider her manners and dressing style.

Next is ‘Mad Miles’, he is a Vietnam veteran. He is also mad. ‘CC Rider’ is the biker with the unknown past. Maybe we don’t miss anything important after all.

In the third place we see ‘Heavy Metal’. He is definitely not music for our ears.

‘Chainman Eddie’ has an eccentric taste in jewelry. He is also the champion’s henchman, like he needed one.

‘The Ultimate Warrior’ is the unbeaten champion with the original name. He is the one we have to overthrow.

The graphics are badly designed and extremely poor. Both the animation and movement of the fighters are spasmodic and unconvincing. There is a small number of different locations where the fighting takes place. Only the absolutely necessary elements are graphically represented and even these in a moderate way (e.g. The crowd that watches the fight are black and white figures). The one interesting feature of the graphics is that the sprites of the characters are digitized from real people, definitely something innovative for the period of release. The only music available is the introductory theme playing tirelessly, over and over. Sound effects are almost none existent. Note that we have to choose which one of the two we will hear during playing.

Vigorous player activity is highly important in this game. Victory in battles will come as the result of mechanical and extremely fast pressing of keys. The challengers have four attack moves, one of which is a ‘special move’ that inflicts more damage. Every character has a six-square energy bar, when a square is exhausted he faints for a little. During this time he is vulnerable to enemy hits. He can also be picked up from the floor and get thrown around. The three energy bars in our disposal prove more than we need to finish the game easily, in less than half an hour. Around the pit, some useful objects are placed: A knife for stabbing. A stick for beating. A barrel, some throwing stars, and a motorbike(!) for launching against our enemies. Also, in one level there is a power pill that enhances our fighting performance. It is crucial that we use these items because they give a winning advantage. After every two matches we participate in a ‘grudge match’, where we have to achieve three knockdowns against one of the initial trio of challengers. Out of lack of fighters, we will fight against ‘Angel’, ‘Southside Jim’, and ‘Chainman Eddie’ twice. We must win in the necessary twelve matches to be declared champions. Two-player game is supported, but it finally comes down to a key pressing contest that quickly gets pointless.

“Pit-Fighter” is a traumatic gaming experience. There are much better representatives of the genre to try, so you may not want to be distracted by this one.