T'ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger

The Good
Tai Fu is an incredible 3rd person fighting game that stars a kung fu fighting tiger going against a vast array of animal opponents in unbelievably beautiful and challenging surroundings.

To appreciate Tai Fu, you have to beat the game thoroughly without cheats as I have. Most people who've reviewed Tai Fu have only played the first board where a novice Tai Fu is bereft of the amazing moves that he earns as the game proceeds.

I'm a professional kung fu instructor, and believe it or not Tai Fu is the only game that feels like real kung fu combat! The enemies come at you the way real life opponents would and the combat engine is very realistic. Plus, I'm Chinese and the programmers captured the feel of China perfectly!

By the way, I have discovered that one can throw incredible combos that aren't supposed to be thrown in the game. Typically a combo lasts no more than 30 hits in a row. Yet I've hit these enemies with far more than that number:

1) On the first board, I jumped in the air and hit a routine Snake with a 65 hit crane attack! Off a routine crane attack where Tai Fu flies in the air and mauls his opponent from above, a routine Snake can withstand only about 15 hits max.

2) I score a 99 hit combo on the Crusher Python, a big green nasty boss snake with a mace. I hit the Python once and then use a Monkey Roll (like Blanka's roll from Street Fighter II) which basically does a somersault attack on the guy's head until he dies.

3) There is a Rat boss who turns invincible after you hit him a certain number of hits. You have to then get an exploding barrel and throw it at him before you can do damage on him again. However, I once pinned the Rat Boss against a boundary and executed a "Tiger Punch" (same as Ryu's "Hadouken" uppercut from Street Fighter II). I hit the Rat boss with a 126 hit combo and he never turned invincible at all. The uppercut just kept hitting the Rat boss with my Tai Fu suspended in the air, and he simply died when his energy ran out.

The Bad
1) There needs to be a "kung fu master" mode in which the enemies attack with far greater speed and force while taking less damage.

The only enemy in the game that fights with the deadly tenacity that poses an appropriate threat to a Tai Fu master like me is the final Dragon Boss who can easily kill you even if you've beaten the game hundreds of times like I have.

2) There's a Crane combination in which you fly in the air and hurl blue flying daggers of chi at your opponent. Unfortunately, the combo doesn't work well. That's surprising because every other combo works beautifully in Tai Fu.

It would also be nice to have some "discoverable" combos for veteran Tai Fu masters to learn along the way.

The Bottom Line
Tai Fu is the ultimate kung fu fighting game!

If you're a student of kung fu, PLAY THIS GAME. It'll help your kung fu as much as your sifu will!

By the way, Tai Fu uses many of the same moves as Street Fighter II. Yet Tai Fu is a far more entertaining game that Street Fighter II was.