“LASTFIGHT is bringing 2v2 3D fighting back to your living room! Pick up any available object in one of the 8 stages and teach your opponents a lesson! Play in local multiplayer mode, for up to 4 players, or one-player story mode, with a cast of 10 characters inspired by the comic book LASTMAN.
LASTFIGHT is the perfect game to play with friends on your couch. Each level has specific bonuses and objects to hurl at your opponent. Will you manage to resist the temptation of the ANITRANS to win?”
– The LASTFIGHT Steam page (http://store.steampowered.com/app/443450/)
– The combat is fun and feels like Power Stone –
I think it’s an absolute crime that we haven’t seen a modern iteration of the classic Power Stone series, so it was such a pleasant surprise when I found that LASTFIGHT bares a ton of similarities to the brawler.
Combat is generally pretty straight forward – you can mash out standard combos and a unique special attack on the offensive, whilst you also have a shield and can quickly dash when on the defensive. You can grab your opponent and throw them too, though it’s not the most efficient way to take them down.
Battles take place in relatively small arenas, though they’re typically packed to the brim with objects and environmental hazards that you can use against you foes. There’s items like vases, cabinets, dinosaur bones or even parts of a crashed plane that you can throw at your foes to cause decent damage. There’s also environmental hazards too such as a plane engine that’ll suck you in, a statue that blasts out fire when activated and a steaming hot spa that’ll cause damage to both your foes and yourself if you’re not careful.
There’s a ton of weapons to use including the likes of boxing gloves, rocket launchers, hammers, cell phones, homing missiles – LASTFIGHT certainly offers plenty of devastating means to take out your opponent. There’s also power-ups that if you collect three of will transform you into one of four grotesque beasts, giving you a whole new set of moves as well as making you more powerful.
Combat is really fun and will keep you entertained, especially in the more intense two on two encounters. Admittedly, there isn’t a whole lot of variety to the play style of each character – since they’re limited to just the one special ability they all generally feel the same whilst in combat. It doesn’t take anything away from the game though and for the most part keeps the battlefield feeling even.
The game’s AI isn’t always smart though. Whilst you’ll have plenty of tough encounters that can feel pretty tense when they go down to the wire, I noticed that most of the time your opponent will constantly run towards weapons and throwable objects rather than take you on directly. They’ll often run straight into environmental hazards too – it wasn’t common enough to really detract from the overall experience, but I noticed it enough when playing the game’s single player modes.
– The colourful, varied cast –
There are ten character that feature in the game, though only nine are available at the start (you’ll unlock the extra character through a clever use of the Konami code). The game is based upon French graphic novel series LASTMAN – I’ll admit that I’ve never seen anything of the series before, but it didn’t stop me appreciating how cool the characters in the game are.
Like Power Stone, there’s a decent variety of wacky characters that all have a unique and likable appearance – you have characters like Crackjack who looks like a giant fish-like beast, the mystical birdman Chandoo, the tough but feisty warrior babe Crystal, the Poison Ivy-esque Spice, as well as the dishy (but he knows it, of course) Mr Dreamer.
Each character looks so insane and unique, plus they all have pretty sweet special moves – you have Crackjack who lives up to his fish-like appearance by trapping you in giant bubbles, the athletic Duke Diamond who’ll unleash a flurry of devastating punches, whilst Chandoo can summon a mysterious giant eye that’ll dish out plenty of damage to enemies in its vicinity.
– Great cartoony visuals –
One area that consistently impressed me with the game was the visuals – the aesthetics look absolutely fantastic, plus they look like they’ve come straight out of the graphic novels too (according to Google Image Search anyway).
Visuals are not only cartoony and incredibly vibrant, but they’re also animated fluidly with everything from movement to attacks themselves looking slick in-game. The special attacks look great too, be it the stream of fireballs that’ll blast around each level or the likes of Crackjack’s bubble that’ll hold characters prisoner in mid-air – they’re so colourful and really bring the battlefield to life.
The game’s levels look fantastic with a good variety of locations to battle across. There’s eight in total, including the likes of a wrecked boxing gym, a beach that homes a crashed plane, a nirvana-like floating temple in the sky and Aztec ruins – the game sends you across plenty of unique locations that all manage to feel completely different from each other. They’re all laid out differently too with multiple-tiers and different environmental hazards constantly keeping you on your toes.
– Multiplayer is a blast –
Multiplayer in LASTFIGHT is incredibly fun – there’s support for up to four local players, though it’s limited to either one versus one or two versus two. You can put AI opponents in too, so there’ll never be an unfair handicap if there’s three of you playing.
I would’ve enjoyed a free-for-all mode, but seriously, the game is so much fun when played with friends. The levels are great, the weaponry is awesome, the characters look sweet – sure, they each feel samey in battle, but for the most part it ensured that the battlefield felt even. It really brought back memories of playing Power Stone with friends and that can only be a good thing.
– The lack of online multiplayer –
So the developers have said that online multiplayer may be introduced to LASTFIGHT in the future, but right now its absence is a disappointment. I’ve mentioned that it’s great fun to play locally with friends, but when they’re not around there’s not a whole lot to keep you coming back to the game. It would’ve been great to have been able to take on players from around the world – here’s hoping the feature gets introduced in a future update.
– The weak story mode component –
LASTFIGHT does feature a story mode, though unfortunately it’s an uninspired affair that restricts you to only using one of two fighters – Richard Aldana or Duke Diamond. It’s a real disappointment, especially considering that the game features ten playable characters in total. The story doesn’t really vary with each character either – things generally play out exactly the same no matter who you choose.
The story isn’t that interesting either, sending you on a cliché mission to save Richard’s girlfriend. There’s neat illustrations that accompany the story, though the fact that the story itself isn’t fleshed out and is so poorly paced means that you don’t really get to appreciate them.
Perhaps most disappointing of all though is that the story mode is restricted to single player. Given the game’s emphasis on two versus two battles and the fact that the story actually features two characters, you’d have thought that you’d have been able to play through it with a friend – it’s a real missed opportunity by the developers to offer what could’ve been an enjoyable co-operative experience.
There’s a lot to love with LASTFIGHT thanks to its Power Stone-like combat, its unique cast of characters and its vibrant, cartoony aesthetics. It’s a blast to play in multiplayer too, even if it is lacking an online mode.
The single player content won’t keep you hooked for long thanks to an uninspired story mode and the lack of variety with the combat mechanics keeps characters feeling a little samey too. Still, the positives of the game certainly outweigh the negatives and you’ll have a lot of fighting fun with LASTFIGHT – especially with a good group of friends and some beers!
Developer: Piranaking (www.piranaking.com)
Publisher: Piranaking (www.piranaking.com)
Release Date: 19/05/2016
Format(s): PC (Reviewed)
