Original Release: D3 Publisher, 2004, PS2
This 3D fighting game is more about bouncy bikini girls than refined gameplay.
Fighting Angels (PS2, D3 Publisher, 2004)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: PS2 Emulation Guide
Review by: Master-B
D3 Publisher’s “Simple 2000” series was often about knocking off other popular titles, but adding some gonzo element to the mix to try to cover the crappier gameplay. So it goes once again with Fighting Angels, released as Catfight in Japan. The source material in question is the Dead Or Alive franchise, as D3 pumps out its own knockoff bikini fighter.
If there’s a story to all this, D3 doesn’t bother filling you in in-game. Just choose your Titty Fighter, and it’s straight off to the beach to rumble it out with all the other girls. In the end you fight a boss girl called Moe Mk II who really isn’t better at fighting than any of the other gals, brief credits roll, and you unlock a new outfit for your chosen girl. The funny thing is, the new outfits are almost always less racy and revealing than the starting bikinis.
Anyway, there’s not much else to do beyond this. Aside from the usual PVP and beating up a non-responsive training partner, there’s only a “Survival Mode.” The only real replay value is to keep looping through the main mode with the different girls and gradually get all four of their outfits. You can then take them into Perv Cam mode and do all the usual rotating and zooming and what have you.
The game was made by a good chunk of the Toshinden team, so it’s not the absolute worst fighter ever made … but it’s on the clunky and crappy side of town for sure. Move choices are limited and they all come out slow, and the girls often share identical moves. It also totally lacks challenge – you can simply block-and-counter or just spam running moves to win all the matches, and I’m pretty sure the spear move some of the girls have is unblockable.
The only time I ever lost a match was in the periodic “weapons battles,” which happen once every three matches or so. The game screams about it being a FIGHT TO THE DEATH but don’t worry, no animu tiddy ladies were harmed in the making of this game. They just collapse into a quivering pile of jello boobs once subdued. The weapons are mostly useless, save the machine gun (which basically hacks off a huge hunk of opponent health automatically) and the katana (which can be used to start a chain of attacks the opponent can never escape from). Probably the only time you’ll ever lose is if you get unlucky with a machine gun or katana attack.
Aside from the bikini battle concept, D3 also tried to emulate Tecmo’s renowned “jiggle physics.” However, the results are a lot more hilarious than sexy. The breasts look like a plate of jello just jumping around randomly, often flying around in two different directions. The end match win quotes are particularly hilarious, as the model stands there all stiffly with as little animation as possible but her titties are bazoonging all over the place.
I guess it has some value for being a big stupid sideshow yet at least being halfway playable, even if clumsy and kinda halfassed. The animations are all over the map, some are hilariously bad but some are actually halfway decent (like the Chun Li bird kick knockoff). Bad fighting game, but not the worst fighting game.
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