Fightback Review

Sounding like the tagline to an 80s action sequel, Fightback is the latest Beat em up from Ninja theory and Chillingo.

The facially tattoo-ed Drago has kidnapped your sister. It is up to you, Jack the musclebound hero and the might of your punching prowess to save her. Straight out of the eighties, your character Jack is an excessively punchy man. With an appearance resembling Duke Nukem doing his best John McClane impression, Jack enters the early levels by smashing the front doors in and exits levels by punching an elevator button. En route, your muscles rip their way through enemy after enemy, only stopping to punch machinery attached to walls. Later it turns out Jack can also kick.

Swiftly your melee attacks can be upgraded (to more powerful punches) with the addition of the odd baseball bat to help you crack skulls more efficiently. You quickly upgrade to a gun, which hardly seems fair given the ease in which you dispatch enemies. However, upgrades quickly eat away at your bonus earnings, and the game then heads towards niggling you to upgrade with in game purchases. The world is yours if you have the (real world) cash. Ascending the levels too quickly increases the difficulty curve and forces you to spend gold bars to continue the levels. On the downtown level, the app disappointingly crashed for me on multiple occasions, making this section unplayable.

Graphically the game just about hangs on. Clear consideration of lower graphically powered mobile devices is apparent in some cut scenes with Jack’s angular bulging muscles looking particularly sharp and a satisfyingly synthy soundtrack lurks in the background, complementing the look and feel of the game.

At times, Fightback feels intellectually challenged but nods vigorously to a slew of 80s action films featuring musclebound heroes with PHD’s in punching people. Gameplay is noticeably repetitive and upgrades come thick and fast to break the monotony of the action. Captain Dan updates you in-between levels to waft a thin layer of narrative your way, carefully choosing not to use big words, just in case. I would have liked a humour injection at least attempted to lift the mood of the game, but as it stands Fightback seems to take itself a little too seriously.