Fighter Within Reviews
Which brings us to a total of at least 18 things, plus about seven thousand more I've forgotten to mention. I can't be bothered to count them all up, so let's just finish with a nice round number.
Shallow, unresponsive, and unoriginal, The Fighter Within embodies the worst of what Kinect has to offer.
The imprecise combat of Fighter Within does an awful job of showcasing the new and improved Kinect 2.0 tech. This is easily one of the weakest Xbox One launch window titles yet.
There is no reason you should ever play this game
Fighter Within is a broken, bland launch brawler that loses its potential on poor execution.
Fighter Within is a laughable attempt at a fighting game.
Fighter Within could have been a demo disc for the power of the Kinect 2.0, but instead is an absolute mess that recalls all of the original sensor's faults.
Fighter Within could have had potential, if more work had gone into the gesture recognition and making the Kinect actions translate into the game world, but as it stands it feels like a lazy game that's been rushed out to hit the Xbox One's launch date. The multiplayer is fun, but a lot of that is due to the fact that you're playing with another person in the same space. Any attempt at online multiplayer would have failed as miserably as the single player campaign, especially as you can't see the look of disappointment on their faces as they fall – yet again – to your flying fists. I can only hope that something else comes along soon to show us what Kinect 2.0 is truly capable of, because if this is it, we're in for another generation of shockingly disappointing movement-controlled video games.
Everything you'd expect it to be and less.
Fighter Within is a lazy tech demo with a poor story, unimpressive fighting engine, and a forgettable cast. Maybe one day we'll have a cool Kinect fighting game, where everyone at EVO is flailing around with some semblance of strategic value. But this is not that day.
[Y]ou should not play this game. Don't spend money on it. It's meant to be bundled with these consoles for suckers so eager to play with the latest in-home ripoff technology that they'll spend more money to get games they don't want with it.
A bad game and a very poor start for next generation Kinect games, even if there is still some small cause for optimism beneath the bland fighting action.
Even if this game was a fraction of its baffling $59.99 price tag, I would not recommend it for anyone. The Fighter Within has only one good thing going for it and that is you can burn a few calories after a fight or two. Otherwise, do yourself a favour, avoid this game as it's awful.
Just as Kinect was beginning to look like a solid addition to the Xbox One experience, Fighter Within comes along and reminds us why we didn't particularly enjoy the technology first time around. Perhaps as a tech demo and nothing more, Fighter Within would have raised a smile, but as a full-priced, next-generation it really isn't worth the time or money.
I wanted to love the second offering from Ubisoft of a Kinect fighting game, but this simply falls flat on every level. If you own an Xbox One, do not go anywhere near this game.
We know that there are plenty of fighting game enthusiasts out there who are hoping to expand their hit boxes beyond Killer Instinct, but Fighter Within is not the title to do it with. Furthermore, Fighter Within only sets an immensely bleak tone in regard to future Kinect-exclusives. Even with its reduced price tag, the Fighter Within is a broken mess everyone could do without.
We had some fun laughing at how it responded even worse when playing multiplayer. The loading screens warn you to be careful around friends lest you make physical contact but you really should just be warning them away. Microsoft promised that Kinect has been vastly improved with the launch of the Xbox One but if you're looking for proof of that Fighter Within is not it.
It's with a heavy heart that I write this review of Fighter Within. When I saw the announcement, I was excited, knowing what the Xbox One Kinect could do for a genre like this. Daoka bit off far more than they could chew, and this time it wasn't the hardware. The Kinect was purpose built for exactly this sort of game, but Daoka simply wasn't up to the task. As a fighter and a gamer, I'm deeply insulted by Fighter Within.
Better than Fighters Uncaged, but that wasn't too hard. Fighter Within works, and that's the only positive thing to say about it. For £50, you're best off paying for a session of S&M with your local masochist. It'd last longer.
Fighter Within has plenty of shortcomings, but more importantly, I'm having a lot of fun.