Fighter Within Reviews
Simply put, this game is a total disaster. It's incredibly frustrating to play, the narrative is horrific, gesture control is broken and the menu system will make you pull your hair out within 5 minutes. If there's any glimmer of positive praise for the game, it's that you will probably lose weight while attempting to play the game. Flailing my arms and legs around during each match just to register a single movement on the screen has been more intense than any Xbox Fitness workout. If you have any love for fighting games, you should avoid the 'Fighter Within' at all costs.
Fighter Within doesn't just tarnish the tenuous franchise that Ubisoft seems to be attempting to forge. It does motion-controlled brawlers a disservice, writing off a genre that probably shouldn't exist anyway. Even worse it tarnishes Microsoft's shiny new Kinect as well as the black box to which it's leashed.
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.
Avoid at all costs.
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.
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.
There is no reason you should ever play this game
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.
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.
Fighter Within really showcases the larger problem with Kinect only games: they just don't work.
Fighter Within has plenty of shortcomings, but more importantly, I'm having a lot of fun.
Fighter Within is a laughable attempt at a fighting game.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Fighter Within was buried under the rest of the Xbox One launch lineup for a reason. This one-on-one fighter is a throwback to the problems of the first Kinect—and does nothing but sow seeds of doubt that the next-gen Kinect sensor is any different from its predecessor.
Everything you'd expect it to be and less.