PlayStation Basement #14 - Pocket Fighter

This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on December 1st, 2018. It has been edited slightly for formatting and a minor factual clarification.

It’s finally December and here we are for PlayStation Basement. Every Saturday, I’ll be reviewing an overlooked or odd game for the original PlayStation. As always, I’ll be using a nine-point scale where 7-9 is Good, 6-4 is Neutral, and 3-1 is Bad.

Today, let’s talk about Pocket Fighter, a goofy fighting game that was released to the PlayStation in 1998 in Japan, North America, and Europe. It was developed and published by Capcom and features characters from Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, and Red Earth. Unlike those games, Pocket Fighter uses a simplified fighting system and chibi characters, the same sprites from Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo. There was a short trend of cute fighting game spinoffs in the late 90s – Virtua Fighter Kids and Battle Arena Nitoshinden, which came out in Japan only, are the others I can think of.

The cover art between the three versions varies greatly. The North American version has the somewhat ugly Fighters Edge design Capcom used for many of their fighting games on the PlayStation. These all had a small proof-of-purchase you could send in to earn points to get t-shirts and other merchandise. That’s actually how I first heard of Pocket Fighter, seeing the shirt with Zangief saying, “who you calling pint-sized?” The cover has the character designs from the game of Ryu, Ken, and Zangief, but has them floating in a blue gradient. The Japanese version is more aesthetically interesting, a sort of simple paper cutout of Chun-Li on a yellow background that says the game’s title. It’s a little too bright for me. The European version uses the game’s arcade artwork and looks the best to me. The only thing I don’t like is the placement of the title covering Tessa. None of these are bad covers by any means, however.

Pocket Fighter is a beautiful game. The sprites are very cute and have wonderful animations similar to their original versions. The characters also transform into other Capcom characters when using Flash Combos, simple, one-button combos that don’t hit too hard. Some of these include Chun-Li transforming into Resident Evil”s Jill Valentine and June from Star Gladiator, Hsienko becoming SonSon, and Felicia turning into Mega Man. There are other costume changes too: Sakura in a tennis outfit, Ken as a cowboy, and Zangief as a caveman. The backgrounds are also nicely animated with lots of small details. There are a lot of moving characters and objects, again often from other Capcom games. Some are simple, like E. Honda watching the fight from Dee Jay’s bar, but others, like the various sledders at the ski resort, have a lot more going on. Speaking of ski resorts, Pocket Fighter seems to take place in the winter, with many levels including snow or Christmas decorations. I really love the cooler color design that makes these levels shine so much. Pocket Fighter is a fun game, visually.

The sound in Pocket Fighter is fun as well. Pocket Fighter has the bright, Street Fighter Alpha sound design. The music is great, with a relaxed jazz/city pop style. The characters are voiced in Japanese throughout every fight just like in the Street Fighter Alpha and Darkstalkers games. Some of the sound effects are wacky, with a few springy, cartoon sounds that would be really obnoxious if they happened too much. The small peppering of silly hijinks works well with the rest of the game though.

Pocket Fighter plays like a simplified version of Capcom’s 2D fighting games from the same era. Unlike the 6-button system used in those games, Pocket Fighter uses only 4 buttons: Punch, Kick, Special, and Taunt. There are no levels of punches and kicks as in Street Fighter 2. The special button makes doing a Mighty Combo (one of those big attacks you need to fill a bar to do) easy to manage and also allows the player to use attacks that make the opponent drop gems. Gems power up a character’s three special moves, often functioning effectively as if you had pressed the higher attack buttons for the move in the original games. Each move can get up to level 3 and starts at level 1; it takes a bunch of gems to get them up to the maximum. Other than stealing gems from an opponent, gems also appear after striking an opponent with normal attacks, from treasure chests, and from characters that float in the air above the stage. Other item pickups include food, to increase a character’s health, and orbs, to throw at the opponent for elemental damage.

The game features your standard arcade mode, with beginning and end scenes, a versus mode (called “Free Battle”) to battle the computer or other players, a survival mode (called “Running Battle”), training mode, and an edit mode that is selectable from a different menu. Selecting this option starts a very odd mode in which the player selects a character, takes a quiz, and then builds the character up with different equipment. The odd part is all of the characters are computer-controlled. You can get different action cards that change your character’s AI along with cards that change statistics. Players can then pit their customized fighters against one another. It seems like a system that could be fun with other players, but I didn’t use this feature for much time.

If you are bad at traditional fighters or want a more relaxed and silly tournament, Pocket Fighter is for you. I really enjoy the games visual style, sound, and simple gameplay. Obviously, Pocket Fighter is set up more for fans of Capcom fighting games from the 90s with all of the cameos in the game, but I think even someone unfamiliar with those games could have a lot of fun with this. Closing out, I will mention that I often looked for this game as a kid but never saw it at the store. I still never see it at the store now, but if you do see it, I recommend picking it up.

Pocket Fighter receives a Good (9).