Body Blows
| Developer: Team 17 | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Team 17 | Sound: |
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| Year: 1993 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Fighting | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 2 simultaneous | Rating: |
6/10 | |
It’s been said time and again: fighting games are the domain of consoles. While the Amiga did see a handful of interesting titles, they were usually lagging behind for several reasons: floppy disk limitations, single-button joysticks, the need to cater to a wide range of hardware setups (Amiga 500, 1200, with or without memory expansions…), and perhaps, let’s face it, because Amiga developers often focused more on flashy presentation than on gameplay mechanics and speed.
Body Blows arrived as a response to the shoddy Amiga port of Street Fighter 2, drawing heavy inspiration from it and from another arcade hit of the time, Fatal Fury (which I recommend trying on an emulator).
To me, it’s the quintessential Amiga fighting game, complete with stiff, blocky characters, techno soundtracks sprinkled with (ridiculous) digitised voices, and simplified controls thanks to the single-button. The eleven fighters (only four of whom are playable in single-player mode) lack charisma and could have benefited from more careful balancing, but the game still holds its own remarkably well.
Body Blows Galactic, released shortly after, keeps only two fighters from the original (Junior the boxer and Danny). They’re joined by ten sci-fi characters from different planets… Despite its exotic theme, it was criticised for its lack of speed and polish (no boss, poor hit detection, low difficulty, glaring imbalances).
Body Blows AGA (1994) is an enhanced version of the original game, with upgraded graphics (although the backgrounds are less animated this time). It also fixes certain technical issues, introduces a tag-team mode (team relay matches), and supports hard drive installation.
(Some screenshots: here, here, here, here, and here.)
Ultimate Body Blows, released on CD32 just before the AGA version, is a compilation of the entire series. Here’s the rundown: a (finally) optimised game, 21 characters, beautiful backgrounds, the tag-team mode, CD support that saves you the hassle of hard drive installation, and compatibility with multi-button console controllers (optional). This is hands down the version I’d recommend (feel free to add 1 point to my rating for it).
(Even more screenshots: here, here, here, here, and here.)
Wait a second … a boxer, a ninja, an ice-wielding alien, a robot, a human torch, a dino … isn’t that practically the Killer Instinct’s lineup?
Fun fact: The two main characters, Dan and Nick, are supposedly based on two members of the development team, Danny Burke and Nik Harbor.
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