This was an incredibly slow year for brawlers. Unless my info’s wrong (and you can blame Wiki for that if it is), there were literally only 3 brawlers this year. Worse still, I had no prior knowledge of these titles going into this and, well…they’re not that great.

Spikeout – Digital Battle Online

In a year of losers, the one that operates the least like a failed game is the winner. To be honest, I’m not even sure if this is from the correct Spikeout game as there are several of them. Even still, they’re all pretty much the same thing, so no biggie there. The game looks and feels like a standard, yet somewhat over the top brawler.

So you might be wondering why the others didn’t grab the #1 spot. Well, Crisis Beat looks and feels like a terribly made clone of Die Hard Arcade. No, scratch that…like a terribly made clone of Fighting Force, which I’ve already commented was about the closest thing the PS1 ever got to Die Hard Arcade (and even then it was a far cry).

Lucifer Ring seems promising at first, but as soon as you see the gameplay and the blocky, clunkiness that is the controls, you know this is a stinker right away. I would almost say it’s like a 3D Golden Axe, except that’s a GOOD idea, so I won’t.

Runner Ups

If you really, REALLY must, check out the runner ups. They’re not impressive. Not in the least.

Crisis Beat
Lucifer Ring