First off, Fighter Maker's graphics just suck beyond all imagine. The fighters, while numerous, have absolutely no life in them, possess no personality, and are basically just there. It sounds weird, but that's how they are, standing there with a huge "Pick me! Pick me!" sign hanging above their heads. The backgrounds are the same story, lifeless, no emotion, just horizons made in (what seems) full 2D!

The sounds in Fighter Maker are a perfect match for its graphics as well, because it sucks beyond all imagine as well. To tell you the truth, either my volume was toned down a hell of a lot, or there was absolutely no background music. At all. The sound effects on the other hand are just your normal handful of basic kick and punch sounds, as well as some grunts and moans, but nothing truly spectacular.

Fighter Maker's saving grace? It's certainly not the gameplay, as you'll find editing and creating your own moves is beyond cool. You need to spend a lot of man hours to complete a full array of moves for your custom character, and some players might find some enjoyment out of this. To be totally honest, I couldn't wait for this game to come out; making my own Shoryuken or a modified version of the Raging Demon made this game a must-have for me. I also didn't mind spending hours upon hours of making every little detail in my character's movement perfect. Futhermore, I wasn't phased when I had to wipe my entire memory card in order to save my Fighter Maker stats. However, I did mind that once the actual fighting started, the game had some of the most piss-poor gameplay that I have ever experienced in a fighting game. The game tries to be innovative in its style of play, but it never comes close to accomplishing this feat, because of the non-responsive control.

In all, I tried to like this game, I really did.. but I couldn't. There was just too many faults in this game to make me enjoy it. Maybe if the graphics were spruced up a tad more, or if the sound was at the least existent; not to mention a greater degree of resonsive controls, I would've loved Fighter Maker. Alas, after about a week of trying to love it, it has found a new home in the used games bin at my local video game store.

· · · Reno