Developed by French based developers Piranaking and based on also French comic book Lastman Last Fight is essentially the Power Stone game we have been waiting for Capcom to make for the last 16 years.
Back in the days of the Dreamcast the original Powerstone was one of my favourite games. It was different to pretty much all other fighting games at the time and was an absolute blast to play. The sequel inventively names Power Stone 2 added an extra 2 players and actually in my mind was not quite as good but overall I have been aching for a threequel for a good decade and a half.
Well Capcom aren't going to give me what I wanted but alas Last Fight seems like it is going to give it a damn good go. The game sees you in an arena with full movement and the ability to pick up and use weapons as well as fight. As Powerstone power-ups appear that when all connected transform you into a stronger special character that generally leads to you destroying you opponent.
The story mode follows Duke Diamonds or Richard Aldana in a mission to save Richard’s girlfriend who have been kidnapped by a secret organisation amongst an epidemic of drug crazed rioting. Its pretty silly but fits the theme of the game well.
The cast of 10 characters features a nice wide range of characters from aliens, to hobos, to goat faced businessmen but generally playing as them is pretty similar and there is not a massive diverse range of abilities. There are 4 different transformations to experience and these radically alter the style of play and are all pretty different. Some are better than others but all were fun to be and were always a key part of winning a fight.
There are a number of different weapons to also pickup most of which are simply used to throw at your opponent but there are a few things such as rocket launchers that add depth to the gameplay. One of the biggest gripes I have with the game however is that there is just not enough in the way of difference amongst the stages with most being square arenas not filled with an awful lot. Powerstone had a lot more things to interactive (or at least I remember it having) and the game could definitely do with a few more things to play with in the stages.
The game however is great fun especially when played with friends. Currently there is only local multiplayer available which is a shame and as is the case with most indie games there probably never will be online multiplayer but if there ever was a case for using Nvidia’s screen share feature this is definitely a good one.
I have generally enjoyed playing LASTFIGHT and it evokes a lot of fond memories of Powerstone. Sure it’s not perfect but it’s a fun game that is worth playing for all fight fans and fans of Capcom’s aforementioned Dreamcast Brawler as its probably the best you are going to get.
