The types of moves and combos that you will be able to in this game is too limited and rather simple. When attacking your opponent, you will only be doing certain moves like the basic punch, kick and dodge. If you try to do more punches than what the Kinect can catch, the character will stop moving. For a fighting game that uses Kinect, I was hoping that the Fighter Within will be able to capture more moves than the simple ones the game can do like mixing punches with an uppercut. As for special moves, this game doesn’t offer anything to make the game more exciting. Pretty much what you will be doing all the time are the basic offensive and defensive skills that really doesn’t give the player the flexibility to try out other moves.
After mastering, or hoping at least you get through the story mode of the game, there’s a multiplayer portion that you can jump in and try. As with every fighting game, it’s always an enjoyable experience to fight a real person online. Despite the flaws of the Kinect sensor, the multiplayer somewhat adds a little bit fun on the game and that’s when the camera decides to work and capture all of your moves. Playing the multiplayer portion is the same as solo as you will use all of the moves and combos you have learned to fight your opponent. From the matches that I’ve played, there are more people that drops out from the game, maybe due to the frustration, than the ones where I’ve actually spent time to finish a match. The experience is good as I get to fight a real person but the frustration and the annoying inaccuracy of the game is there.
From the array of Xbox One launch games that are now available, majority of them have had impressively good looking visuals. Those who are hoping that Fighter Within will join the games that offers the next-gen visuals everyone are looking forward to see, they will be disappointed. While the overall graphics are a lot better than the games we have found on the Xbox 360, the character models are just poorly designed and they all look generic.
In addition to the flaws that I’ve found in the Fighter Within, there’s one that really bothers me and that’s how the game is so hard to navigate using the Kinect. Playing other Kinect games in the past have made it easy for me in navigating menus in a game where if I want to proceed, I can just wave or hold my hand for a few seconds. In this game, you will assume that it works the same but nope, you will have to do certain gestures before it works. By the time you figure out how it works, you will realize that it’s best to use a controller rather than deal with its almost non-functional menu.
Fighter Within is one Xbox One game you should steer away from completely. A game that is supposed to show what the new Kinect can does fails miserably to showcase the camera’s potential. If you are hoping Fighter Within will be that one Kinect game that will revolutionize the fighting genre for a mention sensing game, prepare to be disappointed and frustrated. The abysmal gesture recognition is bad enough to give you many reasons to leave this game on the shelf.
[Editor’s Note: Fighter Within was reviewed on the Xbox One platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]