Reality Fighters Review

If there’s one thing you need to showcase your new handheld, it’s a game that uses it’s features to separate it from the rest. Reality Fighters is that game. It utilizes a cool fighting engine, augmented reality and the ability to put your own face on your created characters. No other fighting game on the market can do this.

Reality Fighters was developed by Novarama for the Playstation VITA. While it should have been a launch title, it still came out shortly after the launch of the console. Any fighter-head was probably skeptical how this game would stack up to MVC3 and the upcoming Mortal Kombat VITA. Did it have a good fighting engine? How are the combos? How detailed is the character creation? Even I was skeptical until I got my hands on it. I was totally surprised by the title and I’m shocked that it didn’t get more praise in the press.

Graphically the game has it’s own unique look and borrows nothing from any other fighting games. This is a good thing. The fighters vary from old school kung fu movie style to completely goofy. Take the 70′s disco guy with the bottle of champagne for instance. You can’t get much wackier than that! The backgrounds are really cool but once you get a taste of the augmented reality, you’ll never want to play with the in game backgrounds. You can turn your desk, sink or coffee table into a fighting arena. It never gets old!

The controls are good enough to satisfy fighter-heads and also not frustrate casual gamers. It’s easy to play and very fun. While I think the majority of the fun comes from creating your characters and using the AR backdrops, it’s still a solid fighter. It doesn’t have the move set of some of the bigger games, but still gives you a lot of variety in punches and kicks.

You can create your character by first capturing your face with the front or back camera. Be sure that the room you are in is well lit, especially if you are a person of color. Once you get your face in the game, you can customize your body, pick your move set and your clothes. You can change different hairstyles and as you unlock more gear, modify your character even more to your liking.

Reality Fighters is a real gem of a VITA game. I had so much fun creating characters and playing on my computer desk. You can even play in the grass or on the sidewalk and get some very interesting screenshots. If you’re tired of the Capcom fighters and want something new, I highly recommend Reality Fighters. Fighter-heads might opt for the more serious MK or MVC3.