Little Fighter 2

Infobox VG| title = Little Fighter 2
developer = Marti Wong, Starsky Wong
engine = PC
version = 2.0 (September 12, 2008)
platforms = Windows (98/ME/2000/XP)
released = 1999
genre = Beat 'em up
players = 1-4(1-8 including computers)
ratings = vgratings|PEGI=10+

Little Fighter 2 ("LF2", 小朋友齊打交2) is a popular freeware PC fighting game for Windows and is the sequel to the game Little Fighter 1 (LF1). LF2 was created by Marti Wong and Starsky Wong in 1999, and released in a long series of updates.

The game supports up to 4 human players on one computer and a total of 8 characters using online play or computer-controlled opponents. Characters are controlled using the keyboard or a gamepad. All keys can be set via a configuration menu.

The game has proven to be very popular due to its simple gameplay, replayability, and free availability. The official web site has over 40 million hits and offers an action figure of one of the main characters via mail. The game has a commercially-released sequel, "Little Fighter Online".

Gameplay

In LF2, characters can be moved by pressing the respective up, down, left, and right keys. The defend, jump, and attack buttons are used to make the character perform an action. Attacking another character causes him or her to lose HP (health points), represented by a red bar on the heads-up display. Each character also has special attacks that can be activated by pressing a certain combination of keys. Most of these special attacks take up MP (mana points), represented by a blue bar on the heads-up display.

Items may occasionally fall into the screen to assist players. Occasionally, a bottle of beer or milk may drop down from above, which can be drunk to restore health and/or mana (milk restores mainly HP, and a little amount of MP, whereas beer only restores MP). Once a bottle of beer or milk is finished, your character drops it and the empty bottle breaks and disappears. There are also a variety of weapons that can be used in combat. These include knives, baseballs, baseball bats, hoes, crates, boomerangs, and boulders. All weapons take damage in combat and will eventually break.

Game Modes

1. VS Mode allows human and computer players to fight each other in a setting of the player's choice.

2. Stage Mode, like in many classic beat-'em-up action games, this allows the players fight their way through five stages, with bosses here and there. You can choose your stage and difficulty at startup. Version 2.0 added a Survival Stage with unlimited stages that the character/s fight through until they are all eliminated. Survival is set in the new Brokeback Cliff level, added in Version 2.0. If all the characters have been "knocked out" but one, and he/she makes it to the next level, then the others are resurrected with a small amount of HP. Milk Bottles are dropped after each level. The characters are only killed when all have been knocked out.

3. Championship Mode sets up a tournament bracket to determine a winner. You can choose to fight individually, or with a human or computer partner.

4. Battle Mode is a team-based mode involving two sides commanding mass customizable armies of computer players. Allowing a large amount of characters on-screen may cause lagging, along with the spell/special move effects can render the player unable to make their character run or perform special moves.

5. Demo Mode creates random teams of computer-controlled players, creating a zero-player game.

6. Playback Recording, new in version 2.0, allows for playback of recorded gameplay.

Difficulty can be set to Easy, Normal, and Difficult for all modes except demo. Additionally, "CRAZY!" mode can be unlocked when the player types in a secret code on the select player screen. The code can be used in VS, Stage, Championship and Battle Modes . There is also a small online game feature which enables you to connect and experience any of the modes listed above with another person via IP address (public IP), using port 12345. This only allows connection to one other computer.

Characters

The main characters with their respective unique traits are Deep (sword), John (magician), Henry (archer), Rudolf (ninja), Louis (armor), Firen (fire), Freeze (ice), Dennis, Woody, and Davis, each with unique attacks. Other computer players included the game (who appear in Stage Mode as enemies and Battle Mode) can be selected only when unlocked along with "CRAZY!" mode with the secret code (which is revealed after the user defeats the final stage of Stage Mode). These hidden characters vary in strength from Bandit, the weakest, to Julian, the strongest.

Critical reception

"Little Fighter 2" was reviewed by CNET Download.com and awarded four stars out of five, [cite web|url=http://www.download.com/Little-Fighter-2/3000-7563_4-10155222.html#editorsreview|title=Little Fighter 2 - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com] and was reviewed in the November 2007 edition of PC World magazine. [cite web|url=http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,68407-page,1-c,action/description.html|title=Little Fighter 2 Action Download PC World]

External links

* [http://www.lf2.net/ "Little Fighter 2" official website]
* [http://www2.lf-empire.de/ Little Fighter - EMPIRE] -- Includes additional downloads and tutorials. Named "official fansite" on the official website.

FAQs

* [http://faqs.ign.com/articles/703/703800p1.html/ Special Moves FAQ]

References