Fighter's History Dynamite

1994 saw a shift in the fighting game space. As memory became cheaper, rom sizes were becoming larger and developers were now able to produce more lush 2D visuals and mechanics. At the same time 3D fighting games were beginning to take hold with the brilliant Virtua Fighter 2 releasing the same year in the arcade alongside Namco's Tekken. Fighter's History Dynamite (FHD) was already a bit of a throwback by this point. It self a sequel to Data East's 1993 controversial arcade classic, FHD is an incremental upgrade to the base game (released on bespoke hardware in the arcade) with some gameplay tweaks and extra characters. The controversy surrounding the first Fighter's History lawsuit is well documented around the internet, so I encourage you to look up that story to gain more context into the history of the first iteration of the game. 

Despite being an upgraded version of the base game, by 1994 the series' graphics were already looking dated when compared to contemporaries in the genre like the beautiful Samurai Shodown 2 and Art of Fighting 2. FHD was overlooked at the time of its release in the over-saturated fighting game market. Despite some industry publications like RePlay placing FHD (under its Westernized name Karnov's Revenge) quite high in monthly sales rankings around the time of its release, it didn't sell all that well in the arcade over its life. Critical and fan reviews echo the abysmal sales numbers by marking the game as bland and unimaginative. Modern retrospective reviews are also generally harsh in the broad video game community. In the modern day fighting game community, though, FHD has seen a resurgence in interest due to the crazy characters, off the wall mechanics, and generally unbalanced and broken design which lead to some brutal, fun, and fast bouts. Fighter's History Dynamite is less of a "good" game and more of a bad game made good by being a sloppy mess. Let's dig in. 

Fighter's History Dynamite saw the inclusion of the two boss characters from the first game, as well as two new playable characters which round out the roster to 13 selectable characters and one secret boss. All characters received new moves in addition to some balance tweaks here and there. Not that the tweaks mattered, as every character has some trait or move that can be exploited to essentially break the game. But that's not necessarily a bad thing in the case of FHD. That said, characters, overall, are mostly unique in overall design but many of the move sets ape Street Fighter 2 a little too brazenly. 

Gameplay mechanics saw some shifts from the first game as well. Due to FHD being released on the Neo-Geo, the 6 button layout from the first game was replaced with only four attack options. Unlike games like Samurai Shodown and World Heroes Perfect which are essentially six button games where the heavy versions of punch and kick require two button presses, FHD now has only two attack levels for punch and kick: light and heavy. Despite having less attack options than the first game, this change sped up the tempo of matches and opened up some room to create a new combo mechanic called the "one-two attack system." This mechanic allows the player to interrupt the ending frames of a block or light attack to more easily flow into a heavier attack. It's not quite a chain-combo system, like the Real Bout Fatal Fury games, but it does enable the player to do fun combo strings that aren't too hard to pull off. 

Another gameplay innovation in Fighter's History Dynamite is the weak-point system. Every character has a particular part of their body that is weak to either a high, mid, or low attack. If you hit the opponent's weak spot (the part on their hit-box that activates the weak point) you will see that part of their sprite begin to flash. If you hit their weak spot again it will instantly dizzy the opponent. Due to this mechanic, it's not uncommon to have at least one dizzy per round. Once a character's weak spot has been exploited, you cannot exploit it again until the next round. Additionally, the character's sprite will show damage around their weak point (like torn pants or broken masks) and they will receive more damage when hit on their weak point again. 

The tempo of the matches are brutally fast thanks to the extremely high damage output. One four hit combo can do as much as 55% damage depending on the character. There is also no damage scaling, so the full damage output of each move is retained throughout a combo. Because of the "one-two" system, there are some impressive combo strings you can put together that add to the fast pace of the game. Character's don't have a ton of movement options, but they do have a short back dash that has some invincibility frames much like Fatal Fury 2. Thankfully, throws do not do much damage and only act to break the opponent's offense if they get in too close as the throw range is rather forgiving and there is no way to tech out of a grapple. 

As I mentioned in the intro, the game is wildly unbalanced and broken. FHD feels not only rushed but supremely unrefined. I wouldn't call the game as bad as something like Fight Fever (which is hands-down the worst Neo-Geo fighting game), as the general game feel and hit detection save the game from being an unplayable mess. Still, some characters, like Karnov, are extremely over powered and easy to exploit. Modern fighting game aficionados enjoy FHD specifically for its broken nature, but make no mistake - there are no real tournaments due to the obscene amount of jank making the game almost impossible to judge fairly. When playing single player, the AI leans hard into every feature that make this game frustrating to play so you'll have a hell of a time making it not only to the end, but beating it on any difficulty level.

Visually the game is pretty solid with detailed character sprites done in the color style of the day, and a large array of interesting backgrounds. At the same time, it doesn't have the level of sheen graphical polish of Street Fighter 2 or the color and bombast of Fatal Fury. Like I said before, the graphics were even a little bit dated by the time FHD was released in 1994, but the simplicity really only adds to the charm in hind-sight and does not take away from the fun of the game. Aurally, the music is just okay, but there is a huge range of voices from all characters that give the player a better sense of their individual personalities. That said, the sound effects are just awesome and fit the tight and responsive mechanics well by adding more layers of player feedback. 

Despite its flaws Fighter's History Dynamite is a blast to play with a friend. The tight and responsive mechanics, great player feedback, fast bouts, and broken design make this game a joy to play so long as you don't take it seriously. But, is it worth your money? YES! It most certainly is. FHD is a game that is best played in small bursts solo, but you can spend hours playing with a friend who knows their way around the mechanics as well. The game sits like a 1980's B-Horror movie - it's not "good," but its cult following has kept it alive in the hearts and minds of gamers who are often genuinely surprised at how much fun the game is in hindsight. 

If you're looking to get an AES copy, you're in luck as this is one of the cheapest games on the console! A complete Japanese copy will run you between $80 - $150 depending on where you look with the US version (titled Karnov's Revenge) being around the $500 range in the 2023 retro game market. The game did see a port to the Neo CD that is under $50 these days, and of course the MVS arcade version is going to be the cheapest Neo-Geo cartridge option. That said, you can get a solid port on the Sega Saturn as well that was released late in the console's life in 1997 with a few additional options not found in the Neo originals. FHD has been re-released numerous times over the years, and has an $8 release on Hamsters Arcade Archives series on modern digital storefronts. Additionally, the SNES port of the first game is actually tooled to play more akin to this release, so despite having a few less characters, the SNES port is more or less a port of Dynamite rather than the original game.

While I'd caution to get some of the more solid games on the Neo-Geo if you're just starting out building an AES collection, you really can't go wrong if you decided to grab this game early on. It's not a hidden gem by any stretch of the imagination, but it is an underappreciated fighter waiting for the right kind of sadistic player to unlock the fun in this largely maligned entry into the pantheon of Neo-Geo fighting games. No matter when you get it, it should be a staple in every serious Neo-Geo collector's library.