Galaxy Fight

In the mid-90's every developer worth their salt was doing what they could to produce the next big thing in fighting games. Sunsoft, who was ubiquitous for their late 80's NES platform-action games, brokered a deal with SNK to produce a couple fighting games on their Neo-Geo platform after cutting their teeth on the excellent Super Famicom port of ADK's World Heroes. 

Galaxy Fight was the first of two games commissioned and published by SNK. While it saw some modest success in the arcade, it was Sunsoft who chose to release it at home in multiple formats. Thankfully, we're all the better for this as many games on the Neo-Geo that weren't immediate hits in the arcade didn't often get a meaningful home port. Galaxy Fight is an excellent prequel to 1996's Waku Waku 7 and was way ahead of its time in terms of its overall speed and mechanics. In its day, though, everyone wanted the "next Street Fighter" while at the same time deriding every fighting game that came out as a "Street Fighter rip-off." I guess you just couldn't please gamers in the 90's?

Upon pressing start gamers can choose one of eight galactic warriors that hail from all corners of the galaxy. Each of the eight characters are quite unique and present the player with some of the most unconventional archetypes seen in fighting games up to that point. While some of the actual designs are better than others, all characters are interesting to play as given the forward-thinking mechanics. 

Galaxy Fight is fast - I mean really, really fast. In early 1995 there was no fighting game I can recall that moved even a quarter as fast as this game. The insane tempo of Galaxy Fight is dictated by generous mobility options pared with arenas that have no boundaries. Central to your mobility is your dash. You can forward dash with a double tap of the control stick or double tap back to back-dash. If in a forward dash, you can cancel out of it by double tapping back. Out of a forward dash you can super jump and carry forward the momentum of the dash through any of your normal button attacks. What's more is that most special moves also work out of a dash and many of them carry special properties. 

Attacks and special move inputs are a little more traditional, thankfully, as this is still a fighting game and having 100% unique mechanics would have alienated even more players given the strange, high-tempo battles that take place. Galaxy Fight is a four button game with A, B, and C being your light, medium, and strong attacks respectively. These attacks will be either a punch or kick depending on the character, so you'll have to play each character a bit to find out what their normal attacks are. The D button acts as a taunt, although there really isn't a useful mechanic tied to taunting so it's there just to razz your opponent. As mentioned before, most of your normal attacks can be carried through in your dashes, so the crux of the gameplan here is to use your dash attacks to close in, open up your opponent, retreat, and clash again. 

This game is less about intricate combos (although there are some), spatial footsies, and okizemi options (on the ground). Rather, Galaxy Fight focuses on creating high-speed clashes in the air or on the ground. If you're at all familiar with the Dragon Ball Z anime and how the characters would clash at high speed often for single, powerful strikes, Galaxy Fight gives the player that sense of speed and freedom in fighting game form. There was no other fighting game at the time that played quite like Galaxy Fight and it was a joy to watch two players that understood the mechanics fly around the screen. This is a game all about motion and momentum and becomes even more fun the longer you play it - so long as you're playing with friends as the AI will make you rip your hair out. It's hellaciously difficult on all difficulty settings. 

To complement the high-speed mobility options, Sunsoft removed boundaries in the arenas. This singular change from most 2D fighters of the day allows for those high-speed, Dragon Ball-esq moments I mentioned. While some backgrounds are a little sparse, the 2D sprite rotation and scaling effects are top-notch stuff and watching the backgrounds zoom by at 100mph is always thrilling. There is a generous amount of animation in many of the backgrounds as well, and some are quite interesting to travel through. While I wouldn't say the overall pixel art is as strong as what was coming out of SNK proper, these backgrounds are of special mention due to their tie to gameplay functionality. Without them Galaxy Fight wouldn't be Galaxy Fight. 

The remainder of the characters and sprite work is a bit of a mixed bag with some character sprites and animation sets being a step above the others. Still, the other-worldly designs fit the aesthetics well and the game has a cohesive art design that is carried through in the promotional marketing art and in-game art in its shading, pastel color pallet, and attention to detail. It's not the best looking game on the Neo hardware, but the overall package is a game that standouts from its peers as being highly unique and fun to watch. 

Sunsoft was known for their excellent soundtracks and Galaxy Fight doesn't disappoint here. Every stage has a theme that carries through the central feeling that the artists' want to convey to player about not only the planet you're fighting on but also that planet's galactic hero. Sound effects are of similar high quality and many of the effects you hear in this game are reused again in 1996's Waku Waku 7. It's good stuff all around and the soundtrack is well worth a listen outside of the game. 

Galaxy Fight is a weird but wonderful fighting game that is so drastically different than what came before that genre fans in 1995 weren't sure what to do with it. Even in our modern age of 2023, Galaxy Fight gets little love or mention in the fighting game community and that's a damn shame. Despite not being well balanced (looking at you Gunther), it's an approachable and fun game that will provide you with an excellent time so long as you don't go in expecting it to be akin to Street Fighter or King of Fighters. 

Due to a generous print run, Galaxy Fight is "affordable" for the AES platform at less than $400 in the modern retro game market. Because it's not a sought after title, you can sometimes get it for as little as $150 if you land on the right deal. There was no Western AES release, though, so this one is import only. The MVS arcade edition can be found for less than $200 and the generally excellent Neo CD version can be had for less than $50.

Sunsoft also released a very good Sega Saturn port in 1996 that was based on the Neo CD release, complete with a new arranged soundtrack. This Saturn port saw a world-wide release in all major territories and even on the generally expensive Saturn library it can be had for less than $120 for any version. It's available on modern digital storefronts in Hamster's Arcade Archives series as well as any emulation solution like Fightcade, so it's easy to boot up and play these days. Along with Waku Waku 7, Sunsoft packaged up that game and Galaxy Fight in a Playstation 2 double pack. These are true ports rather than using an emulation back-end, so this is also an excellent way to play the game if you simply must have a physical copy in your collection. 

If you're an aspiring AES collector, Galaxy Fight is an easy pick up given it's generally affordable for that market segment. Still, I don't know if you'll get the play out of it at $400 or so compared to other, more solid and traditional fighters you can pick up for around the same price. It's not a bad early pick up for your library, but make sure you have the more sought after games first. Galaxy Fight is super fun for sure, but on a piece of kit known for its excellent fighting games it makes it a bit more of a hard sell given the price these days.