Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus (Xbox)

In the world of Tao Feng the Pacific Northwest is called New China. Two rival factions, with six members each, fight to gain two mystical tablets that grant awesome power. On the side of the Pale Lotus we have 90-year-old Master Sage, attractive Jade Dragon, a hothead appropriately named Fiery Phoenix, cat-like Fierce Tiger, level-headed cop-by-day Divine Fist, and the enigmatic and metallic Iron Monk. The bad guys, called the Black Mantis, are: Wulong Goth--looking crazy in a praying mantis costume, the mystical Fatalist, the alluring Divinity, the scary Geist, and a hulking brute named Exile. Each fighter has his own fighting style, powers, and core strategy, and the game design is such that you have to relearn the game with each new fighter.

The slower pace of the fighting in Tao Feng might put off genre fans looking for something more frantic. The controls are simple and include a few innovations. For example: pushing back on the game pad blocks, but too much blocking might result in losing the use of your limbs. The rest of the buttons are two basic punches, two kicks, all modified by the direction you press and the use of the shoulder buttons and jumping attacks. You can even taunt your foe, which, like hitting them, charges your Chi bar. Chi can be unleashed in a devastating attack with the white button, and this attack is also modified by how you use the direction pad. The result is a fluid game of blocking, striking, and stringing combos, and occasionally taking advantage of your Chi powers to take out your opponent.

There's a Quest mode that challenges you to beat the other faction one at a time for pieces of the mystical tablet. Survival mode has you trying to beat as many opponents as possible with a single health bar. Versus mode lets you stage a battle in any arena you like and for multiple players there's a tournament mode. The game looks great and features arenas filled with hazards and breakable objects. The only problem with the game is that some animation bugs didn't get squashed before the game shipped--when executing attacks characters sometimes instantly jerk into a new stance. Fortunately the underlying gameplay is strong enough that a player can forgive such faults, and concentrate on the gory action instead. --Bob Andrews

I bought this earlier this year and paid a tenner for it and it's OK.

Not the best game we have, but not the worst either.

Well worth the tenner and at that it was a good buy, but it is hard to say if we'd have paid much more.

A good addition to your collection if you can get it at a good price.

***


Average at best   June 2, 2004
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

There are some innovative ideas at work here. Your guy or gal get bruised up and bloodier as the fight continues. Good in theory, good in practice. If you concentrate on a certain attack, or you just kinda get lucky, you can cripple your opponent. It really stinks to lose use of an arm, doesn't it? Good idea. I didn't care for it in a match, though. But really, that's not the entire problem with this game. There's a problem with the speed. It's just a hair to fast to be realisttic. Not that fighting games are necessarily supposed to be, but if they want to show realism like bruising, bleeding, and broken limbs, why is it unrealistically fast. That's my main issue. If you can ignore exactly how fast you have to push the buttons and react, buy this game and have loads of fun. However, if you need to scratch that fighting itch, there are better choices.


The king of fighters   June 4, 2003
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

Tao feng towers above all of its competitors in the fighting genre of computer games.Basically this is a game of two halves. The Pale Lotus and the Dark Mantis are locked in brutal combat for ownership of a sacred artefact. The game itself consists of wonderful, crisp graphics in the arenas and frightfully realistic captions after the fight when you can see your combatants blooded and bruised. The gameplay is full of really cool moves and fights made possible through brilliant combos.You never get tired of testing out the characters, different moves and special Chi attacks. Also there is the original inclusion of limb damage that an opponent gets after blocking too much. This is a game you will stick to as the learning curve is fantastically crafted.


Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus   June 3, 2003
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

When i first played this game, i had to admit that it looked beautiful and had some of the best graphics on the Xbox. The special moves are very polished and you can even see reflections on the floor and walls. You can bruise the enimy, tear his clothes and make him cough out blood making the fight more rewarding as well as swinging from walls and poles. The only reason a mark was taken of was it can be a tiny bit sluggish in places unlike Dead or Alive 3. it may also take a while to learn to pull off combos. However while this will be no classic, this is a game worth checking out for fight fans, will entertain for a long time and is loads of fun.