Shadow Fighter is a computer game for the Commodore Amiga, and Amiga CD32 developed by NA.P.S. team and published by Gremlin Interactive in 1994, and became one of the Amiga's best fighting game offerings during its final years, competing at the time with the likes of Acclaim's impressive home console ports of Midway's Mortal Kombat franchise, and Team17's Body Blows.
The game itself is as one would normally expect from any fighting game: fight through 3 rounds against all opponents to reach the main boss at the end. The game features 17 characters (2 hidden) from around the world (including one from space).
Each character of course has their own special moves. Like most fighting games, they involve pressing a certain directional combination, followed by a button press to activate. Some of the moves are quite tricky to pull off using a joystick or keyboard, though much easier with a joypad (which started to become more popular on the Amiga towards the mid-90's).
But for those still finding the moves too difficult to perform, the player can practice their moves on a training dummy called Pupazz. However, Pupazz is kitted out with his own set of moves, which make him lethal in his own right. Pupazz can only be accessed as a playable character via a cheat.
During the in-game action, players are notified of bonuses for performing certain actions (such as first attacks and combos), in a very similar way to Super Street Fighter II.
To rival the bloody violence of Mortal Kombat, a "blood mode" is included in the game, which can be toggled on or off. Unfortunately, this appears to do nothing other than turn the floor an untextured red colour.
The main character of the game is Shadow Fighter himself. The player can only fight Shadow Fighter if they are playing the game under Normal or Hard difficulty setting, as the game will end just before you reach Shadow Fighter under Easy. Shadow Fighter can be accessed as a playable fighter by using a cheat.
The game ran at a constant 25 frames per second, however with the use of a cheat the game could be made to run at 50fps on AGA Amigas.
The game was ranked the 20th best game of all time by Amiga Power.
Below are a few of the characters featured in Shadow Fighter, and their pre-match bios:
LEE CHEN - (China) Raised in a mist surrounded temple, Lee has learned to harness the forces of nature.
Special Moves - Firey Handspring, Fist of Falling Sun, Fire Fist, Fury Spin, Falling Nunchaku
SLAMDUNK - (Denmark) Slamdunk combines his mastery of the basketball with an expertise in all the fighting arts.
Special Moves - Jumping B-Ball, Spinning Fire Kick, Speed Attack, Spinning Fire B-Ball, Head Spring Kick
SORIA - (Belgium) He is the world kickboxing champion.
Special Moves - Spinning Roundhouse Attack, Flying Kick, Double Drop Heel
ELECTRA - (France) Living on the streets taught Electra the hardest and greats rule of all - self-preservation.
Special Moves - Electric Body, Power Launch, Earth Power Energy, Electric Boomerang, Double Kick, Spinning Jump
FAKIR - (Pakistan) Exploring the inner mind and life force, Fakir has harnessed the power of ancient secret magical knowledge.
Special Moves - Genie Hurricane, Mystery Fire, Teleport, Magic Carpet
YURGEN - (Germany) Yurgen entered the tournament with an ongoing investigation in mind; Yurgen believes that one of the fighters is a murderer.
Special Moves - Gun Fire, Power Fist, Earthquake Fist
CODY - (United States) He is the Kuto arts master.
Special Moves - Kuto Kick, Fast Punch, Flying Powerball, Kuto Fireball
SALVADOR - (Spain) - Fighting on the streets of Madrid is how Salvador made his living, bare knuckle fighting against some of the greatest.
Special Moves - Spinning Powerball, Turning Flip, Flash Panther
KURY - (Tibet) - Kury is something of an enigma, preferring to keep his chequered history and private life to himself.
Special Moves - Power Smash Fist, Body Drop, Rock Roll, Spinning Fire Hand
TONI - (Italy) - Based in Florence, Toni teaches the fighting arts involving the secrets of fire.
Special Moves - Burning Uppercut, Spinning Fire, Flame Kick, Massive Uppercut
TOSHIO (Japan) - Last of the Japanese "Katu" Dragon Arts School students.
Special Moves - Fire Ball, Speed Dragon, Dragon Uppercut, Dragon Kick, Circle of Fire
OKURA (Japan) - An honorless and renegade samurai, like Kioya before he disappeared, Okura will kill for the right price.
Special Moves - Electric Sword, Spinning Blade, Thunder Power, Steel Sword, Teleport
TOP KNOT (Thailand) - An enigmatic character, Top-Knot is the Thai boxing world champion.
Special Moves - ?
YARADO (Mexico) - Born in the Mexican wilds, Yarado lived alone for many years meditating with the "old ones" to learn the ancient Aztec powe of the soul and how to channel with the inner force.
Special Moves - Electric Speed, Spirit Power, Electric Body, Turning Arms
MANX (Parts Unknown) - Lost in the wilds as a child, Manx was raised by animals who taught her the way of the tiger.
Special Moves - Fire Hands, Cutting Claws, Rolling Claw Slash, Tiger Pounce Attack, Falling Angel
KRHOME (Parts Unknown) - The volatile result of a DNA experiment, Krhome is out to prove he is superior to the human race.
Special Moves - ?
