There has never been a better time for the fighting game genre than the 90’s. This decade produced more quality fighting games than any other and that is impossible to argue with games like Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, King of Fighters 98, Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Dead or Alive, Tekken and many other great tiles being released during those 10 years.
Savage Reign was released by SNK for the Arcades and the Neo Geo Platform back in 1995. It featured very detailed characters with great colorful graphics and the zoom effects that was now characteristic of SNK games at the time.
There isn’t much to say in terms of the characters and the plot. Both are quite ordinary and they lack anything original to offer, but the game shines for the gameplay mechanics due to the way that they implemented the multiple areas or fighting in what was known as a “two-way battle system”.
You could jump from one area of the stage to the other and throw your weapon against your opponent. Then you also had stages that provided interactive items that you could throw at the opponents and this made it even more enjoyable.
The gameplay itself is not very smooth and there is little room for combos. The characters feel stiff and clunky, but this is something that feels completely natural for gamers who are into SNK games like Art of Fighting.
Savage Reign is not a bad game at all and it does provide a very unique approach that was fresh back then. Any gamer who appreciates the fighting genre is going to find this to be worth checking out and the default arcade difficulty proved to be quite a challenge.
The game is available for Arcade, Neo Geo CD, PS2 and for the Wii.
Savage Reign Gameplay Video