War Gods (video game)

War Gods is a fighting video game originally released to arcades by Midway Games in 1996. Ports for the Nintendo 64, PlayStation and Windows were released in 1997. In the game, players control one of ten fighters who have been given great power by a mysterious ore that crashed-landed on Earth from outer space. The object of the game is to defeat all the other fighters to become the most powerful warrior on the planet.

War Gods
Developer(s)	Midway Games Eurocom (home versions)
Publisher(s)	Midway Games (Arcade, N64, PS) GT Interactive (Windows)
Platform(s)	Arcade, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Windows
Release	Arcade NA: 1996 PlayStation NA: 1997 EU: October 1997 Nintendo 64 NA: May 21, 1997 EU: November 28, 1997 Windows NA: June 30, 1997
Genre(s)	Versus Fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Cabinet	Dedicated 1-Screen Upright Cabinet, Deluxe 2-screen Cabinet
Arcade system	Midway V Unit
Display	Raster, 512 x 400 pixels (Horizontal), 32768 colors

The game was heavily influenced by Midway's Mortal Kombat series, and features controls similar to the Mortal Kombat games, as well as the series' signature fatalities. Unique to War Gods is the "3D" button, allowing users to use the background/foreground for additional attacks and evasive maneuvers. The game's graphics were created using a technology by Midway called "digital skin", which mapped photographs onto 3D models.

War Gods received mixed reviews, with particular criticism being directed at the game's character design and animations.

Gameplay

The game plays similarly to Mortal Kombat 4, using an almost identical button layout of high/low punches and kicks. The "Run" button was replaced with a "3D" button that, when held down while using other joystick and button combinations, allows the player to perform different attacks/evasions utilizing the background or foreground.[1] To prevent situations where opponents end up on different playing fields for prolonged periods of time, each character has a teleport move which moves them close to their opponent.[2] Just as in the Mortal Kombat games, players select a character and fight a series of opponents. War Gods also features combos which can be used through series of button presses. Like the Mortal Kombat games, the game has fatalities that are used to finish off opponents.[3]

Development

Released by Midway as the first of its new 3D software prior to the release of Mortal Kombat 4, War Gods was developed by a team led by Joe Linhoff and George Petro.[4] The arcade game utilized a hybrid of the hardware used for Cruis'n USA with a hard drive for data storage.[5][6] All the moves were recorded using motion capture with just two actors.[7] The in-game characters were created using a technology called "digital skin", which involved digitizing reference photographs of live actors and mapping them onto 3-D models.[8]

Developer credits include: Joe Linhoff (Project Lead, Systems Design), George Petro (Co-Lead, Game Play), Matt Booty (Systems / DCS2), Ed Keenan (Systems, DCS2), Jim Gentile (Art Direction, Character Design / Models), Jim Rohn (Lead Animator, Character Design), Dave Zabloudil (Background Designs, Models / Effects), Tom Brierton (Character Animation), Eric Kinkead (Additional Art), Vince Pontarelli (Music / Speech, Sound Effects), Jeff Morrow (Voice of Exor).[9]

War Gods was first unveiled at a trade show in March 1996.[10] In response to suggestions and complaints about the gameplay, several months were devoted to refining the game's programming, delaying the arcade release to the third quarter of 1996.[10]

War Gods adopted Mortal Kombat's fighting style, but was created independently and never achieved the success of Mortal Kombat. The game boasted a "3D button" that lets fighters dive around the ring, in a circular arc, as part of their attacks and defensive moves. The orbiting camera smoothly follows the fighters, working to maintain the left/right "fighting line" needed for coherent two-player joystick control on the arcade cabinet.

The Nintendo 64 version was delayed in order to tone down the difficulty level and add additional moves.[11] A Panasonic M2 version of War Gods was in development and slated to be one of its launch titles, but it never happened due to the system's cancellation.[12][13][14]

Plot

Many, many years ago, a spaceship carrying precious life-giving ore crashes to Earth. The chunks of ore scatter across the planet, and over the years, ten humans each find a stone of the ore, and are transformed into powerful beings, War Gods. And now, they are fighting each other to possess all the stones and become the ultimate super-warrior.[3] To do this the player must beat the other 9 fighters, and a clone of the character the player has chosen, before going on to fight the sub-boss, Grox, and the main boss, Exor.

Characters

• Ahau Kin - an evil high priest who, after having a vision, sent his slaves to their death diving into his tribe's sacrificial well to reach the Ore, before retrieving the Ore himself.
• Anubis - after uncovering a hidden burial chamber guarded by the Ore in the Valley of the Kings, his body was captured by the Ore and his soul was cursed to return as Anubis.
• CY-5 - a cyborg from the future implanted with the Ore by scientists who are unaware of the Ore's true power, CY-5 seeks additional Ore to achieve greater human consciousness.
• Kabuki Jo - a medieval samurai who seeks to master the power of the Ore after it causes him to slaughter his own men in a rage of fire and fury.
• Maximus - a gladiator who killed his opponent in battle and his masters, escaping with the Ore and fighting for all who have been enslaved.
• Pagan - a mistress of the black arts who finds the Ore, which increases her hunger for power and destruction.
• Tak - a stone idol brought to life by the Ore as the avenger of a lost civilization.
• Vallah - a warrior princess who stumbles upon a piece of the Ore while taking shelter during a storm; it transforms her into a Viking goddess who rules the realm of ice. Her physical likeness was portrayed by Kerri Hoskins, who portrayed Sonya Blade from early Mortal Kombat titles. [15]
• Voodoo - an evil Caribbean witch doctor who is killed and thrown into a swamp containing some of the Ore, which brings him back to life as Voodoo, god of the undead.
• Warhead - a former soldier who was the product of an explosion due to a failed attempt by the government to merge nuclear weapons with The Ore. His physical likeness was portrayed by Brian Glynn, the physical actor for Shao Kahn from early Mortal Kombat titles.[16]

Reception

Reception
Review scores Publication Score EGM 5.25/10 (N64)[17] GameRevolution D+ (N64)[18] GameSpot 6.1/10 (N64)[3] IGN 4.3/10 (N64)[8] Next Generation (ARC)[19] (N64)[20]

The response to War Gods was lukewarm. One of the biggest criticisms the game received was for its cast of characters. Computer and Video Games reported that while the arcade game was being exhibited at the 1996 American Coin Machine Exposition, showgoers believed that the character designs would hurt the game's chances for success.[1] Matt Casamassina of IGN called the character designs "uninspired",[8] while a reviewer for Next Generation called them "mildly embarrassing Ringling Brothers' character design".[19] Game Revolution, however, said the character designs were "pretty cool" and complimented the variety in the available fighters.[18]

The response to the game's graphics was mixed. Computer and Video Games had a positive impression of the in-game models with "digital skin".[1] Next Generation said the digital skin technique is genuinely innovative and different, but the end result is characters which look jagged, move stiffly, and generally lack the smoothness of the polygonal fighters seen in contemporary games like Tekken 2 and Virtua Fighter 2.[19] Commenting on the Nintendo 64 version, Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot called it "probably the first N64 fighting game to hit the market that actually shows off some of the power of this system."[3] However, most reviewers said the game makes poor use of the N64 hardware, citing choppy character animations, a low frame rate, poorly detailed characters, and slowdown.[17][18][21] Casamassina wrote that the while the digital skin textures were "initially nice", the "animation and terrible character design detract greatly from the whole experience."[8]

IGN said they were "pleased with the control in the game, but not overly excited by it."[8] GamePro remarked that "The 3D button, while innovative, really doesn't enhance the gameplay" and is too easily confused with low guard on the N64 controller.[21] Reviewers also commented that the game's controls were ill-suited for the N64 controller,[3][18] though Next Generation contended that the controls are more intuitive with the N64 controller than they were in the arcade.[20] The Nintendo 64 version was also criticized for having imbalanced A.I.[8][18] Reviewers highlighted the fact that the game plays very similarly to the Mortal Kombat games. Gerstmann commented that there was "just enough of the MK feel to give it familiarity" calling it "an interesting footnote to the MK legacy."[3] After seeing the game demoed at the American Coin Machine Exposition, a Next Generation writer said it was "the next step forward for Midway's Mortal Kombat series (though it's not technically Mortal Kombat)."[22] The magazine's later review of the game, however, criticized that too many of the fighters' moves are obvious parallels to moves seen in the Mortal Kombat series.[19] Sushi-X of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) likewise judged that the overt similarity to Mortal Kombat makes the game "horribly unoriginal."[17] EGM named it the 1997 "Game That Should've Stayed in the Arcades" in their 1998 Video Game Buyer's Guide, commenting that "an average arcade game doesn't make for a great home game, War Gods is no exception."[23]

Next Generation and Crispin Boyer of EGM noted that the Nintendo 64 version was actually enhanced over the arcade version, with faster gameplay, better anti-aliasing, and bosses which were tuned to present a more reasonable challenge, but both felt these enhancements were not enough to make the game good.[17][20] GamePro assessed that the game compared unfavorably, not only to the top tier fighting games on the Saturn and PlayStation, but even to middling N64 fighters such as Killer Instinct Gold and Mortal Kombat Trilogy.[21]

War Gods flopped in arcades, owing chiefly to limited distribution and unfavorable word of mouth.[24]

See also

• Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.
• Mace: The Dark Age
• Mortal Kombat 4

References

1. "War Gods." Computer and Video Games. May 1996. p.12
2. "War Gods". GamePro. No. 92. IDG. May 1996. p. 50.
3. Gerstmann, Jeff (June 3, 1997). "War Gods Review". GameSpot.
4. "Watch Out for War Gods". GamePro. No. 93. IDG. June 1996. pp. 102–4.
5. Major Mike; Johnny Ballgame (August 1997). "MK4: The Mortal Kombat Konversation". GamePro. No. 107. IDG. pp. 30–32.
6. War Gods at the Killer List of Videogames
7. "Gaming Gossip". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Ziff Davis (76): 32. November 1995.
8. Casamassina, Matt (May 29, 1997). "War Gods". Retrieved January 9, 2013.
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro8icXuBkP8#t=1195
10. Webb, Marcus (October 1996). "War Gods: A Change in Plans". Next Generation. No. 22. Imagine Media. p. 22.
11. "Midway Goes back to Drawing Board, Delays War Gods". IGN. January 6, 1997.
12. "Preview - Coming Soon - M2". 3DO Magazine. No. 10. Paragon Publishing. May 1996. p. 34.
13. "News - E3 '96: 3DO? - M2 Dream List". 3DO Magazine. No. 12. Paragon Publishing. July 1996. p. 4.
14. "Preview - Coming Soon - M2". 3DO Magazine. No. 12. Paragon Publishing. July 1996. p. 34.
15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SphAlVqDndk&list=PLZfaeGTZ03RUEZSap-17WtuvcULWq1zBI&index=4
16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovX9F10t7k8&list=PLZfaeGTZ03RUEZSap-17WtuvcULWq1zBI
17. "Review Crew: War Gods". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 95. Ziff Davis. June 1997. p. 43.
18. "War Gods". Game Revolution. June 6, 2004. Archived from the original on October 6, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
19. "God Awful". Next Generation. No. 20. Imagine Media. August 1996. p. 105.
20. "Finals: War Gods". Next Generation. No. 31. Imagine Media. July 1997. pp. 155, 157.
21. Scary Larry (June 1997). "Nintendo 64 ProReview: War Gods". GamePro. No. 105. IDG. p. 62.
22. "Virtua Fighter 3 Steals US Show". Next Generation. No. 17. Imagine Media. May 1996. p. 21.
23. "The Good the Bad and the Silly". 1998 Video Game Buyer's Guide. Ziff Davis. March 1998. p. 20.
24. "War Gods: Ten Gods You Don't Want to Make Angry". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 95. Ziff Davis. June 1997. p. 76.

External links

• War Gods at Eurocom
• War Gods at MobyGames