Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus

Microsoft's Xbox isn't exactly filled to the brim with great fighting games, let alone exclusives.  There's Dead or Alive 3, and...well, not much else.  Microsoft already aimed for a hit with last year's Kakuto Chojin, which didn't gain a lot of praise, or, for that matter, sales.  Now they're trying to raise the bar with Tao Feng, an exclusive title from Studio Gigante - a new team that happens to be headed by the co-creator of Mortal Kombat.  And yes, the box art does proudly display that morsel of information.  Although Tao Feng's box art may be a little ugly, the game itself is not.  In fact, it's pretty darn good looking, sporting some very polished graphics.  But graphics don't make a game - how it plays determines how much fun it is.  And unfortunately, in Tao Feng's case, you'll probably find yourself cursing at the TV instead of staring in awe.

The storyline is actually fairly fleshed out and seems to have a lot of thought put into it.  To sum it up, there's a nation that has had two sects fighting over it for years: the Pale Lotus and the Black Mantis.  Each group has six characters, and each of their own backstories are quite detailed and tie into each other.  I only question some of the names: Fiery Phoenix?  Fierce Tiger?  There are even two characters with the names of Divinity and Divine Fist, respectively.  Granted, all of the characters do have real names, but these oft-silly titles are what you'll see on the character selection screen, during battle, and basically, just about everywhere.

The game has a few different modes.  For the single player, you have a Training mode, a Survival mode, and the main Quest feature.  Practice and Survival are pretty self-explanatory - one is there to help you play the game better, and the other is a simple mode where you face an endless barrage of enemies.  Quest is the deepest mode available, asking you to choose a team - either the Pale Lotus or the Black Mantis.  From there, you pick an individual fighter, and you face the six members of the opposing sect in an effort to win back pieces of a sacred treasure.  Each character has a rich backstory and there are lots of details to read about, and each fight begins with a long voiceover about the two characters and their relationship.  But once you actually begin playing, things drastically get worse.

The problems are apparent from the beginning - controlling your character can be a chore, and stringing together moves will look disjointed and sloppy.  It doesn't help that so many of the moves are overly complex and tricky to input.  Apparently the four main buttons control your punches and kicks, of two varieties: lead and trailing.  A trailing kick, according to the manual, is blockable with a lead punch, because lead attacks are quicker than trailing ones.  However, this isn't apparent when playing; I couldn't tell a difference in speed between trailing and lead moves.  Eventually, you'll probably just start mashing buttons due to frustration, and be done with it.

Another thing that Tao Feng needs to work on are combos.  Your opponent might be on the ground from a diving spin one second, and magically snap up to have punched you in the face the next.  This little problem will leave you vulnerable to many attacks, and it happens so quickly that it can be very hard to block.  Plus, lucky for you, once you're hit by the first punch of a combo, you're rendered virtually incapable of doing a thing.  There were definitely spots during combos were I know I would have had enough time to jump out of the way, or even stick in a lead attack to save myself, but my character was basically unresponsive until the combo was finished.

There are two notable additions that were probably included for innovative purposes, but they really didn't turn out all that well.  First of all is the idea of breaking your limbs during combat.  It's a good idea in theory - excessive attacks on your limbs might cause one to snap, rendering it useless for the rest of the battle.  Instead, Studio Gigante opted for a simpler system.  Basically, the more you block the more damage your arms receive.  When they receive so much, a small cutscene pops in to show your character squirming around on the ground, gripping their bruises.  Then a little notification pops up, informing you that punches do 50% less damage.  That's all.  You can still block with your arms, and punches look just the same as before - the only thing that changes is the amount of damage that punches do.  It's a little disappointing.  The other idea implemented into Tao Feng is the Chi Meter.  When you make successful contact with your opponent, this gradually builds up.  Once it's full, you can use your Chi power.  This Chi might do a few different things.  You can use it to repair your limbs, should they be damaged.  Or, you can try to use it to attack your opponent.  While it does a fair bit of damage and often looks pretty neat, half of the time, the attacks miss completely.  You can imagine how annoying it is to waste so much time building up this meter only to watch it drain for no reason at all.

As I noted before, Tao Feng's visuals are pretty impressive.  Environments look great, and there are tons of areas that shatter or break apart when someone is kicked into them.  There are even some nifty special effects shown off, such as rain while fighting on a rooftop, or a burning vehicle in the background of a street.  Characters themselves also look very good, made up of lots of polygons and outfitted with realistic fabric or armor.  You can even see the fighters collect some bruises and cuts throughout the match, which is a nice touch.  The only thing holding Tao Feng back from looking spectacular is the somewhat jerky animation, and it can be hard to ignore.

Sound could fare better, but it's not terrible.  The background music and opening theme song are at least fitting, although they won't stick in your head for hours to come.  Voiceovers aren't bad, though, coming off fairly naturally.  The only really annoying aspect is found in Quest mode - there's a character who talks in the beginning of every match about the two characters.  It's fine the first time you hear it, but it replays every single time you have to restart the match, and you usually have to listen to quite a bit of it.

Overall, Tao Feng is a disappointment.  Despite the good graphics, decent sound, and rich story, the gameplay suffers quite badly.  A few more months fine-tuning it could have made a real difference, and Microsoft might have had a real winner on their hands.  Great ideas are on the verge of being exploited, especially with the limb-damage feature.  Unfortunately, they're left ignored, and Tao Feng is yet another mediocre fighting game best left on the shelf.

Gameplay: 4.0

Tao Feng comes up short where it counts most, and it shows.  The game has a good blocking system, shoddy hit detection, and generally, weak controls.  Even the Chi meter and the limb damage ideas aren't implemented very well.  Frankly, it's just not that much fun.

Graphics: 8.5

If there's one area of Tao Feng that is pretty well done, it's the graphics.  All of the character models are top-notch, and the environments - which happen to be full of destructible areas - are very good looking.  There's some awkward animation, making things look a little odd, however.

Sound: 6.5

Sound isn't exactly a strong point of the game, but its okay.  The background music is fair, but nothing that'll have you humming it throughout the day.  The voice acting is pretty good, though - except for having to listen to that old man talk in the beginning round of every Quest match.

Multiplayer: 5.0

Tao Feng has your standard multiplayer modes not uncommon to most fighting games, such as versus and team battle.  There's also a Tournament mode, which tallies up points collected over several rounds of play.  There's a fair amount of things here to keep you and your friends busy.

Concept: 7.0

It doesn't aim to completely change the fighting game genre, but Tao Feng has a few interesting ideas up its sleeve.  There's the interesting limb-breaking feature, and it's obvious that a lot of work went into every character's backstories.

Overall:  5.5