One thing we don’t get a whole lot of on mobile is traditional-style fighting games, mostly due to them being tricky to control on the touchscreen with virtual buttons and no tactile feedback. However, developers Ranida Labs and AngryDevs have teamed up to put out a new fighting game built specifically with mobile in mind. It’s called Vita Fighters and following a soft launch period on Android it also made its way to iOS last week.
It features blocky characters that remind me of the old Virtua Fighter games and mechanics that have been simplified to make for an easier time using the touchscreen, but not so simplified that it loses its traditional fighting game feel. You still have full movement control of your fighters and the controls have been streamlined into just 4 buttons. A Light attack button that can also be double-tapped to produce a Medium attack; a Heavy attack that is stronger but slower to land; a Special attack button that can be pressed on its own or combined with the forward/down/backwards directions to produce various special attacks unique to each fighter; and an EX attack button that will unleash a super move if you’ve filled up your power bar enough.
Surprisingly this all comes together fluidly and it’s easy enough to link moves together to perform combos and mix in special attacks without any complicated rolling movements or charging on the d-pad. The virtual buttons can be moved, resized, and customized to your liking, and if you have a physical controller and would prefer that, Vita Fighters supports them with full button assignment customization for those too.
Traditional fighters are definitely a niche on mobile, but as someone who really prefers this style of fighting game over the more streamlined games like Marvel Contest of Champions or Injustice 2, I really appreciate developers that put out games like Vita Fighters. If you’re curious but aren’t sure if this type of game will be for your, Vita Fighters is totally free to download and play with no forced advertisements, only opt-in video ads for various bonuses. There’s already an impressive number of fighters to play with and stages to play on, but the developers have plans to add even more to the game as well as additional modes like a story mode and online multiplayer.
Oh, and did I mention that AngryDevs is just a single person who loves fighting games and has been crafting Vita Fighters as a passion project on the side for quite a while now? Pretty darn impressive. So give it a download for free and be sure to drop by the discussion thread in our forums to let everyone know what you think.
