| One Must Fall: 2097 | |
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Official box art of One Must Fall: 2097 |
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| Developer(s) | Diversions Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Epic MegaGames |
| Designer(s) | Rob Elam |
| Platform(s) | PC (MS-DOS) |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Mode(s) | Single-player Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | OFLC: G8+ |
| Media/distribution | Floppy disk CD-ROM download |
| System requirements
386 or greater processor |
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One Must Fall: 2097 is a combat-oriented computer game for all IBM-compatible computers, programmed by Diversions Entertainment. It has a sequel, One Must Fall: Battlegrounds.
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Originally released in beta form on May 18, 1993,[1] while later released in full form a few times sometime in 1994 by Epic MegaGames, One Must Fall: 2097 replaces the human combatants typical of contemporary fighter video games with large Human Assisted Robots (HAR). These HARs are piloted through a physical and mental link to the human pilots; however, this is merely a plot concept, and it is never shown on-screen, neither does it factor in to gameplay. Eleven HARs and ten customizable pilots are available for play, along with five arenas and four tournaments. The pilots vary in strength, speed and endurance, thus the many HAR/pilot combinations allow for large replay value.
Unlike in most fighting games of its time, the arenas (except one, the Stadium) contain hazards. For instance, one arena features spikes coming out of the wall that can damage your robot, and one has a floating sphere that, when struck, triggers a fireball from the floor under your opponent.
The game has two main play modes: One-Player Mode, in which the company that markets the robots, World Aeronautics and Robotics (WAR), is holding a competition among its employees to decide who will be selected to oversee the establishment of the first Earth base on Jupiter's moon, Ganymede. The second mode is Tournament Mode, set three years after the first tournament, where HAR battles have become the premier source of entertainment for Earth and you, a new competitor, must win prize money to improve your machine and ultimately become the World Champion.
The game was later patched to include multiplayer support. On February 10, 1999, the game was declared freeware by the developers.
The ten pilots available in Story Mode are:
The ten main HARs and their features are:
The eleventh HAR, the Nova, is the final battle in story mode, and is only playable in tournament mode (or through a special cheat on the player selection screen in story mode). It is equipped with heavy missiles and grenades, and is by far the tallest of the available robots. Each HAR has three special attacks that can be discovered (except for Shadow and Nova, who both have four), along with a "scrap" and "destruction" move (similar to fatalities in Mortal Kombat) that can earn bonus points and, in some cases, unlock secrets.
Using destruction moves in the tournament mode in the higher difficulty levels sometimes results in the player being challenged by an unranked opponent. Defeating that opponent and using a destruction move on their robot occasionally yields secret components which can be installed on the players HAR, significantly improving the effectiveness of certain special moves and sometimes adding new ones.
Secret challengers include Jazz Jackrabbit, Devan Shell, and Eva Earlong, the hero, villain, and damsel-in-distress respectively, of the Jazz Jackrabbit videogames, also published by Epic Games around the same time.
In the shareware version:
In the full version:
Rob Elam, and his brother Ryan Elam [1], developed the entire video game, with exception to the sound system and the music. Even the sound effects were created by Ryan Elam.
Credits as shown from the Outro:
(Kenny Chou was also known as CCCatch from the demoscene[2]).
The music was created by Kenny Chou (a.k.a. C.C.Catch) from the PC demoscene, who was a member of the group Renaissance. The music was done with Scream Tracker 3.0.[2]
An early freeware beta was released of this game simply titled One Must Fall, featuring two characters who greatly resembled Ryu and Ken of the Street Fighter series.
Different versions of the game had varying CPU AI flaws. Example: certain versions had all AI opponents not guarding themselves against a Shadow's or Thorn's special moves.
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