Little Fighter 2

Little Fighter 2

Developer(s)	Marti Wong, Starsky Wong
Engine	PC
Platform(s)	Windows (98/ME/2000/XP)
Release date(s)	1999
Genre(s)	Beat 'em up

Little Fighter 2 (LF2; Chinese: 小朋友齊打交2) is a popular Hong Kong freeware PC fighting game for Windows and is the sequel to the game Little Fighter (LF1). Little Fighter 2 was created by Marti Wong and Starsky Wong in 1999, and released in a long series of updates.

The game supports up to 4 human players on one computer and a total of 8 characters using online play or computer-controlled opponents. Characters are controlled using the keyboard or a gamepad. All keys can be set via a configuration menu.

The game has a commercially released sequel, Little Fighter Online. In 2009, in celebration of Little Fighter 2's tenth anniversary, version 2.0 was released. The update fixed minor bugs and added a gameplay recording feature, a new stage called 'Survival', a browser toolbar that is not mentioned in the installation process and obstructive ads being displayed while the game is being loaded. Version 2.0a was released in late 2009, with only a bug fix.

Gameplay

In LF2, characters can be moved by pressing the respective up, down, left, and right keys. The defend, jump, and attack buttons are used to make the character perform an ability. Attacking another character causes the attacked player to lose HP (health points), represented by a red bar on the heads-up display. Each character also has special attacks that can be activated by pressing a certain combination of keys. Most of these special attacks use up MP (mana points), represented by a blue bar on the heads-up display.

Items may occasionally fall into the screen to assist players. Occasionally, a bottle of beer or milk may drop down from above, which can be drunk to restore health and/or mana. Drinking milk restores mainly health points, and a little amount of mana points. Drinking beer rapidly restores mana points, but does not restore any health points. Once a bottle of beer or milk is finished, the character drops it and the empty bottle shatters and disappears. There are also a variety of weapons that can be used in combat. These include knives, baseballs, baseball bats, hoes, crates, boomerangs, and boulders. All weapons take damage in combat and will eventually break.

Game modes

VS Mode allows human and computer players to fight each other in a setting of the player's choice.
Stage Mode, like in many classic beat-'em-up action games, allows the players to fight their way through five stages, with bosses here and there. You can choose a stage and difficulty at startup.
Championship Mode sets up a tournament bracket to determine a winner. You can choose to fight individually, or with a human or computer partner.
Battle Mode is a team-based mode involving two sides commanding mass customisable armies of computer players.
Demo Mode creates random teams of computer-controlled players, creating a zero-player game.

Difficulty can be set to Easy, Normal, or Difficult for all modes except demo. Additionally, "CRAZY!" difficulty can be unlocked when the player types in a secret code ("lf2.net") on the select player screen. The code can be used in VS and Stage Mode. There is also a small online game feature which enables you to connect and experience any of the modes listed above with another person via IP address (public IP), using port 12345. This only allows connection to one other computer.

Version 2.0 added Playback Recording, a new mode that allows for playback of recorded gameplay. It also added Survival Stage, a new independent stage in Stage Mode, in which players fight their way through as many waves of opponents as they can before they die. A new cheat code ("herofighter.com") was added in Little Fighter 2 v2.0 that refers to Marti Wong's new game 'Hero Fighter', and that also unlocks all the function keys in all modes, even in Stage mode.

Characters

There are twenty-four characters available, thirteen of whom are hidden and must be unlocked by a secret code. Third party characters are also available for download. Each of the characters have different abilities.

Template: The base of all characters. He has no special moves. He can be replaced by the bitmaps of a player's own self-made character.

Deep: A swordsman. Unlike the other characters, he has to be within close proximity of the enemy for his ranged abilities to reach their target. He is an exceptional melee fighter and can do devastating damage in close range. As a plus, Deep is slightly stronger than the other heroes, allowing him to throw objects such as knives, boulders greater distances. Deep attacks are mostly piercing (is not affected by armour) making him the perfect counter for armoured characters such as Knight, Louis, and Julian. His abilities include an upward slash, an aerial jump-slash, and a very powerful sword-combo. It is highly recommended you keep him at bay.

John: A magician who sends out magenta(purplish-pink)-coloured energy blasts and discs. He can heal himself, as well as others. He can create shields and energy disks which make him a defensive player. John's shield is by far the most powerful defensive move in the game, and is impervious to all attacks. It has the capability of causing damage and knocking back the unfortunate characters that run into it, and also reflects energy balls.

Henry: An archer. He attacks by shooting arrows, and as a computer will often run away to keep a distance on aggressors. When he plays a flute all the enemies near him levitate while their health steadily decreases. He has a Dragon Palm attack, which when used, pushes all enemies on the side he is facing flat on their backs. Henry is able to shoot piercing arrows which have unlimited piercing range, and is sometimes known to down whole armies with one shot. It is possible to shoot 5 arrows at a time, similar to Rudolf.

Rudolf: A ninja. He has the powers of duplication, and invisibility. He can also transform himself into enemies and use their special moves. He is a ranged character who throws shuriken. Duplication creates two copies of himself, each complete with the same moves as the original Rudolf, but they will vanish when knocked down. They will never backflip back onto their feet instead of being knocked down. The longer the clones survive, the "smarter" they get, meaning that if a clone manages to survive for more than a minute, it will begin to create its own clones and become invisible by itself. Invisibility affects all clones made by the character. It is possible to throw 5 shurikens at a time, similar to Henry.

Louis: A fighter who wears armour to prevent damage to himself, though it has its own drawbacks, evident in his reduced speed. He has powers like Thunder Punch and Thunder Kick. He also has a power similar to Henry's Dragon Palm, (called Phoenix Palm in Louis' case) which creates a shock wave and pushes opponents back on both sides, also damaging them. He can pick up opponents, swing them, then throw them into other enemies. Louis's armour has a one-hit protection (in comparison to Juliens 4 hit protection), meaning that if he is hit once, it will not have and subsequent effect. However, if he is hit more than once in succession, he will become vulnerable to attacks. Louis can transform into LouisEX, and by doing, so he creates an explosion which sends his armour flying in different directions and transforms his chest armour into a spear. This process is impossible to stop.

Firen: Controls fire. He can throw balls of fire, explode, damaging anyone nearby, excluding only himself, and use Blaze (a move where he sets his body on fire and runs, leaving a trail of fire behind). He can also blow fire out of his mouth. Firen's attacks will injure his teammates if they are touched by a flaming body of an enemy. His attacks are particularly affective against armoured heroes (fire overcomes armour with ease). He can fuse with Freeze to form "Firzen".

Freeze: Controls ice. He can create whirlwinds and icicles sprouting from the ground. His Ice Blast travels very slowly, and he can also summon a sword made of ice, which will freeze anyone it damages. If Freeze's hand, Ice Blast, or ice sword comes in contact with energy blasts from some of his opponents, most blasts will turn to ice and reflect back to the creator. Freeze has one of the fastest melee attacks, comparable to that of Dennis's. If played properly, Freeze can keep an opposing hero knocked down for a whole round. He can fuse with Firen to form "Firzen".

Dennis: Strikes others through kicking with kick-based attacks. He can throw blasts of energy, which are similar to Davis' energy blasts except they use less MP and do less damage as a result. Also like Davis' blasts, they will divide into three directions. He can also create a chasing blast (with a strong impact which causes an opponent to falter when hit while blocking), which will chase the opponent and hit him/her. An obvious drawback is that if the opponent is successful in reflecting the homing attack, the attack will then proceed to stalk Dennis instead. His final ability is a combo-kick attack. It can hit multiple enemies. Dennis's basic attack does a very high amount of damage.

Woody: Has the energy of the tiger. He can teleport himself to friends or enemies. His Tiger Dash move is rarely stopped once started. He sends out energy blasts in waves and can kick in different ways. He is best for linking attacks together and possesses great agility to set up combos. Woody has a very fast disabling attack (backflip kick), and is great for close range combat).

Davis: A boxer that uses punch-based attacks. He is a good close-combat character, though his ranged attacks divide into three directions, just like Dennis' bolts. His Dragon Punch causes a lot of damage and is rarely intercepted. Capable of a great combo that, when executed correctly, can reduce the opponents hp by as much as fifty-percent. Davis's attacks deal large amounts of damage.

Through a special code (lf2.net), the characters Julian, Firzen, LouisEX, Bat, Justin, Knight, Jan, Sorcerer, Monk, Jack, Mark, Hunter, and Bandit are unlocked. This has to be entered every time Little Fighter 2 is opened to activate/deactivate the characters. This code will be revealed when a player beats the 'Difficult' difficulty in 'Stage Mode'.

Bat: Named after his ability and association with bats. He has an eye laser, a speed punch which can be used to dodge attacks as well as to surprise the enemy, and an attack by which summon bats to track down the enemy and damaging them, disappearing as they do.

LouisEX: The fastest fighter in the game. He can fire five-hit Dragon Palm combo if he has maximum mana. When he runs, his spear will damage people he touches, and he's got a useful knockback attack. He also has a very powerful combo, however, it can only be interrupted if he takes damage. Louis can turn into him, trading armour and a few abilities for LouisEX's one abiltiy, speed, and spear.

Firzen: A user of fire and ice which proves to be a deadly combination. Shoots a long, powerful laser. Very mana-damage effective. Shoots gold energy into the sky, raining down fire and ice, which will seek targets. Firzen can explode, sending icicles in all directions and causing massive damage to anyone close to him. This also creates a small amount of ice/fire rain. This mega-powerful attack takes a while to charge and uses a lot of mana. When Freeze and Firen fuse, they'll turn into Firzen. When he blocks, most energy bolts are reflected, similar to Jan.

Julian: The most powerful fighter in stage mode. You'll fight him as the boss of stage 5–5. He has armour which is able to block both fire and ice, and boasts a set of powerful basic attacks. Has an attack similar to Davis', however, it is a lot weaker. Sends multiple bolts of purple and pink skulls, seeking enemies. Can shoot energy into the sky, damaging anyone near him heavily and flinging them into the sky. Finally, he can shoot a very large bolt that is stoppable only by Henry's powerful arrow, Louis/LouisEX/Henry's wave attack, and John's energy disc/shield, or finally, Firzen's "Firzen canon move. It is unblockable. Very likely the most powerful character in the game.

There are also nine common enemy characters that players will fight throughout 'stage mode' who include Bandit, Hunter, Mark, Jack, Monk, Sorcerer, Jan, Knight, and Justin.

Bandit: The most common and worthless character in the game. He has no special moves and is restricted to close combat fighting.

Hunter: A far-ranged character who uses a bow and arrows to fight. He lacks close range capabilities.

Mark: A bodybuilder who does a great amount of damage in close range. His attacks include a nearly undefendable shoulder charge, and his basic attack is a miniature combo.

Jack: A fighter who uses both his Energy Blast and Flash Kick to make him able to fight in both close and far range.

Monk: A Shaolin monk who is able to do his signature Shaolin Palm to hurt multiple enemies.

Sorcerer: Has abilities similar to John, Firen and Freeze; he has a fire and an ice blast, and has the ability to heal himself and his team members.

Jan: The only female fighter in the game. She is able to create devils that strike the enemy from above and angels to rapidly heal teammates. When she blocks, most energy bolts are reflected, similar to Firzen.

Knight: A well armoured fighter with class-2 armour. He does not have any special moves and is quite slow, but his brute force makes up for this. Once his basic attack starts, it takes a while to stop, making it easy for an experienced player to get behind him and kill him.

Justin: Julian's minion who uses dark energy similar to Julian. He looks very similar to Julian, but is weaker. Justin's attack include a weak energy blast that has a very short range, but will knock you far back unless blocked. He can also use a fairly strong three-punch ability.

Reception

CNET Download.com rated Little Fighter 2 four stars out of five.^[1] The November 2007 edition of PC World magazine described the game as addictive and easy to play.^[2]

Legacy

Hero Fighter is a free web-based fighting game created by Marti Wong. This game is still under development but an alpha version was released in the end of July 2009. This game is created solely by Marti Wong.^[3] The game has seven characters: Drew, a boxer good at close range; Lucas, a swordsman who is a balanced all-rounder; Shawn, an archer; Jenny, a defensive spear-wielding fighter (introduced in Version 1.04); Gordon, a mid ranged axe-fighter (introduced in Version 1.05); Jason, a boomerang and dagger thrower; and Taylor, a magician specialises in healing and creating clones.

References

External links

Little Fighter series

Little Fighter Little Fighter 2 Little Fighter Online