Body Blows

Body Blows
Developer(s) Team17
Publisher(s) Team17
Designer(s) Martyn Brown, Cedric McMillan JR., Danny Burke
Platform(s) Amiga, CDTV, DOS
Release March, 1993
Genre(s) Versus fighting game
Mode(s) Single player, Multiplayer

Body Blows is an Amiga versus fighting game. It was released in 1993 by Team17.[1] The game is compatible with all Amiga systems, including the CDTV system with joystick support. It was followed by Body Blows Galactic and Ultimate Body Blows. A version for DOS was also released. The game has a lot of similarities to Street Fighter II, for example, both had two characters with projectile, rising uppercut and spinning kick special moves and played identically (as with Ryu and Ken).[2]

Gameplay

The gameplay mostly follows the typical formula of the Street Fighter series, in that the player competes against each opponent in best-of-three matches. Each fighter has their own set of standard attack moves and special moves. Due to most Amiga joysticks of the time having one single fire button, the controls for special moves are largely simplified: one special move per character is performed by keeping the fire button pressed while holding still, while others are performed by moving in one of the eight directions and pressing the fire button. Unlike Street Fighter and similarly to other games such as Mortal Kombat, blocking is performed by holding the fire button while moving away from the opponent.

One characteristic gameplay feature is that, when an opponent is knocked down, the fire button of the other player is locked until the opponent gets back up and moves. This mode was labelled mercy when it became optional in versions of the game following the original Amiga retail release.

There are three modes of play in Body Blows:

  1. One Player (Arcade mode). This mode involves the player selecting a character to battle opponents until they face a battle with MAX
  2. Two Player. This mode allows two players to take control of joysticks and fight each other using a character they desire
  3. Tournament. This mode lets four or eight players to play a tournament against each other

Characters

There are 11 characters in Body Blows. In one player mode the player can choose to play as 1 of 4 characters, Danny, Junior, Nik or Lo Ray. In other modes, players can select from 10 of the characters in the game.

Main Contenders

Other characters

Boss characters

Technical information

Body Blows is compatible with Amiga 500, 500+, 600, 1200, 2000, 3000, 4000, and CDTV systems. It requires at least 1MB of RAM and can utilise extra memory that's installed on the system. It has four channel stereo music, speech and sound effects. The game features full PAL screen scrolling at 50 Hz and 32 colour graphics. It cannot be installed to a hard drive.

Updated versions

Upgrade disk

In summer 1993, a few months after the game was released, Team 17 published an updated version of the program disk for Amiga computers. The update increases ingame speed, adds shadows to the characters and increases the selectable fighters in story mode to ten. It also includes a few gameplay tweaks, such as an option for not locking the fire button after a fighter is knocked down and allowing the time limit setting to also apply during the match against the T-17. This upgrade was only available for a fee to owners of the original retail version, who were required to send the original boot disk via mail to Team 17.[3]

Amiga AGA version

With the release of Ultimate Body Blows in 1994, an updated version of Body Blows was released for Amigas equipped with AGA chipsets, such as the A1200 and A4000. This version is installable to hard drive and includes all the updated features from Ultimate Body Blows, such as entirely redrawn backgrounds, slight changes in the movesets and the ability to stun the opponent. The sprites for the characters Dan and Junior were updated to the ones used in Body Blows Galactic.

Reaction

"The best beat-em up money can buy" - 91% - CU Amiga[4]
"Not as good as the console sf2, but it's a very close thing" - 87% - Amiga Format[5]
"If you thought Streetfighter II was the business, think again" - 92% - The One[6]
"A true corker of a game with undeniable influences" - 89% - Amiga Power[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Team17 official website with release details". Archived from the original on 2006-05-09. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  2. ↑ Dan Slingsby;(Jan 1993);Body Blows Preview in CU Amiga ;(Jan 1993);pp39-40
  3. ↑ "Updated review, CU Amiga, July 1993 (via Hall Of Light)". Retrieved 2017-07-18.
  4. ↑ CU Amiga review
  5. ↑ Amiga Format Review
  6. ↑ Amiga review
  7. ↑ Amiga Power review
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