Fight of Gods is an independent fighting game currently in early access on Steam. Players pit deities like Buddha, Odin, and Jesus against each other on a virtual battlefield. The game’s tongue-in-cheek nature has quickly endeared it to the fighting game community, who are embracing the in-development title and learning what makes it tick.
Fight of Gods’ foundation is pretty basic. Every character has three normal attacks—light, medium, and heavy—as well as a dedicated throw button. Each character also has a unique Divine Power. Moses, for instance, receives a sizable speed boost, while Amaterasu gains access to a special projectile that can help extend combos.
While its core is strong, the mechanics have some wobbles. Similar to games like Marvel vs. Capcom, normal attacks can be chained together as long as they increase in strength (e.g. light-medium-heavy, medium-heavy, light-heavy). Oddly, this doesn’t seem to work that well with some characters, even though the mechanic is universal. Specials, which are activated with Mortal Kombat-esque inputs, also have quirks of their own, like switching sides at inopportune moments.
The fighting game community has a name for these types of games: kusoge. A term borrowed from Japan that literally means “shit game,” kusoge are beloved for their jankiness instead of reviled. While there aren’t hard and fast rules for what constitutes kusoge, Fight of Gods’ faults meet a lot of the typical requirements.
No damage scaling? Check.
Dropped inputs due to poor frame rate? Check.
Touch-of-death or infinite combos for just about every character? Check.
Nevertheless, players are still having a hell of a good time figuring out what they can do in the Fight of Gods system. Some, like Dawn “Yohosie” Hosie and Mike “MikeMuscles” Murphy, are developing new strategies on a regular basis, many of which resemble tactics used in more popular fighting games.
There’s no doubt the fighting game community is a passionate bunch, and their response to Fight of Gods has distilled the scene’s thirst for discovery to its purest form. This odd release may never be part of a major tournament lineup or have a huge purse up for grabs on Evo’s main stage. But over the past few days, social media conversations about a fighting game featuring Jesus freaking Christ has rivaled that for Street Fighter V. Fight of Gods furthers the horizon, giving players a new world to explore where simply learning is the greatest treasure.
Well, until netplay is implemented and players can catch these stigmata online.