Two-dimensional fighting game Fight of Gods offends me deeply, but I wonder how religious people feel about it.

Fight of Gods is a 2D fighting game created by Taiwanese developer Digital Crafter and released by UK publisher PQube through Steam. As the name suggests, you can choose from a roster of deities and other prominent religious figures: Odin, Athena, Anubis, Guan Gong, Amaterasu, Sif, Zeus, Moses, Buddha, and Jesus.

Here’s a quick trailer:

I have to be frank, watching this game I can’t help but feel offended as this game callously makes light of that which I worship and cherish in my heart. I’m talking of course about 2D fighting games.

My whole life I’ve recited the scriptures of Mortal Kombat fatalities right down to the babalities. I’ve experienced states of spiritual bliss with Garou: Mark of the Wolves and paid penance for my transgressions with rounds of Shaq-Fu during which I took the Lord’s name in vain enough times to ensure real-estate in the sixth circle of hell.

As for Fight of Gods, the demos have a real ClayFighter vibe to it. That’s doesn’t have to be a bad thing, as ClayFighter was still kind of fun despite its whacked physics. But for a game that is essentially omnipotent forces colliding, they shouldn’t bobble around the screen like wads of Play-doh.

▼ To clarify I’m referring to the N64 ClayFighter. The SNES one would be too harsh.

I think when you make the characters gods, there really should be some earth-rattling physics going on. In fact, huge moves that shake the pillars of heaven should be the first priority in a god-themed fighting game – even if Buddha technically wasn’t known for delivering killer uppercuts.

As for the religious aspect, there doesn’t seem to be all that much for the devout to get worked up about. The developers appeared to have deliberately avoided offending certain faiths.

Jesus is rather gnarly as he fights with huge chunks of the crucifix still nailed to his hands, but that’s about it. He also seems to have fitted himself with a waistband of thorns to look even more badass. The game also boasts one of the best taglines I’ve heard in a while: “Jesus is back! And he’s cross!”

For better understanding of the religious point of view, let’s now go to the citizens of the second-least religious country in the world: Japan.

“Looks fun.”
“Is Jesus a god?”
“I’d play as Buddha.”
“Jesus? Pfft… Bring out Yahweh and Allah…or are they the same thing?”
“They don’t really move like gods.”
“Different religions fighting each other? That’s preposterous!”
“No Islam?”
“They couldn’t get a Japanese person to voice Amaterasu? lol”
“I like how gods fight by punching and kicking each other. lol”
“It moves all clunky like a smartphone game.”

In all fairness, the game is not completed, but I can’t imagine they will make significant changes to achieve the level of its namesakes. But if you want to try it, you can head over to their Steam page linked below and try out the early access version. Players can also recommend further characters to add. Satan seems like a glaring omission, unless they’re keeping him as the final boss.

It’s a shame though, as it seems there’s a lot of unused potential with this concept. Maybe they’ll follow the path of Street Fighter and really nail it on the sequel. Then, like Street Fighter, we’ll see Fight of Gods Toyota commercials and maybe even a Fight of Gods curry if they ever add Ganesha (another glaring omission) to the mix.

Fight of Gods is available for Windows PC on Steam
Early Access: 478 yen (US$4.40)
Regular Price: 798 yen

Source: Steam, My Game News Flash
Images, video: YouTube/PQubeGames