The N64’s early life was filled with disappointing arcade ports, but Dark Rift was the N64’s first fighting game that was specifically created from the ground up for it, so you would expect this to be more suited for home consoles, building upon what Killer Instinct Gold did. Unfortunately, this is another bare bones fighting game.

One thing that did impress me with the game was how well the flat square round and the 2D backdrop merged together, creating a more fluid looking environment – even if it made the levels feel like they took place far away from the distant objects. You have tournament mode and practice, and that’s it. The practice mode is also more basic than Killer Instinct.

The characters aren’t very memorable, but also aren’t as dreadful as War Gods, with a few interesting ideas. The actual fighting has special moves, which are often slow-moving projectiles which can be easily avoided by dodging (while the game never brags about being 3D, it works similar to War Gods). The main trick seems to be the c-buttons and mashing these and blocking at the right times seems to be the way to win.

While incredibly bare bones, this is slightly better than War Gods simply due to the characters being fine. For something specifically built for consoles rather than arcade, it still feels like just another poor arcade port.

Poor

There’s no spontaneity. Try doing a series of moves that haven’t been programmed as one of your character’s combos and they’ll merely be an embarrassing, does not compute pause.

Jonathan Davies, N64 Magazine #8. Review Score: 69%

Remake or Remaster?

It doesn’t really deserve anything. Pico Interactive own the license, so that ensures we won’t get more than a terrible re-release.

Official ways to get the game.

Dark Rift is available on GOG and Steam, however reports from players indicate that it doesn’t run on Windows 10 or 11.