Deadly Arts - The Worst Fighting Game 

Put a lot of time into this game. It looked better than a lot of the playstation fighters I played at the time. It just had bad pacing, clunky controls and frame rate issues. A few trivia tidbits I want to add: - You could unlock Gouriki by putting in the Konami code at the title screen. At the time, there was no code listing for Reiji, so kid me decided put the komani code in backwards to see what happens and it worked. - Reiji had the exact same moveset as Kai. - Reiji would transform into Hikari when his health was high, and transform into Yami when his health was low. He couldn't transform into Hikari on the first round, but he could turn into Yami at low health. - Hikari and Yami don't have a moveset. Instead, they use the moveset of the base roster characters, and you can cycle through them by pressing L and R. It's random though. - There were NO TRADES in this game, so a Double KO was impossible. - Doing the same move in repetition would slow it down to the point where it would be unsafe on hit. This game had stale moves before Smash. - 3 v 3 had a tag system, and you can choose which character you wanted to tag in first, but once you tag out a character, that character was gone from the fight for good. Also they all shared the same lifebar. - CPU never got penalty points after time out, and you did, even though you both did the same thing. - For some reason, CPU Serina was able to combo multiple strings together and do 60% damage. No explanation how. - In addition to boss stages, there's another hidden stage inspired by Kaiji, where you're two big titans fighting in a small scale city. There's a bunch of buildings and structures to break, and if you break enough stuff, you hear a sound and another stage is unlocked. Holding start at the stage select will turn the icons blue, and you can play in the infinite blue stage that you see in the intro.

This game is a fine example of ambition exceeding ability.

I had this when I was a child. Incredible music. Many of the stages have breakable walls. A lot of which are extremely hidden, revealing entirely brand new areas to fight in. I also had a thing for Miki and Azami. My CAC had a blue afro bleach white skin a red nose…and shorts. And yes, I have won…and lost by point decision.

For what it's worth, I definitely had a great amount of time playing CV: Judgment when the Wii still had its online service. Also "You're now the meat inside the Shaq and Ballz sandwich" is the best and worst statement I've heard this year.

Thank you for telling the truth to the public about International Super Star Soccer 64's real name.

My biggest problem with Deadly Arts (besides trying to get the diagonal input attacks and command grabs to work) was the create-a-fighter leveling system. After a point, you could spend hours fighting the same character to get one move and it would end up not being the move you want or you win and get nothing because your human-controlled fighter with punishable one-hit attacks can't get double Perfects in five seconds against a Level 10 AI with a full moveset.

I can relate so well to Matt's childhood fighting-game poverty. Was a big fan of arcade fighters and grasping at anything vaguely fighting-gamey on Nintendo consoles. Would be interesting to see stages like this in a new Tekken or Virtua Fighter. As a kid I loved how big the environments were, and the rare interactions you could get slamming an opponent into a wall or taking cover behind a low fence. It was actually so rare to be able to remap controls in a console game, and the character creator felt so revolutionary at the time. Fighter's Destiny will always be the best 3D fighter on the N64 but in comparison to Deadly Arts it could feel cramped at times. There is so much that can be done with 3D fighting games, hope to see more devs try out unique concepts like these games had in the future.

No matter how bad the gameplay was, the music was phenomenal, and for that, Deadly Arts will never be forgotten. And yes, it is currently on my playlist.

I have a weird history/fascination with this game. Back in the day, you could rent games from Blockbuster for X days with it cost more the longer you rented it for, family was flying over so my folks didn't want to focus on rented games while they where over so they let me rent a game for one night. I remember really enjoying that night of play and it took me over ten years to find this game again. Then my childhood memory failed me, but I still love this game. To me it's the definition of a kusoge fighting game, and I can't wait for it to show up one day in a mystery tournament main stage.

Graphics and character design actually look pretty solid.

I knew this day would come, eventually. Thank you, Matt, for hurting this game the way it hurt so many others.

I get that this game is bad…but I really love this game. This was one of my first experiences with a 3d fighter and I had a blast. The characters (well most of them) looked cool, and the stages felt dynamic. Also the music was such a head banger! Realistically if I were to rate this game today I would give it at least a 4 but my nostalgia fueled brain would bump it up to about a 6.5 out of 10. Also it had a create a fighter feature which was sooo cool! I never thought experienced that ad a kid in other games.

I USED TO FUCKING LOVE THIS GAME. When I was like 6 or 7 years old I played the shit out of it. When you're a kid you don't even think about what a good or bad game is you just play them and I loved this one. I think most of all the characters were really cool to me. It was probably one of my first N64 games I played after Mario 64. I must have just been drawn to the cool cover art and name cause looking back on it now is rough

No matter how bad a Konami game is, the music always slapps, they're just one of those game companies who knows how to put together great music. 😀

My dad got me this game for Christmas. It will always hold a special place in my heart

Merry Christmas Matt. I hope you didn’t get a bad fighting game as a gift.

What a coincidence. I was given this game as a Christmas gift alongside other eight N64 cartridges.

I'll scream it until I die, that I hope in 2023, Matt blesses us with either some new Flophouse Files, or new Gone Too Soon videos

I love that it specifies that Kyoya enjoys pursuing crime for his own purpose. Just making sure you know there isn't actually any heart-of-gold in there fighting to raise money to save an orphanage from greedy real estate developers or anything like that.

I'm so happy you singled out Sakai's theme, Heavy Rough. The Deadly Arts OST is really goddamn good and holds up incredibly well. The whole game's kinda stuck with me thanks to the combination of presentation and OST, even if the gameplay wasn't great. It's also the game I can trace my love of character creators back to; there may not have been many options to choose from, but that sure didn't stop me from spending most of my rental time making characters. 24 years on, I'll always wish it had the chance to become something more.

Happy Holidays M McM, your channel brings joy throughout the year and your fans appreciate the effort you put in. Do more Retronauts episodes!

This game was a guilty pleasure of mine when I was a kid, I rented it more times than I like to admit.

One of the few n64 games that got nice frame rate and not so blurry textures

Kensei Sacred Fist is notable in that it's probably the only fighting game so far, to include the Steven Seagull version of Aikido as a fighting style, including a legally distinct version of Steven as the default user of it(the roster is doubled with semi clones a la Tekken)

I actually love the look and aesthetics of this game, the massive stages (the blurry textures probably looked better on a CRT tv rather through emulation like in this video), the music is good, the character designs are decent enough and there’s plenty of modes (something that’s become increasingly rare in modern fighters). If this played closer to like, say, Fighter’s Destiny, it could have been a decent 3D fighter for the N64.

If you're serious about wanting to dethrone Criticom, I know of something that might do it. There was once a toy/console hybrid called the hyperscan, on which you had to scan collectible cards to unlock in game content, that came bundled with an X-Men fighting game. If you never bought any cards you could only play as the two characters they give you in the box, each with maybe three moves to their name. Cards only came in booster packs, so if you had a favorite X-Man you wanted to play, you had to just buy a bunch of packs and hope you get them. You also have to rescan your character card card after every single match in arcade mode. The sprite work is on par with that Dragonball Z Taiketsu, and to top it all off the game, like every other game on the hyperscan, was so bad it makes you wonder if anyone actually played it before release.

I don't play fighting games, but I love this series so much.

That's what is awesome about McMuscles' channel: Matt covers obscure titles at times. Merry Christmas, Mcmuscles!

It's good to see you are still well Matt. It's been so long since I checked in. I hope you a great 2022

Starts the video with Cyrax falling to his death. We're in for a good one.

Holy SHIT it's flying dragon getting mentioned! That shit was my jam

Put a lot of hours into this one as a kid, clunky, but not awful. A shame it was Konami, cause those are some solid character designs.

I'll always have a bit of a soft spot for this game. Put a lot of time into when i was younger. I boot it up every now and then just for the nostalgia lol.

First timer here…you give off early RU-vidr vibes. It’s fun.

Merry Christmas! Also, I remember having a blast playing this game with my siblings!

That's my first fighting game. Thanks God I was a kid because I would be super mad today having to play with this. It's sad because the visual and music was cool

Great vid as always! Any chance you'll cover Flying Dragon someday?

Merry christmas! Hope you review battle of the eras one day!

And now Christmas is complete. Always nice to see another one of these

6:53 Somehow signifying Konami with the Yugioh card of Kozaky fits too damn well.

i do sort of miss when we had more 3d fighting game attempts!

Merry Christmas Matt! I hope you have a wonderful day!

I've actually played this game during lock down and was preparing to use this and other 3D fighting games that kinda got lost in time. I find this game super fun. I'm still planning on going over my thoughts for it but this video will make a great reference too.

They should try remaking this to fix the gameplay issues as an anniversary edition or something. This game had some really interesting things going on. I love the 3d stages with realistic elements in the way & interaction.

Love you Matt, but you gotta put more respect on Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon when you bring it up. That's god tier N64

I remember having a lot of fun with this game. My friend and I spent a weekend building custom characters and then cooperating to see how we could explore and destroy the arenas.

Castlevania: Judgement did at the very least provide us with one of the best Bloody Tears arrangements of all time

Matthew Mister McMuscles, there are few people on Earth whose opinions about very bad fighting games I treasure quite as much as yours. Thank you for this terrible gift, and happy super holidays.

14:46 can't believe Matt knows about Pop Team Epic

I played a fair bit of this back in the day. I loved the idea of the character creation building up the moves list from nothing. By the time you complete your moves list and can actually use the character in other modes, it feels like you've earned the right to have them counted alongside the official characters (rubbing shoulders with such legends as Furry Collar Ryu, Pink Dress Girl, and Boob Window Waifu) But it was so limited visually, and the controls just felt so stiff and janky, and if it's not fun to play, what's even the point? Honestly I've played worse, but it ain't good.

"I doubt many of you are gonna be putting this on your current playlists" *Appears 3 seconds after I put that theme in my current playlist*

Matt, my God dude you make it so damn hard to make your videos just back ground noise for me to focus on cleaning up my bedroom when you got bangers like Chun Li's ex plus alpha theme in the background in the opening. I guess I'm just gonna put cleaning off for 18+ minutes.

You got to make a Kensei Sacred Fist (aka BuGi) review of it. Just by the fact that there's a Steven Seagal character in Douglas Anderson. Also: Kick ass soundtrack.

Great retrospective on an interesting fighter Matt, considering the only fighter I ever played on the N64 was Fighters Destiny. But it must be said, you just absolutely HAD to stick that damn Buck Bumble theme back in my head at 0:40 after it took years for me to get it out. Thanks soooo much :p

Merry Christmas Matt! This had better not be a present that anyone got today!

I just found your channel and instantly subscribed for this type of content. Please do more knock-off or random card games. One on Digimon card game from the 90s . Maybe even compare it to the modern Digimon card game. Just my two cents. Please do more

Omg! They used the version "Ronaldinho soccer"of International super star soccer 64. Im from Brazil and i Love the reference.

Can we get a looping video of that buck bumble with the front row dancers?

Merry Christmas, my fellow Canuck! I didn't know you were going to give us a present, though. Now I feel bad that I didn't get you anything :(

Using SFEX3 Ace's theme in the Create-A-Fighter segment, I see what you did there!

As soon as Kozaky made a cameo, I knew Ultima must have edited this one.

Matt I know you've mentioned Beast Wars Transmetals on T. K. O. Before, however the PS1 version and the blockbuster N64 version are two completely different games The PS1 version is a powerstone clone that I *remember* being fairly decent and it even had unlockable characters that were from the fucking BotCon transformers convention of all things Anyway I'd love to see you take a shot at that version, might be too "good" for this show even but hey I'll let you be the judge and step all over my nostalgia

Now I need Matt and Justin to play GASP with their custom characters.

Thank you! Merry Christmas 😊

Thanks so much for introducing me to Buck Bumble theme, I've been listening for it on repeat for several hours now.

Buck Bumble needs a sequel

merry Christmas matt!

Serina made me feel strange as a kid. Early neuron activation i suppose lmao

Merry Christmas Matt

I´ve been waiting for this one for a loooooong time :D

Holy shit I had this game as a kid. I honestly liked it but it was a bit hard

Merry Christmas, Matt McMuscles! 🧑🏼‍🎄🤶🏼🎅🏼🎁🦌

Watching the characters bounce in the select screen brought back my memory of the music. That's how good the music in this game is! I spent a lot of time messing with the create-a-fighter but never could quite figure out the system. Plus I think this was something I rented repeatedly until the store sold the cart as-is and by the time I bought it I was bored with the clunky mechanics (I bought BIOFreaks the same way). Kongoh (yikes that name) is dressed like he's a bouncer at Hooters, which to be honest would be an amazing fighting game backstory.

Another great vid. I wish I could capture your wit and delivery in regular conversations. I’d be so popular 😎

What a wonderful Christmas gift! Thanks Matt!

I truly hope to one day see "Fight Fever" (by Viccom, 1994, only for the SNK NeoGeo) on this section really soon!

thanks for the new episode Matt I hope you have a very Merry Christmas Xbox

Gigantic kudos for the Ronaldinho Soccer cameo

Damn Matt, this video helped me find Martial Champions. I remember seeing a fighting game in Arcades in the early 90s with a French blond dude with an annoying sparkling multi hit attack fighting outside the white house. However, I couldn’t recall the game’s name or developer. Damn, thanks.

i remember playing this and as a little kid i knew something was off with the gameplay but couldnt put a finger on it

Definitely need a Simpsons Wrestling episode. It definitely counts as a fighting game since there is no actual wrestling in it. Would also like to see Tao Feng and WWF In Your House, which is another fighting game with wrestling dressing Oh and that Justice League fighting game on the Genesis

All I want for Christmas, is a new episode

A thing I recall from playing this ages ago was that it was kinda hard to find info for it. It also had a character creator that was fine bit emulation usually messed it by the end or something.

I do enjoy the use of Flying Dragon music to close out the video.

Love when T.K.O makes cameos on T.K.O

I remember renting this game from Hollywood Video as a kid in ‘99 and being very unimpressed. The create-a-fighter kept me more entertained than literally anything else. I’m a sucker for customizing characters

I played this for like 20 minutes at my friends' house as a kid one afternoon but got cut short because we had to leave for some reason. I remember thinking the create a fighter mode was really cool & always wanted to go back & play the game a little longer but the problem was, I remembered the title of this game as "Art of Fighting" not "Deadly Arts". There IS an Art of Fighting game on N64 but it didn't have create a fighter so I've been very confused about this game for the longest time & almost convinced myself that I was making it up. Thank you for making this video because the mystery is finally solved...it's just a shame that the game apparently sucks ass.

hey i had gasp on my n64, i remember it for his character creation, i loved it, especialy the fact that to gain fightring skills for your character you had to fight the others guys and after winning against them you could choose a move for their move list to had to your character, and it's the only fighting game than i saw that, so for me it was a good game. thanx to you for this video and the nostalgia !!!

Kyoya looks like if a Worthikids character got buff

Merry Christmas

Watching the latest "Worst Fightin Game" while setting up my new arcade stick makes for a great Christmas.

Merry Xmas matt

Kai looks like a young Solid Snake!

Another hilarious video. Thanks again!

6:22 Exactly. I'm here to play some video games, not doing homework.

I have the softest of soft spots for this game. I know it's a mess, but it's the best kind of mess. Much like Hybrid Heaven, its Konami brethren. I would love for a talented indie studio to get their hands on this IP and make a fresh entry that fixes the problems with the original. I won't be able to watch the video until tomorrow, but I saw it pop up in my notifications and couldn't resist. Thanks for covering one of my favourite bad fighters on Christmas, Matt! 💙

You know, I just realized that, although you feature in your intro, you’ve never actually talked about Tattoo Assassins. Considering that it was never officially released, I can understand why, but I would love to see you dissect it, if not here then in one of your other series.

What a great video!!

Yep, we rented this a couple of times when we were tweens/young teens and it made an impression on us. Besides the first-gen create-a-character, it was "the 3D fighter you rented instead when you wanted to play Tekken or VF but all you had was an N64 at the time." Shortly after, we would actually have a working PlayStation and be able to play better 3D fighting games like Tekken 2, Soul Edge, Star Gladiator, and Rival Schools.

The lack of narrative elements feels impossibly anachronistic, like something out of the mid 80's, not the late 90's. I have no idea if that signals Konami having absolutely no confidence in it, or so much confidence in it they didn't feel the need to try.