Overview
Little Fighter 2 is a freeware PC beat 'em up game made by Marti Wong and Starsky Wong in 1999, as a sequel to Marti Wong's Little Fighter from 1995. The game received significant post-release support through 2008, when a version 2.0 was released celebrating the game's 10th anniversary.
The game features up to 4 human-controlled players, customizable control configurations on either keyboard or gamepad, as well as online play through IP addresses.
An official commercial sequel, Little Fighter Online, was released in 2004 as an MMORPG but did not garner the same sustained support or popularity.
Gameplay
Little Fighter 2 controls using 4 directional buttons and 3 action buttons; attack, jump, and defend. Basic controls available to every character include running, dashing, rolling, and grappling. Through combinations of directional and action buttons, character specific skills can be used. These moves consume MP, which is shown by the blue bar, while the red bar is HP.
There are 4 difficulty settings that can be set to the AI: Easy, Normal, Difficult and CRAZY!.
Items will often drop and can be used as weapons. These range from melee weapons such as bats and scythes, to small projectiles like throwing knives and boomerangs, to larger throwable objects like rocks and wood boxes. In addition, bottles of whiskey (white) and beer (amber) are used to replenish HP and MP, respectively. Any weapon, including bottles, can be thrown at any time by running and pressing attack..
Finally, players can give simple commands to AI teammates, which are depicted by a speech bubble: "Come", "Stay", "Move".
Game Modes
There are 5 game modes in LF2 that are accessed by the in-game menu.
- VS. Mode: Up to 8 fighters battle in Free-For-All or Team Battles, where winner is the last man/team standing.
- Stage Mode: Up to 8 players battle through 5 stages, each with 5 rounds. Each round features a number of waves of enemies, culminating in boss battles near the end of each stage.
- Championship Mode: 16 character, single elimination tournament mode. Can be played 1v1 or 2v2 (8 teams of 2)
- Battle Mode: 2 team custom VS battle where team composition, reserves, items, defensive multipliers and handicaps can all be selected for each side, and each battle ends when all enemies are defeated.
- Demo: Spectator mode, where 8 CPU controlled fighters face off in 2 teams.
Version 2.0 added a Survival mode, which is a version of Stage mode with endless waves of progressively more difficult enemies
Characters
Little Fighter 2 features 11 main playable characters, with 13 hidden character that appear in Stage and Battle mode. Every main character possesses a basic range projectile, basic combat associated with their weapon (or hands), and an array of skills that define their character. Users can also add custom characters on their own.
Main Characters
Deep: Fast, strong swordsman with good melee abilities, but has limited, weak range. Main attack is a dashing strafe, a forward charging sword combo that is hard to counter
John: Defensive mage that can make magic shields and heal both himself and others. Weak melee abilities. Main attack is an energy disk, which orbits around and cuts through enemies multiple times.
Henry: A bard/archer that fires arrows which can stun enemies. Can play flute to float and lull enemies. Has strong array of ranged attacks, but is vulnerable to close combat and armored foes. Strongest attack is critical shot, a charged bolt that is the strongest projectile attack in the game, capable of blowing up Julian's Bomb and Firzen's cannon.
Rudolf: A fast moving ninja that fires ninja stars. Capable of turning invisible, teleporting, and creating duplicates of himself. Since his duplicates are quite weak and his skills are all MP-heavy, Rudolf can be fairly weak in most situations. Like Henry, his ranged combat means he is weak to melee and armored foes
Louis: Slow but armored. Can be awkward to control, but has a good balance of melee grapples, ranged palm strikes, a charged dash attack and a flying kick. At low HP, he can shed his armour to transform into LouisEX.
Firen: Fire mage, can run a blazing path that burns any enemy that makes contact with it, or create an explosion. Enemies caught in flames can spread fire to burn nearby foes and even allies.
Freeze: Ice Mage. More defensive in nature, Freeze can create ice walls and blizzard storms, as well as ice swords that freeze any enemy they hit. Any straight-line projectile aimed at Freeze can be repelled by melee strike or ice sword and turned into an offensive ice ball. With enough HP, Firen and Freeze can run into each other (literally) to create Firzen. Upon separating, both characters will have their HP halved.
Dennis: Lean fighter, reliant on kicks and homing energy balls. Signature move is a spinning flying kick that moves and attacks endlessly until stopped. His attacks are rather underwhelming compared to others so he is reliant on speed and combo attacks.
Woody: Grizzled, veteran fighter who has a good balance between power, mobility, and range. Combines flexibility and versatility with unmatched style.
Davis: Strong melee fighter with powerful combos. His dragon punch is a punishing rising blow, and leaving the enemy vulnerable to devastating follow-up attacks. Davis is the main protagonist in Little Fighter lore.
Template: Weak, featureless transparent character with no skills or particular abilities. Used as the base for all other characters.
Hidden Boss Characters
Julian: Final end boss character of Stage 5 Round 5. A giant evil shaman-type character with outstanding melee ability and naturally strong defense. Capable of delivering massive Bomb projectiles (as strong as any projectile in the game), towering vertical energy blasts, and overwhelming homing spirits. His dashing attack is also supercharged and temporarily impervious.
Firzen: End boss character of Stage 4 round 5. Also appears as a boss character in Stage 5 round 4. Firzen combines Firen and Freeze's abilities into an overwhelming force. His projectile sends a firework of homing ice and fire balls that seek any enemies. Has an enhanced version of Firen's explosion, and cast a powerful cannon that is virtually unstoppable.
LouisEX: End boss character of Stage 3 round 5, also appearing as boss in Stage 4 round 4, and Stage 5 round 3. Upon defeat in 5-3, he will ally with the player until the end of Stage 5. LouisEX is the transformed Louis, triggered by shedding his armor at low health. He has a powerful spear making him unmatched in close combat, and pierces opponents even while running, allowing him to trample over groups of enemies. His dashing attack is supercharged, and he is capable of firing powerful palm waves continously. Fastest runner and attacker.
Bat: Sub Boss, appearing at the end of Stage 5 round 2. Upon defeat, he will join the player until the end of Stage 5, or until he is defeated. He can unleash swarms of bats on enemies and fire piercing lasers from his eyes.
Hidden Extra Characters
Bandit: Basic enemy, has no abilities similar to Template.
Hunter: Basic archer, but otherwise just as weak as bandits.
Mark: A strong physical fighter who can run over characters with a shoulder tackle.
Jack: A versatile fighter that can fire energy projectiles and do a flipping flash kick.
Sorcerer: A hooded magician that shoots fire/ice balls, and can heal himself or others. First appears in Stage 2.
Monk: Durable Shaolin that can push enemies with a shockwave palm wave. First appears in Stage 3.
Jan: Female magician who conjures honing dragon projectiles and summons angels to heal allies. First appears in Stage 4.
Knight: Heavily armored knight, whose shield and armor provide tremendous defense, and sword provides exceptional close combat capability. Moves slowly. First appears in Stage 5.
Justin: A smaller version of Julian, who can use a fast, short, energy blast and a special melee punch. First appears in Stage 5.
Cheats
Typing lf2.net during the initial load screen unlocks the 13 hidden characters for regular use.
During VS. Mode, various cheats and shortcuts can be accessed by using F1-F9:
F1 - Pause the game
F2 - Activates Slow Motion
F3 - Disables cheats. Mainly for online or competitive play.
F4 - Exit game
F5 - Speeds up game
F6 - All players have infinite MP
F7 - Refills all characters MP and HP, reviving any defeated characters.
F8 - Drops objects
F9 - Destroys all objects on the ground
If infinite MP is turned on, Rudolf becomes by far the most overpowered character, capable of cloning himself quickly countless times and turning them all invisible with ease.
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