Black Belt Challenge [Canceled] [GBA]

Fire Eaters: Zero Bandits is a vividly colorful beat-em-up with ten cartoon characters battling in lush visual realms. According to the company, " It's our endeavour to create a beat 'em up game which will overshadow most other games in this genre." Tall walls to climb indeed, but as one of the earliest fighters to be put on the system (production was in the works long before the new Spaceworld crop, and was known about even before Street Fighter 2 Revival), it's had time to get its moves down and separate itself from the average fighting din. Properly trained with killer moves and quick controls, Fire Eaters may prove its might when the masters finally enter the ring.

Features

• 11 playable characters
• 11 themed environments
• Four single player modes and two multiplayer modes
• Link cable support for two players
• Only for Game Boy Advance

The quest ahead is to fight against the world's greatest and most unpredictable fighters to take the ultimate prize -- the Book of Zero, a text with untold mystical powers. Ten warriors step up to the challenge, and the game's story will delve into the back-story of each gallant hero and dastardly villain. Only one may control the book. Then, and only then, will the tome unveil its mysteries.

This Game Boy Advance fighter looks like it's borrowing heavily from the familiar NeoGeo Pocket Color in its artstyle -- large, detailed, big-headed rendered fighters that animate with exaggerated motions. But the power of the GBA will be at work in Fire Eaters, as the fighter will feature highly animated backgrounds as well as multiple layers of scrolling to offer a nice illusion of depth. The game will also feature a strong computer AI routine to insure that the fights don't get predictable in the single player bouts -- but even then, it's a good thing that Fire Eaters will support the link cable peripheral so a real human player can get into the battle. The design will also have several hidden trinkets to uncover, including an art gallery to show off the artists' hard work.

Fire-Eaters does not have a publisher yet, but Lost Boys is working on resolving that right now -- we might be lucky enough to see a release by the end of this year. But we're realistic...if the game ever comes to see the light of day in the US, it'll most likely hit the market sometime in 2002.

-- Craig Harris

©2001, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved