Learn the Rules
By J.N. Cobb
It takes more than toughness or smarts alone to become aFight Club™champion—it takes a heap of both. Here are a few rock-solid ideas to help you stay alive and intact long enough to become a major player in this underground society of butt-kicking, trash-talking, red-meat-chomping American males. All you need to do is pick a character, select a fighting style, and come out swingin'.
Use your best moves online.
Offense
As you work your way up the ladder and beat down the opposition, you earn character development points. You can then spend these points to improve any of your character's stats (strength, endurance, speed, and technique), but you should not spend a single point until you've considered what you have to work with.
Strength levels determine how much damage you do. Endurance affects how much of your life bar you lose when you're hit and how fast you recover. Speed is how quickly your character moves, strikes, and defends, and the higher your technique number, the more combos you have available. Match your fighter's chosen style to the stats, so that you're getting the most out of every move.
For your brawler, concentrate on strength and endurance first to make sure he has what it takes to go toe-to-toe and come out on top. Grapplers need high endurance and good technique to compensate for their relatively slow speed. Kung Fu characters should pump up technique to open up as many long combos as possible as well as increasing their speed, so they have adequate time to execute their moves. Improving any stat will help any fighter, but you'll be working extra hard if you don't play to your existing strengths from the beginning.
Remember that you can customize the controls and map your favorite, most devastating combos to the black and white buttons. If your technique stat is high enough and the right combo is only a button press away, you have a much better chance of surprising your foe and putting some serious hurt on him.
No one laughs at a winner.
Defense
In an offense-heavy game like this, defense is even more important than it seems. Blocking and dodging keep you from taking damage, but they also let you control the rhythm of the fight. As long as your hits are scoring, and his aren't, you're doing something right.
Watch the incoming fighter's blow to pick the right area of your body to block. You'll need to use the right trigger and the D-pad to specifically protect your feet, head, or midsection. Blocking is also the first step in counterattacking, which morphs defense right back into offense in one simple step.
Timing is crucial, as you have to hit block and the D-pad precisely at the same time that the attack is launched. It's tricky, but the reward (a painful animation, a sickening sound effect, and a big chunk of lost life for them) is worth the effort it takes to master the move.
Also remember that there are two kinds of damage: flash and real. Flash damage comes off your health bar immediately, but it grows back if you avoid taking any more damage. If you do take another hit, the flash damage becomes real damage and is gone for good, so don't be afraid to back off if you've taken one too many shots to the chin. Backing away from your opponent spoils his momentum and gives your flash damage a shot at healing up before it's gone.
Mr. Face, meet Mr. Car Door.
Fight Club is the classic example of a straightforward game with plenty of depth. Each fight online is different … and not just because of the broad spectrum of competition. The more familiar you are with your character's abilities, the better you'll be able to use them in the ring. And, the more time you spend in the ring, the more familiar you'll be with your moves. You may lose a created character or two to a serious injury once you take your hardcore fighter online, but it'll be worth it because it will make you a better fighter.
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