Body Blows
| Industry | Video game development and publishing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1990 |
| Headquarters | United Kingdom |
| Products | Body Blows, Body Blows Galactic, Ultimate Body Blows |
Body Blows is a fighting game developed and published by Team17 in 1993 for the Amiga, with an MS-DOS edition launching the same year. Often likened to Street Fighter II, it was succeeded by the titles Body Blows Galactic and Ultimate Body Blows.
Gameplay
The gameplay structure mirrors the Street Fighter style, featuring best-of-three bouts against various opponents. Each character possesses both standard and special attacks, designed specifically for the Amiga's single-button joystick: executing one special move involves holding down the fire button while standing still, while others require directional commands combined with the fire button. Unlike some contemporaries, there are no combo sequences or throws. Defense is performed by holding the fire button and moving away from the adversary, differing from mechanics seen in games such as Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat.
A distinctive mechanic is that when a player falls, the opposing player's fire button becomes temporarily disabled until the downed fighter recovers—a feature later referred to as mercy, which was made optional post-launch.
Body Blows includes three distinct modes: a single-player arcade mode where users pick one of four fighters—Danny, Junior, Nik, or Lo Ray—to battle through challengers culminating in a fight against Max; a two-player mode allowing head-to-head matches; and a tournament mode supporting either four or eight participants.
The full character lineup consists of 11 fighters, with 10 accessible in multiplayer battles.
Release
Shortly after its initial release in summer 1993, Team17 issued an updated disk for Amiga systems. This revision increased game speed, introduced shadows for characters, and made all non-boss fighters selectable within story mode. Additional gameplay adjustments included enabling the fire button after a knockdown and enforcing a time limit during the T-17 boss fight. Retail customers could obtain this upgrade by sending their original boot disk to Team17 for a fee.
Amiga AGA version
In 1994, an enhanced version of Body Blows was launched for Amiga computers equipped with the AGA chipset (such as Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000), alongside Ultimate Body Blows. This hard drive installable edition incorporated elements from Ultimate Body Blows, including completely redrawn backgrounds, revised move sets, and opponent stun features. The character sprites for Dan and Junior were updated to those featured in Body Blows Galactic.
Reception
In March 1993, Body Blows achieved the status of best-selling Amiga game in the United Kingdom.
Reviews praised its standing among fighting games:
- "The best beat-em up money can buy" – 91% – CU Amiga
- "Not as good as the console sf2, but it's a very close thing" – 87% – Amiga Format
- "If you thought [Street Fighter II] was the business, think again" – 92% – The One
- "A true corker of a game with undeniable influences" – 89% – Amiga Power