One Must Fall 2097

One Must Fall: 2097 is a beat 'em up developed by Diversions Entertainment and published by Epic MegaGames in 1994. It is set in the future, where fighting between humans is outlawed. Of course, being who they are, humans need a way to fight each other. What better way to get around the law than linking your brain to a robot and beating the screws out of another human?

One Must Fall: 2097 is the mechanized big robot battle version of another popular fighting game released around the same time: Mortal Kombat. Of course, Mortal Kombat had more blood, gore, and violent finishing moves. However, unlike Mortal Kombat, you get all the robots from the start. You don’t just start with a handful of characters and must fight through the game to unlock new characters. You start off with all the robots available in the game.

The cool thing about having all the robots available when you start the game is you get to see all the special abilities that each robot possesses. Each robot has three skills that are specific only to them. Each robot also has their own stats from speed to power. You would have to win battles to increase each robot’s stats. It would take a little time to learn each robot’s abilities and to develop effective strategies against other robots with the chosen robot’s capabilities.

Unfortunately, One Must Fall: 2097 wasn’t really known at the time as the fighting game genre was overflowing with more well-known titles such as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. However, for its time, One Must Fall: 2097 has ridiculously smooth gameplay, great graphics, and some immersive music. The developers released the title as freeware in the early 2000s, so it’s accessible for everyone who has an older computer or can figure out how to play the game on a newer operating system. It’s worth trying to find a way to say you played one of the more underrated fighting games of the ‘90s.