The Inm of Fighters is a light-hearted 2D Fighting game with a focus on humor. Given that name, you’d expect it to be a parody of SNK’s similarly named KoF series. There are similar things, like the ending screen’s music and the four-button nature of this title, but it is mainly its own thing. When you think of the King of Fighters, one of the first things likely to pop into your head is the team-based battles. That is, for the most part, absent in this title. You can set it up to 5v5, yet this feature is locked to the Versus mode, which has no AI. Unless you have someone to play with, it is best to go into this expecting a 1v1 fighter.
With that said, one would probably take a single look at this and think of it as a meme game. It most definitely is, but this is a deceptively competent Fighter. You’ll be on the edge of your seat as you take on an oiled-up beefcake of a man with a penchant for dry humping you. For more reasons than you’d imagine. This title is entirely serious when it comes to gameplay, and we lack a way to control the difficulty. You have grab-breaks, desperation attacks when you are at quarter health, and two macro buttons that allow things like rolling without holding a combination of keys. You’ll eventually need to learn all of these mechanics, as button mashing will not get you far here. The AI will continuously ramp up the challenge it offers with no way to tone it down. It doesn’t reach extreme levels of difficulty, yet The Inm of Fighters should be tackled by those already accustomed to the genre.
There are many tutorials the game throws your way upon booting up the Story mode. It is keen on teaching you how to play and interact with all of its mechanics. Our problem will be that it has never been translated and is entirely in Japanese. Translating software has quite a lot of difficulty making sense of it as well, for whatever reason. The gameplay is not overly complex, with most specials being simple half-quarter circle inputs, yet our lack of being able to understand Japanese does pose a slight hurdle. Our choices are either to learn via trial by fire or to play against ourselves in Versus mode for some practice. Of course, this is no fault of the game. Much like listening to lyric-filled music from a language you don’t understand, we can still jam to the rhythm and acclimate ourselves into the groove of things.
Each of the 13 overall characters have their own quirks and moveset. Pressing both of your macro buttons simultaneously will open up the overall control scheme. It is useless, considering it doesn’t show our moveset and can only be used in active gameplay, not while paused. Good luck trying to win a fight with most of the screen covered by it. With how simple the inputs for specials are, it is something you can quickly figure out on your own, but it is still poor design on its part. If you still have trouble getting a feel for your character, you’ll want to go into the HTML > IMG subfolders of where you’ve installed the game. This is where you’ll find PNGs of each character’s moveset.
The Inm of Fighters is a relatively fast-paced fighter that doesn’t lean in favor of defensive or offensive playstyles. Both are viable and should be used as the situation calls for. One of the few things all characters share in common is that the four buttons are used for light and heavy punch/kick attacks. All bets are off as to how a character fights outside of that. They could be shooting out glittering hearts, throwing clothesline pins, or running each other over in their car. It is gloriously controlled chaos where no idea is too silly or out of place. My favorite is the ancient technique known as pulling out a gun. That will cause quite a lot of damage if not blocked, but it is limited to five shots before needing to reload. The AI may not be able to respond well to all threats, such as the range of a gun, yet there has been a lot of thought put into the moveset and balance here. You can find a few ways to cheese the AI, though those same attacks would be nowhere near as effective on a human player.
Every hit will build up your three-layered special meter, whether you are striking or blocking. Special attacks cause a significant amount of damage, and knowing when to pull them off is what wins battles. Each time someone is about to use a special, the game will temporarily freeze time to show a flashy effect. It will give you a brief moment to block, assuming they weren’t chaining it from a combo. In that case, you are defenseless. Luckily for us, the AI doesn’t really chain specials all that much. They try to catch you off-guard while you are in a neutral stance. That is where knowing the characters will be invaluable and what makes early playthroughs more challenging than future ones. Some can blast you from across the screen, while others need to goad you into attacking to activate their Special. Knowing how they fight is an advantage in itself.
If I had to levy one misstep when it comes to combat, it would have to be the desperation Special attack. That bloody thing will wipe half a health bar and only requires one of the three overall meters to activate. Everyone loves a good comeback, but this feature is just prone to abuse. It is entirely to the player’s benefit since the AI doesn’t use it much, yet that single function turns what is a serious fighting game into more of a party title when it comes to online or local play. Speaking of the online aspect, it requires a good bit of setup. I’d just recommend downloading Parsec and playing with a friend over it. The Versus and Team Battle modes offer a fair bit of customization, unlike the single-player Story. It even allows you to play as the two boss characters, bumping up the total roster to 13.
While on the topic of the Story Mode, it is essentially a ladder match until reaching the final boss. There is some dialogue at the start and end that is unique to each character, but I understood none of it since it is in Japanese. This is the sole single-player mode and, as stated before, only features 1v1 matches. The lack of any control over the single-player aspect does it no favors. You can’t control the timer or the rounds a fight takes, as an example. I mainly would like some difficulty options. In terms of longevity, that’s what damages it the most for me. It sits in a strange mid-ground of likely being too difficult for some and much too easy for others. You never truly get to utilize all of the gameplay mechanics to a satisfying extent if you’re intending to play this solo.
I’m talking about The Inm of Fighters as if it could have been on Evo. It’s a bit too unbalanced for that. On that same note, I 100% would have been pumping quarters into this over many others Fighters if this were in the arcade scene back in the day. This is a damned fun experience and actually better than some of Studio S’s later titles, such as Monmusu Fight, in my opinion. Where it falters is in the Adult content. If you manage to finish off one of three specific characters with a Special, you can then sexually violate them. Those characters are the shota, an angel, and a nurse. Only one of those is a female, making this primarily a male-on-male type of affair. It sucks that they didn’t go full in and made all of the roster bangable. Less than half of them are included in this fatality-like system. Not finishing off a foe to try to get them with a Special could have been used to a much greater extent.
In its current form, the hentai gets stale pretty fast. There are only two sex positions to select from with whatever character you choose to mount, be it male or female. The lack of variation could have been somewhat offset if it had more partners to engage with. I would not purchase this for the lewd content alone, and you can actually save a few bucks if you get the all-ages version, should you go that route. It is not a negative aspect of the game. It’s just underwhelming. Funnily enough, it can double as a training mode of sorts. While in that sexable state, they are defenseless and immune to any further healthbar drainage. You can simply wail on them for as long as you like. This is a great way to learn your moveset. After you’ve had your fun in either pounding away or.. well, pounding away, you just need to use your desperation Special to continue to the next match.
The Inm of Fighters has full controller support. What it lacks is a way to enter fullscreen. The game’s engine is just too old, and that feature doesn’t function properly on modern OS systems. You’ll need to either play it in a 480p window or use a program like Lossless Scaling to simulate a fullscreen experience. Other than that, I didn’t experience any technical issues or crashes. It was smooth sailing throughout these battles fought for godhood. Or at least that’s why they go into the clouds and suplex the blonde dude they find up there.
On the audio side, it is a mixed bag. Some sound effects can be semi-annoying, yet that fits the game’s goofy nature. I fear having to face the man carrying a wooden sword. Not for his moveset, mind you, but because I can’t decide if his KO scream is him in pain or if I’ve just finished him off in more ways than one. The music, on the other, is a highlight. It features many great tracks ranging from high-intensity to more childlike tempos when facing the shota. There is a lot to love about The Inm of Fighters. It has next to nothing to do with King of Fighters, but it is a solid fighting title. The hentai is not its strong point. If you want to get some enjoyment out of this, you’ll have to be somewhat of a fan of the genre. It has simple controls, a varied cast of characters, and in-depth gameplay mechanics aplenty. While it doesn’t have much in the way of staying power, this will provide a good bit of entertainment and is one you’ll likely be tempted to pick up again every now & then.
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