Supreme Warrior
Reviewed by Zach Meston

Because I'm a video game journalist by trade--and a guy with way too much free time on my hands--I'm intimately familiar with the works of Digital Pictures. This company has been releasing games for the past three years, mostly on the Sega CD, but recently branching out to more advanced CD-ROM systems, including (duh) the 3DO. You may have already played their two previous 3DO titles: Sewer Shark, a futuristic shoot-'em-up, and Night Trap, a horror-movie spoof known to cause epileptic seizures in U.S. Congressmen.
	Supreme Warrior is Digital Pictures' first crack at the fighting-game genre, which is getting mighty crowded on the 3DO--players can already choose from Super SF II Turbo, Samurai Shodown, Way of the Warrior, and the wretched Shadow: War of Succession. What does Supreme Warrior have that these games don't? As the box proudly declares: "Over 2 hours of full motion video." That's right, friends and neighbors, this game is full-on FMV, which some 3DO players loathe with a hatred usually reserved for Atari Jaguar fanatics.
	The story line of Supreme Warrior is a bit complicated (and silly), but let' s squeeze it into a paragraph: you're a member of the White Robe clan, assigned to deliver one-half of a mystical mask to Master Kai, a wise old Shaolin monk. When you arrive at Kai's village, you find him under attack by Fang Tu, an evil warrior who's wearing the other half of the mask on his ugly mug.
	To prevent Fang Tu from reuniting the mask halves and gaining untold powers, you have to pit your bad self against a total of twelve fighters: eight bodyguards, three warlords, and Fang Tu himself. Before you can fight a warlord, you have to defeat his bodyguards, and before you can fight Fang Tu, you have to defeat all three warlords. The bodyguards are relatively whimpy, while the warlords are considerably tougher.
	During a fight, the FMV window shows your opponent throwing blows and insulting your manhood. When your opponent lets his or her guard down, you have to strike with a punch, palm heel, or kick. Punches and palm heels are used when the opponent is close, and kicks when the opponent is at long range. You have a limited amount of attack chi (energy), so you can't hit the controller buttons like a crazy person; you have to know when to strike and when to hold back.
	When your opponent throws a punch or kick, you have to block the blow or suffer loads of damage. If you block the attack at the precise moment, you regain some of your health. Blocking is the most important skill in the game--if you can't block the stronger opponents, you'll be knocked on your booty in seconds.
	At the start of the game, you're only able to throw regular punches and kicks. By defeating bodyguards and warlords, you earn secret moves and special skills. The special moves are much more damaging than regular attacks, while the special skills (there are nine in all) give you various abilities, such as restoring your health or making you temporarily invincible. Best of all are the dirty tricks, which are wicked secret moves you can only use in the final battle against Fang Tu.
	Supreme Warrior offers three difficulty levels: Apprentice, Master, and Supreme. On the Apprentice level, icons appear at the edge of the FMV window to show you where and when to strike the enemy; on the higher levels, you're on your own. Now, I'm not a touchy-feely kind of person, but I'll give a big fat kiss to the feet of any gaming god able to beat the game on the Supreme level.
	The quality of the full motion video is good throughout the game, although it doesn't seem quite as sharp as the FMV in Road Rash or Shock Wave. There isn't much music to speak of, but the sound effects are plentiful and satisfyingly loud. There's even an option to switch between English and Cantonese dialogue, which will no doubt appeal to the huge Chinese 3DO user base.
	The verdict: Supreme Warrior is more playable than most full-motion video games, but nowhere near as playable as a real fighting game. If you're a fan of full motion video, you'll thoroughly enjoy Supreme Warrior; if you prefer conventional beat-'em-ups, this probably ain't the game for you.

Supreme Warrior
Digital Pictures

