New Action Figure Fighting Game Revealed

Toys and video games have crossed paths many times before, and the upcoming indie titleKnock Off will feature action figures battling it out to see who is the toughest in the toy box. From Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat figures to the newly announced crossover between Sonic the Hedgehog and Transformers, many video game characters have been released in plastic form over the years, and popular lines like G.I. Joe and Transformers have been adapted into video games of varying quality.

Indie developer Mechaghidora previously announced its action figure-fighting game mash-up Knock Off earlier in 2024, with a free playable demo available on the game’s official website. The premise of Knock Off harkens back to many gamers’ childhoods, when kids played with their toys and created epic battles using their imagination. Knock Off turns this nostalgic concept into a 2D fighting game similar to Street Fighter and Capcom’s line of Vs. crossover titles, with a colorful cast of plastic playthings taking each other on using all manner of attacks and combos.

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Earlier this week, a full trailer for Knock Off was shown at the Latin American Games Showcase, an annual event dedicated to highlighting upcoming projects from developers in Latin American countries. This brief trailer showed off more of Knock Off’s gameplay and cast of characters, all of which seem to be based on popular action figure characters of the 80s and 90s. As noted before, the 2D combat appears to borrow from Capcom titles like Street Fighter, with players trading blows and outlandish special moves to see who can deplete their opponent’s health bar first.

Knock Off Combines Childhood Nostalgia with Street Fighter-like Combat

The old-fashioned fighting gameplay seems to fit well with Knock Off’s premise of recreating favorite childhood play sessions, and there is already a fun variety of characters to choose from. Tearing his way out of the box first is Kronan, an armored warrior similar to He-Man or future Mortal Kombat 1 guest fighter Conan the Barbarian, who is seen challenging the reptilian Wolfgang. Rayzenger is a robot that wouldn’t be too out of place in Gundam or Mazinger Z, while Grimrot seems to take inspiration from Skeletor. Finally, Lockjaw is a sea monster, while Oozebite is some sort of ape-like mutant.

From the gameplay footage shown so far, Knock Off seems to run as smoothly as the classic 2D fighting games it draws influence from, and its core idea is one that can resonate with many of the gamers from that era. Right now there is no set release date for Knock Off, but it will launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam.