Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus (XBox) - story1When one of the creators of "Mortal Kombat" announces that he's working on a brand-new fighting game, people sit up and take notice. This week on "Extended Play" we get the scoop on Studio Gigante's latest project, "Tao Feng" for the Xbox.

Get over here!

Nope, you won't find Scorpion, Raiden, or any other character from the "Mortal Kombat" universe hidden in "Tao Feng." But you will find a story that's every bit as involving as the convoluted plots surrounding the MK games. With America as we know it in ruins, the nation once known as the United States is now called New China, a land where two warring factions called the Pale Lotus and the Black Mantis are at odds over a set of tablets. When placed together, the tablets will give the holder immortality, but the twist is that the leader of each faction holds a tablet. The two sides go to war, with each side hoping to unite the tablets and reap the rewards.

If you're looking for a sure sign that "Tao Feng" is a brand-new franchise, look no further than its roster of 12 playable characters. Each faction includes six fighters with a wide variety of personalities and fighting styles. Divinity's moves are poetry in motion, with pirouettes and blinding kicks, while the hulking Exile's back-breakers will make you wince. Each character has 100 to 120 specific moves, and the combo system depends on button combinations and rhythm.

A nod to the past

Comparisons to "Mortal Kombat" are inevitable. There's certainly a strong MK influence in the game's speed and in its prevalent long-range attacks. Although it's not quite as bloody, the violence of the attacks seems oddly familiar.

Although it pays respect to the past, "Tao Feng" also makes strides toward providing a unique fighting game experience. Thanks to its limb damage system, specific body parts will become disabled if they're overused. Once a limb is damaged, the fighter won't be able to use attacks that make use of it. Another interesting addition to "Tao Feng" is that you'll be able to use the environment to your advantage. You can swing around vertical poles and come down with deadly force, and you can throw opponents into various objects and deliver varying levels of punishment.

Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus (XBox) - story2Finish him!

While there aren't any spine-ripping fatalities, the chi attacks in "Tao Feng" keep the action intense and the outcome unpredictable. As you make contact with your opponent your chi meter gradually builds. Once it's peaked you can unleash a devastating special chi attack. There are chi attacks specific to each character, including a dragon made of vapor that swoops in on the enemy and a teleportation trick where the character disappears and reappears in rapid succession -- landing blows each time. If your character is really banged-up and on the verge of losing, you can use your chi power to heal your fighter, which adds depth to the game.

Fists aplenty

With six play modes there's no shortage of options to choose from, though the lack of online play is somewhat disappointing. The quest mode asks you to pick a character from one of the two sects and attempt to defeat every fighter from the other sect -- collecting artifacts along the way until you finally face the game's boss. Team battle lets you choose up to six characters to fight with in succession. You can also create tournaments with up to eight players, or you can go through a thorough training mode that will walk you through every aspect of the fighting engine. But probably the most interesting mode is the survival mode, which forces you to use every aspect of the game. The object is to see how many fighters you can take down with one life bar, but you're rewarded bonuses for tossing opponents into designated portions of the stages.

Speaking of which, the 15 stages included in the game are highly destructible. You can throw opponents into a monkey cage and blast it into bits, or you can give them a body slam into a museum case and watch the glass shatter into a brilliant explosion of particle effects. Just about all the objects located in each stage can be destroyed if they're struck hard enough, though you won't bust into completely new sections of the stage as in Tecmo's "Dead or Alive 3."

Beautiful brutality

"Tao Feng" is exclusive to the Xbox, and it shows. You'll be hard-pressed to find a more visually impressive 3D fighting game. The animation is silky smooth with each character having its own style of movement. Some of the grappling moves may seem impossible, but they look completely believable. Muscles flex, other body parts jiggle, and the light reflecting off clothing in the game is a sight to behold. The game also runs briskly, which is of paramount importance in the fighting genre.

Mortal what?

Fans of fast, brutal fighters should definitely keep an eye on "Tao Feng." It features an interesting mix of twitch-based, combo-focused fighting from the old-school arcade days while adding interesting twists such as its limb damage system and the ability to use the environments. When you consider that it's also one of the most visually stunning 3D fighters ever, it's not hard to see that fighting-game fans will have a lot to look forward to when "Tao Feng" is released for the Xbox at the end of March.