Are You Asking for a Challenge?
Little Fighter 2 (LF2) is a beat-em-up fighting game created by a team of two CUHK university students in 3 years. It features vibrant original artwork, a host of fighters with unique special moves, and a challenging stage mode. In addition to this, it is readily moddable. Custom characters and stages can be found on community sites (although I prefer to play the regular game).
The game is very easy to pick up since special moves in LF2 are easy to perform. Another feature that I like is the support for up to 4 local players on the same keyboard.
My favorite character is Dennis. I also like to play as Mark when I want to feel like I'm a tough thug from the movies.
Guide
In addition to the README included with the installation of the game, the character guide is a great tool for learning how to play the game.
Installation Tips
Although the latest version is v2.0a, I normally play v1.9c, which can be found at the LF Empire Downloads site. I've noticed that the newer versions have more prevalent advertising and are loaded with an unnecessary toolbar installation.
Linux Installation
Although it is freeware, LF2 is not open source, and the binary is only available for Windows. I was able to successfully install and run the game on Linux by using wine, which is a Windows compatibility layer. I followed the instructions on the appdb page, which consisted of the following:
- Install
wineandwinetricks - Install vcrun2005 using winetricks:
winetricks vcrun2005 - Open the regedit in wine:
wine regedit. Add the folderHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3Dif it is not already present. Add a new string value in this folder and set to 512. Although the AppDB page instructs to set the value to the amount of VRAM, I was still encountering issues when I did so (my VRAM was 256MB) - Run the lf2 executable using wine:
wine lf2_v19c.exe - After it installs, look for the executable under
~/.wine/dosdevices/c:. Callwineon the executable to play the game
Further Reading
- A retrospective on the development of LF2
(Internet Archive
link)
by Marti Wong, one of its developers. Favorite quote:
“Without income for more than a half year, I had a rough time financially. But as I look back on this, I can say LF2 was worth every effort.”
- Marti's (now dated) homepage - in addition to biographical information, notably contains images of the workspace in which LF2 was probably developed