Masters of Combat

Masters of Combat hooks you with a simple old-school promise: pick one of four finalists, fight through the bracket, beat your own mirror match, and earn a shot at the boss. It is a compact versus fighter with a strange sci-fi tournament wrapper, and its most immediate surprise is that jumping is assigned to a button rather than Up on the D-pad.

That control choice is the whole conversation. If you can adjust to it, the game has a brisk, focused climb through its five-fight structure; if you cannot, every attempted jump will feel like arguing with muscle memory. The full ending also demands more than the easiest setting, so it rewards anyone willing to meet it on tougher terms.

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Masters of Combat gets straight to the point. You choose from the four remaining tournament fighters, face the other three, fight a mirror version of yourself, and then move on to the final boss. That is a lean arcade-style run, and it gives each attempt a clear purpose: learn the opposition, clean up your mistakes, and get farther through the bracket.

The jump button is the game’s defining oddity. Up on the D-pad does not make your fighter leave the ground; another button does, while separate buttons cover punches and kicks. Your first few matches may be full of accidental hesitation if you come in with standard fighting-game habits. Give it a little time, though, and the layout can start to feel deliberate rather than merely wrong. The catch is that this is not a control scheme everyone will want to retrain for.

Three difficulty settings give the tournament some useful range, but the easiest mode ends after four of the five fights. That makes it a sensible place to get comfortable with the controls, not the place to expect the complete climb. If you are chasing the boss and the full payoff, you need to step up. Masters of Combat is short by design, so its replay value rests heavily on whether you enjoy revisiting that small gauntlet at a higher difficulty.

Graphics

The action is viewed from the side, keeping both fighters and the immediate contest front and center. Its sci-fi framing comes through in the UFO-and-Megalo-City setup, while the tournament structure keeps the focus on one-on-one fights rather than elaborate spectacle.

Story

The setup is enjoyably pulpy: a UFO lands near Megalo City, an investigation finds no life inside, and then, a year later, the mayor suddenly announces a tournament to find the world’s strongest fighter. It is exactly the kind of suspicious excuse a fighting game can use well, because you immediately know something is off.

Masters of Combat does not ask you to untangle a complicated premise before you start throwing punches. The UFO, the unexplained tournament, and the suggestion of a sinister plot give the bracket a little more tension than a plain championship would have. You are not just clearing opponents for a trophy; the final boss carries the promise that the strange setup may lead somewhere.

That mystery is most effective as motivation rather than as the main attraction. The game’s story is a compact frame around the fights, and that suits its short structure. If you like fighting games with a dash of old sci-fi conspiracy behind the tournament, this is a more memorable hook than a generic “prove you are the best” premise.

Overall Experience

Masters of Combat is a good fit when you want a small, direct fighting-game challenge rather than a huge roster or a long campaign. The five-fight ladder has a satisfying shape: rivals first, then the uneasy mirror match, then the boss. It wastes little time, which helps the game feel purposeful even when a run goes badly.

Its biggest strength and biggest barrier are the same thing: the nonstandard jump input. You may enjoy the novelty once it clicks, especially if you like older fighters that ask you to adapt instead of assuming every game should control the same way. But if a fighting game lives or dies for you on immediate comfort, this one can become frustrating before its tournament mystery gets a chance to matter.

At its best, Masters of Combat feels like a curious, tightly contained detour for fans of 1990s console fighters. The score reflects a game with a solid tournament loop and a distinct control quirk, not an effortless crowd-pleaser. Stick with it past the initial input adjustment, play above Easy when you are ready for the whole run, and you may find its odd little format more engaging than it first appears.