Dark Rift

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1997 video game

title: "Dark Rift" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1997-video-games", "3d-fighting-games", "cancelled-sega-saturn-games", "fighting-games", "kronos-digital-entertainment-games", "multiplayer-and-single-player-video-games", "nintendo-64-games", "piko-interactive-games", "vic-tokai-games", "video-games-developed-in-the-united-states", "windows-games"] description: "1997 video game" topic_path: "technology/operating-systems" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Rift" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary 1997 video game ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox video game"]

Field	Value
title	Dark Rift
image	darkrift.jpg
caption	North American Nintendo 64 box art
developer	Kronos Digital Entertainment
publisher	Vic Tokai
designer	Stan Liu
Albert Co
Matt Arrington
Andy Koo
Ted Wornock
John Paik
platforms	Nintendo 64, Windows
released	Nintendo 64
Windows

| genre = Fighting | modes = Single-player, multiplayer

Dark Rift is a 1997 fighting video game developed by Kronos Digital Entertainment and published by Vic Tokai for the Nintendo 64 and Microsoft Windows. It is notable for being the first N64 game to run at 60 frames per second.

Though Dark Rift has been referred to as the Nintendo 64's first native fighting game, in actuality it started development as a Sega Saturn game. In addition, it was originally announced that the Windows version of the game would precede the Nintendo 64 version by one month.

Gameplay

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Dark_Rift_gameplay.jpg" caption="Gameplay screenshot"] ::

Players choose from eight playable characters to start; there are also two hidden characters which are unlocked by completing the game in single-player mode. Fights go for a default three-out-of-five rounds, as opposed to the more conventional two-out-of-three.

Plot

Dark Rift takes place far in the future, sometime after the events of Criticom. Gameplay spans three dimensions: the Neutral Dimension (where Earth is located), the Dark Dimension (home to demons), and the Light Dimension (home to energy beings). Although the creatures of the Dark Dimension are demonic, there is no indication that the inhabitants of the Light Dimension have any angelic qualities.

The crystal (the acquisition of which is the main motivation of the characters of Criticom) turns out to be the Core Prime Element of a Master Key, one which holds the power to all the secrets in the universe. The Master Key was found eons ago lodged in a spatial tear. When it was retrieved it burst into three pieces, sending two pieces into alternate dimensions, and widening the tear into the game's namesake Dark Rift.

Development

It was originally announced under the title "Criticom II", and is the second of three fighting games developed by Kronos Digital, falling between Criticom and Cardinal Syn. Stan Liu (head and founder of Kronos) said "we got stuck doing fighting games for a while simply because we were one of the very few U.S. game developers that actually made a fighting game. Hence, Dark Rift and Cardinal Syn."

Unlike its predecessor Criticom, motion capture was used to create all the fighter animations in Dark Rift. The animation work was directed by Ted Warnock, whose background was in traditional animation.

The game was localized to Japan under the name Space Dynamites on March 27, 1998.

Reception

Dark Rift received generally mixed reviews. A number of critics deemed it a dramatic improvement over Kronos's previous fighting game, Criticom. and animation; Shawn Smith of Electronic Gaming Monthly went so far as to compare it to Virtua Fighter 3 (a game which ran on cutting edge arcade hardware) in this respect. However, he and his three co-reviewers further commented that the game is weak in every other respect, and Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot said that it "feels like a Virtua Fighter-inspired mishmash of monsters, demons, and guys with guns. The graphic effects are the only things that save Dark Rift from falling below average." By contradiction, Perry and a Next Generation critic both highly praised the character designs, particularly Demonica and Morphix.

The specific criticisms of the game varied. Perry and EGMs Dan Hsu said that the projectiles are slow to the point of being useless.

Notes

References

IGN staff. (July 8, 1997). "Dark Rift Arrives". [[Ziff Davis]].
Perry, Doug. (July 10, 1997). "Dark Rift". Ziff Davis.
Gertsmann, Jeff. (July 10, 1997). "Dark Rift Review [date mislabeled as "April 28, 2000"]". [[CBS Interactive]].
(July 1996). "Dark Rift (Preview)".
(August 1996). "E3: Dark Rift". [[International Data Group.
(December 1996). "In the Studio". [[Imagine Media]].
(June 1997). "Dark Rift: Stick It To Your Enemy...Literally!".
"Video Game Graveyard: Criticom II". [[CNET]].
Lui, Chi Kong. (April 4, 2001). "Interview with Stan Liu – Part 1".
(February 1997). "Dark Rift (Preview)". Ziff Davis.
"Dark Rift for Nintendo 64". CBS Interactive.
(September 1997). "Dark Rift". [[Future Publishing]].
(June 1997). "Review Crew". [[Ziff Davis]].
"スペースダイナマイツ [NINTENDO64]". [[Enterbrain]].
(June 1997). "Dark Rift - Nintendo 64". [[FuncoLand]].
(June 1997). "Dark Rift". Metropolis Media.
(February 1998). "Dark Rift". Webedia.
Fish, Eliot. (March 1998). "Dark Rift (N64)". [[Next Media Pty Ltd]].
(August 1997). "Dark Rift (Import)". Future Publishing.
Davies, Jonathan. (December 1997). "Dark Rift". Future Publishing.
(July 1997). "Dark Rift". Imagine Media.
(July 1997). "Dark Rift". [[Nintendo of America]].
(June 1997). "Dark Rift". Ziff Davis.
Scary Larry. (July 1997). "Nintendo 64 ProReview: Dark Rift". IDG.

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