Another thing that I’m pretty sure nobody had on their bingo cards for this year: 1997 comedy MS-DOS fighter Fight ‘N’ Jokes, which did get a small revival of sorts in the last few years to the tune of upgraded ports to consoles, is getting an adventure spin-off based on the game called Fight ‘N’ Jokes: Storylines. The game is episodic, and the first chapter will focus on Miopinja.

For those unfamiliar, Fight ‘N’ Jokes was released by Nasty Brothers on DOS 27 years ago and was an early attempt at skewing other fighting games and popular culture in general. It is often compared to as “ClayFighter without the clay” but that feels kind of reductive, given that it stands on its own and there just wasn’t too much like these titles already on the market; most comedy fighters were self-referential or just had humor elements as opposed to parodying specific tropes. Furthermore, Fight ‘N’ Jokes poked more fun at the genre than ClayFighter did.

The 2021 revival and this subsequent spinoff come after a series of failed attempts by Mental Drink to revitalize the brand as ToonFighterZ back in the early-mid aughts, with DSiWare and iPhone versions that were announced and had evaporated.

Fight ‘N’ Jokes Storylines on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2835210/FightNJokes_Storylines

Fight ‘N’ Jokes on FaB: http://www.fightabase.com/gamesMain.aspx?id=713