What Is the Master Challenge in Fighters Destiny?

A slot machine that pays out in moves, and collects in the same currency.

Every character in Fighters Destiny begins with a partial command list. Eight moves per fighter are held back, and the Master Challenge is where they are earned. The mode presents a circle of twelve opponents: eight are the Master, and four are the Joker. A cursor spins around the circle at high speed, and where it stops decides who you fight next.

Beat the Master and he teaches you one of your missing moves. That is the whole reward system, and the risk below is what makes it a challenge rather than a menu.

HOW IT WORKS

The wheel, the lesson, and the stakes

The wheel

Twelve spaces, eight Master and four Joker, chosen by a fast spinning cursor the player stops. Two times in three, the next fight is a lesson. One time in three, it is a threat.

The lesson

Defeating the Master earns one new move for your character. Beat him eight times and the character's full command list is unlocked. Progress can be banked after each fight by ending the mode, keeping what has been earned.

The threat

Lose to the Joker and every move earned in the mode is taken away. Beating the Joker earns nothing at all; you simply keep your progress. The Joker is the toughest opponent in the game, and the wheel offers no way to refuse the fight.

The save

Learned moves are saved to the Controller Pak, and the expanded command list can then be accessed in any mode. A character built in the Master Challenge is a portable asset, carried between modes and between consoles on the Pak.

WHY REVIEWERS SINGLED IT OUT

Depth the genre did not usually offer

The Master Challenge was one of the two features critics returned to most, alongside the points system. Electronic Gaming Monthly, GameSpot and IGN all praised the ability to learn new moves and save them, and the mode anchors the single player depth that Next Generation called impressive. In a genre whose home versions usually offered an arcade ladder and little else, a persistent, risk priced training economy was a genuinely new structure.

What they did get for completing it was not a costume or a gallery but capability: the same fighter, measurably more complete, in every mode the game has. That is why the mode is still the first thing named when Fighters Destiny is recommended today.

THE GAME ON THE SHELF

Fighters Destiny

Fighters Destiny · America · Nintendo 64

Ryuji on the American Nintendo 64 box for the game whose Master Challenge this page explains.

The full story: The History of Fighters Destiny →

What Is the Master Challenge in Fighters Destiny?

HOW IT WORKS

WHY REVIEWERS SINGLED IT OUT

THE GAME ON THE SHELF

THE FIRST WORD