Pray for Death (1996)
This game often gets compared to Mortal Kombat series. But it's actually more similar to Killer Instinct series. You can tell by some of the animations as well as some of the art work is clearly inspired by that series. Even a particular character, Maelstrom fights very similar to Killer Instinct's Fulgore. The actual story is directly similar to a few not great fighting games.
Almost the entire roster wants to challenge Death to become immortal. This is directly the plot of Time Killers aka first labeled MK rip off. Personally screw both games go play Eternal Champions. If you can get your hands on the sequel/updated version on Sega CD that's even better. Not to mention, Death is the final boss in both games.
Not a lot of people knows in Time Killer's famous bad Genesis port. There does exist a way to play as Death. You have a similar method to play as Death in Pray of Death. Ultimately in either Eternal Champions game, you are fighting for the opportunity to live again. Sadly the conclusion to that concept got scrapped.
Indirectly the concept similar to Shadow: War of Succession. Most of the roster going after the position for the next Shadow King. The previous Shadow King got transformed into a cyborg. What's kinda amusing is Anubi basically Anubis in this game. Surprisingly War Gods by a few months predates Anubis in a fighting game here.
There's a few hidden characters mostly the bosses. They aren't anything special with Death having voice overs. I'll give them credit he actually looks like the Grim Reaper. Unlike Death in Time Killers seriously what is that? It's kinda like Dracula in Castlevania 2 where he looked more like the Grim Reaper than Death does.
Pray for Death can differ on the controls, I played two different methods. Originally the famous keyboard method that took some time getting use to. It's easy to get confuse what the buttons do. The later method with a controller is the one I recommend most. There's a decent amount of characters to play as. I do like before every match begins.
The characters says stuff towards each other. A little better than Shaq Fu still not great. Once in a blue moon you might be surprise what's written. It's a classic fighting game set up with a ladder. You fight through the entire roster to face Death. There are finishers that are mostly alright. It's technically better than a lot of MK rip offs.
The audio for the most part isn't great. A few sound effects ends up being the best of them. The difficulty will spike to a degree. If you play the game on too easy of a difficulty. The game refuses to give you an ending. I'm just glad they didn't do what TMNT: Tournament Fighters on Sega Genesis done.
I really don't like playing an fighting game with little to no endings on hardest difficulty. I can say most of the roster does have endings. I think the biggest surprise to me maybe to a lot of people. It's obvious the elephant in the room. You actually can play as Cthulhu!!! Yeah a fighting game from the 90s you play as Cthulhu.
The stages are mostly meh easily could've been a little better. It hurts worst when you start comparing it to Killer Instinct. Even Killer Instinct Gold on Nintendo 64 had a lot more going for it. I personally enjoy playing that game through Rare Replay. Pray for Death isn't an rememberable experience. Especially considering it to The Black Heart let's not even compare the two.
Also regarding the Grim Reaper in video games. He isn't rememberable like Gregg the Grim Reaper in Conker's Bad Fur Day. Even reapers in Vampire Survivors worked better. They lack voice overs as well as dialogues. I will say his lines are better than Death in Time Killers the Arcade version at least. Even considering their endings, it's not even close!!!
Pray for Death may be better than some similar 90s fighting games. But in all honestly that's not saying much. You got to realize some fighting franchises back in the 90s were quickly becoming big. Some of which are high selling fighting game franchises today. This game got buried just like three cartoon shows tried competing with The Simpsons to end up getting buried themselves.
There really isn't much to like about the actual game. If they didn't focus on mimicking Killer Instinct's style. Instead went with their own fighting system. Then I felt this game would've been a little better. It's far from the bottom of the barrel fighting games wise. It's beneath the middle of them with plenty of better fighting games you could be playing right now.
The closest positive thing I could say it's on GOG as well. GOG does notably better with older PC games especially DOS ones. On both services outlasted Xenophage: Alien Bloodsport. Technically that's a good thing considering that was notably worst than this. Despite an unplayable guest character being Barney the Dinosaur still within the files.
Pray for Death is an repetitive fighting game of the 90s era. You should expect to lose a lot before you finally finish an run. I can't recommend playing it longer than a few minutes. A modded version with the right stuff could bring this game back to life. In terms of recommendations stick with Eternal Champions series minus the spin offs you'll be fine.
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