Fighting Force is a 1997 beat 'em up video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive.

Announced shortly after Core became a star developer from the critical and commercial success of Tomb Raider, Fighting Force was highly anticipated but met with mixed reviews.

Players control one of four characters as they move through urban and science fiction environments, battling waves of oncoming enemies with weapons including soda cans, knives, cars, and guns.

[4] The four characters have various reasons for taking on Dr. Dex Zeng, a criminal mastermind with an army at his command who predicted that the world would end in the year 2000.

Players choose from a selection of four characters: Hawk Manson, Mace Daniels, Alana McKendricks and Ben "Smasher" Jackson.

Critics overwhelmingly commented that the game has a satisfyingly large amount of interactive scenery to destroy or collect weapons from,[22][33][35][38] but agreed that despite the transition to 3D, the gameplay was not meaningfully different from the 2D beat 'em ups of earlier console generations.

[29][38] GamePro nonetheless opined, "Despite its few flaws, Fighting Force delivers the fierce fun and beat-fools-silly action that PlayStation gamers are looking for.

"[39] In Japan, where the game was ported and published by Electronic Arts Victor under the name Metal Fist (メタルフィスト, Metaru Fisuto) on 15 January 1998, Famitsu gave it a score of 25 out of 40.

"[2] However, PC Gamer UK gave it 62%, calling it "A middle class game without fire in its belly that refuses to strive for better things.

[d][41][36] The game was a commercial success, selling 1 million units worldwide and satisfying a demand for a Streets of Rage like 3D beat 'em up experience in the industry at the time.

Unlike the first title, Fighting Force 2 focuses on the character of Hawk Manson exclusively, and rewards a more stealthy approach.