Honorable Champion

Honorable Champion is a fighting game developed by Stylish Nored and published by The Deviant Fighting Company, released on January 1, 2021, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows via Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Apple Arcade. It's the first game in the Honorable Champion sereies.

Created and written by Deron Butler, known for such works as the Lord of the Underground and Invictus series, the story revolves around Michael Daniels, a young African-American karate practitioner who enters the Honorable Champion Tournament, to avenge the death of his father at the hands of former heavyweight boxing champion turned corrupt mayor Marcus Tyler.

Gameplay
Honorable Champion is a 3D fighter in which the fights take place in a best of three rounds, inspired in the Fatal Fury and Tekkenseries with a four-button scheme. The combo system is based in the Street Fighter series when it comes to its combo making system and the Tekken series regarding the juggles.

Each fighter has four signature Special Attacks, which are easy to pull off as well as chain into a combo. The special attacks can help increase the Honor Meter bar, allowing you to access the Honorable Attack. The player can fill and store the Honorable Meter bar to increase the power of the Honorable Attack, with level 3 being the strongest.

The Arcade Mode will have 7 regular matches, followed by the Rival Match akin to Soul Calibur series' Destined Battle, which takes place in the 4th stage. Afterward, the player will then face the sub-boss Grute, and eventually Marcus Tyler. In the Arcade Mode, after you choose a character, it will be accompanied by a cinematic cutscene which follows said character's main motives for entering the tournament, similar to the current Tekken games. The endings for each character will also have cinematic cutscenes, which takes place in the aftermath of the tournament. There are also interlude cutscenes in Arcade Mode where characters will interact with each other right before the fight and then after the fight.

Below the Health Indicator, is the Honor Meter bar. The Honorable Meter bar will gauge based on the player's attacks and parries. Once the Honorable Meter bar is full, the player has the option to use it to pull of the Honorable Attack or store it and build it for a more powerful attack.

The game features online cross-play between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One users.

Story
Marcus Tyler was once an undefeated boxer with unmatched strength, speed, and accuracy to his punches, so much so, it was believed that no fighter could ever best him. However, that belief would be shattered in an exhibition against an upstart karate practitioner named Levar Daniels. Levar would be victorious against Marcus, but in the rematch, which took place in Tokyo, Japan in 2001, Marcus resorted to ruthless and dishonorable tactics, brutalizing Levar ‘til he was dead. Marcus was dismissed from the boxing world and spent time in jail for many years. Recently, Marcus was released from prison and went on to become a charismatic yet calculating businessman and politician, ultimately becoming mayor and ruling with more than an iron fist. Despite becoming mayor and being more powerful than he had ever imagined, He looked to satisfy his urge for combat sports. With a new generation of fighters looking to make a name for themselves, Marcus seizes the opportunity to announce the Honorable Champion tournament for all the fighters to test their will and might against each other. Behind this tournament of goodwill, lies a more malignant undertone for one who is able to claim victory.

Characters
Honorable Champion launched with 16 playable characters, with two unlockables being Grute, the sub-boss and Marcus Tyler, the final boss. Eight other fighters were DLC characters.

* = Guest character

Trivia

 * Honorable Champion is the first fighting game where every single playable character is a Person of Color.