I had this idea for a fighting game last night. In it, the players cannot do physical damage to each other with their fists and feat. Instead, they must reach a trigger of some type to activate an enviroment hazard (i.e. open a spike pit, activate automated machine guns, turn on power to electrified grid) and then must use his/her attacks to push their opponent into the hazard. I was thinking along the lines of Street Fighter style 2d graphics to give gameplay a little speed. Perhaps the fighters could have recharging "conciousness" meters that would be a, if depleted, would knock the fighter out for a short amount of time, obviously leaving him or her vulnerable. Maybe in some cases the "switch" would be something like a keypad and you have to enter a keycode before your opponent pushes you out of the way. The idea came to me when I was thinking of how rediculous it is that you could knock someone out with light punches and kicks if their health meter was down low enough. That''s where the consciousness meter idea came from. After that, actually finishing the character off would not be possible with regular attacks, you would need some kind of weapon. What do you think? Sound fun? Do you have any ideas for hazards beyond the standard flamethrowers and rotating ceiling blades?

I think this is a superb idea, although I disagree that it is unrealistic to be able to knock someone unconscious by punching and kicking them.

There would be a lot of potential for having different hazards in different arenas. This could be a veritable gameplay goldmine

How about a junkyard where you could knock your opponent into the car crusher, or use the "big magnet-on-a-crane doohickey" to pick up a car and drop it on them?

Or a snowy mountain where you could do something to make a loud sound and start an avalanche, or knock them off the side of the mountain, or destroy a fragile ice bridge while they''re standing on it?

How about a fight on the freeway? You could, obviously, knock your opponent into the path of a passing truck, and you''d have to dodge cars even if your opponent didn''t do anything.

How about a slaughterhouse? Who wouldn''t love knocking their opponent into a gigantic meat grinder and, of course, watching the gorey processed remains coming out?

How about a fight in the middle of a battlefield, standing right in the crossfire between two sides? You could knock your opponent into bullets, onto landmines, and underneath tanks!

How about an entire series of rooftops as an arena? Besides simply getting thrown off them, you could both jump on to clotheslines that would make either combatant fall off if they moved too quickly or got hit too hard.

when I said i found it unbelievable to be able to knock someone out with punches and kicks, I meant punching and kicking someone in the ankles and knees, like many people have experienced when fighting a cheap opponent on Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter.

Hey, I played your game on my Dreamcast, and it was called PowerStones by Capcom .

Oh btw the game is really fun.

John