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Great fighters are made, not born! That's the underlying concept behind Agetec's new brawler/construction kit Fighter Maker, a quasi-game that's sure to have amateur game programmers squealing in delight. Is Virtua Fighter not your style? Does Tekken make you sick? Then take on the world and design your own hardy crew of fighters and then pit them against your best buddy's!

Fighter Maker features a complete 3D character posing system -- think of it as a simplified version of Kinetix's Character Studio R2 for 3D Studio MAX. But you'll need to sit down and read the manual to make your fighters look good as the construction kit is a powerful one, and you may get bogged down in the sheer number of choices you have to make.

Those choices are made in the Edit mode. Not only will you give your fighters detailed profiles outlining their past histories, fighting motions and logical AI, you'll also have the freedom of creation by selecting one of 20 different models and editing everything from wardrobe and muscle tone to hair and skin color! You can alter your fighters' poses to make them standup after being taken down or begin fighting from a crouched position. There's even a series of fixed positions and wrist combinations!

Once the character standing before you on the screen looks like the fighter of your dreams, its time to program a series of devastating fighting moves and combinations! Choosing anything from basic movements (166 unique patterns) and hit sequences to throws, crouching dashes and downward attacks, selecting the right moves and understanding how they work is vital to your fighter's success. There are over 800 different moves in all! You'll also want to balance damage values between high, midlevel and low attacks as well as combination lengths, fighting delays and your fighter's position after a move is executed (back towards the opponent or facing him).

If creating your own fighters sounds a little on the complicated side of things, don't worry -- the developers have included a 68-page manual that thoroughly outlines various details as well as in-game help menus and demonstrations. So, punk, what are you waiting for? Snag a few extra memory cards, plug in a second controller and butt heads with the industry's best. Are you a true-blue Fighter Maker?