Fighter Within received "generally unfavorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. It became notable for its negative reception.[3] The Kinect controls were criticized, with several reviews suggesting problems were just as prevalent as the Kinect for Xbox 360.[14][6]Game Informer said, "Fighter Within is garbage."[8]GameZone's Mike Splechta said, "Fighter Within really showcases the larger problem with Kinect only games: they just don't work."[12]IGN said that the game was only able to adequately detect basic punches, describing the game as a "disjointed", "haphazard mess" due to its unpredictable motion detection, and considered its storyline to be "laughably bad" and a "flimsy excuse" to "fight [against] a long stream of AI opponents who look just as dumb as they fight."[14]GameSpot described its gameplay as requiring players to "stand like a lemon in front of the TV for what seems like an eternity as you feel your life ebb away during the excruciatingly long loading times; punch at thin air as fast as humanly possible until you trigger a combo; watch the lifeless combo animation; repeat these steps until your opponent is defeated."[10]Digital Spy gave the game a score of one star out of five, saying, "Perhaps as a tech demo and nothing more, Fighter Within would have raised a smile, but as a full-priced, next-generation it really isn't worth the time or money."[18]Metro similarly gave it a score of two out of ten, calling it "A bad game and a very poor start for next generation Kinect games, even if there is still some small cause for optimism beneath the bland fighting action."[19]The Digital Fix gave it a score of one out of ten, saying, "Fighter Within on the Xbox 360 would be a disaster reduced to a footnote, ignored and left to wither. As a launch title for the new generation it's worse: a parasite, feeding off the goodwill and desperation of early-adopters. Avoid, avoid, avoid."[17]
↑ 17.017.1Marshall, James (January 28, 2014). "Fighter Within". The Digital Fix. Poisonous Monkey. Archived from the original on January 31, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2023.