PixlBit

Today entry is a short one over Sega’s Fighting Vipers. I had played a few good sets of the game with a rad art guy from tumblr this week. Its a really interesting, short lived series that often gets overshadowed by Virtua Fighter.

Fighting Vipers was made by Sega’s AM2 team, the team headed by Yu “I’m Looking for Sailors” Suzuki and the Virtua Fighter staff. Made one year after the first VF in 1995, the game plays well like VF. However there are some key differences. Its much quicker than VF and more air combo dependent. Unlike other games that feature air juggle combos like Tekken, you can quickly recover in the air so you are not at the mercy of a long combos. The most important aspect of Fighting Vipers though comes with the armor system. Each character has an armor gauge next to their life bar. Targeting the head, body, and legs of the armor will cause those parts to flash. When they turn red, they break and damage done to those parts hurts is more. On top of that there are “armored” moves in the game that allow character to take one hit and continue the attack but need to be charged up for a second and can be easily blocked. Its a really great mechanic that with the armor system, promotes players to be more active and on the offense.

While Fighting Vipers did get a sequel in 1998, it actually was the catalysis for two other 3D fighters. The first of which was a Sonic Championship AKA Sonic The Fighters in 1996. The game literally started off as a joke for the Sega AM 2 team where they used a 3D Sonic model as a test model in Fighting Vipers. The joke actually grew into a concept before becoming a full fleshed out game. The second game based around Fighting Vipers is the Saturn Exclusive Fighters Megamix. Fighters Megamix was Sega’s answer to KOF: A crossover of Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers as well as a few other Sega AM 2oddities. It also served as a preview for character moves and new characters for Virtua Fighter 3 but most people know it as the game where you fight as a car.

Speaking of Sega oddities, the Japanese home port of Fighting Vipers included one extra fighter: Pepsiman. Pepsiman was the Japanese mascot for Pepsi at the time and thanks to a stage and a character literally branded with Pepsi adornment, Mr. SHWANNN found his way in.

Fighting games are weird, no?