Review by: Brian M. Briones

Graphics-9.6. Excellent graphics!! For a game that hasn't exactly been in development for months, this game really shines as compared to some of the past ones like Virtua Fighter 2, NBA Action among others. See, the thing is this.... AM2 has spent about 6 months to a year and a half developing VF2 for the Saturn before it debuted Xmas '95. It had a few problems which included a "floating" like background because of the way the ring seemed to scroll in different parallax with the ground and sometimes the background. And some clipping problems that have apparently been take under control in Fighting Vipers, was still present in VF2. NBA Action by Gray Matter on the other hand looked terrible. It was like the developers hired a kid as the graphic artist, and all he did was make cardboard figures of the NBA players while pasting their unchanging expressionless faces onto the heads. The bone I have to pick with these 2 games is that they've been in development for a LONG time as compared to the amount of time that was spent on Fighting Vipers and yet their graphical problems could've been fixed. Happily, AM2 did a bang-up job with Fighting Vipers and did all the right things to avoid pop up and clipping as much as possible. Such tricks used were gourad shading the polygon characters to make it look like there are more polygons composing the character than there really is. The backgrounds scroll in perfect parallax according to the camera's view in the ring, rather than moving way faster than the objects in the ring. Less clipping and pop up, which was fixed by adding the gourad shading to allow for more polygons to be used. And Yu Suzuki and AM2 have opted for a lower resolution to allow them to bump up the number of polygons that can be used so the Saturn's power is fully maximized. The only clipping that most will notice, and this not a bug like most think, when the camera switches to a view that takes place from behind a cage wall, it disappears. This is NOT a result of clipping problems. Yu and his team merely opted to knock out the wall whenever the camera switches to a view from behind of it to avoid clipping and of course as was mentioned earlier, to maximize the Saturn's display capability. This is a technique that has been employed in the Die Hard Trilogy on the Sony PlayStation and upcoming on the Sega Saturn, and it's a very bright idea since it allows developers to use natural and good camera angles rather than something that's cumbersome. All in all, I see that there's been a lot of improvement on the Saturn graphically.

Sound-10. Give a listen to the wonderful sounds of Fighting Vipers! As always, AM2 has managed to maximize the sound capabilities of the Saturn which seems to have eluded most 3rd party developers. It's mostly hard rock guitars in the background and in the player select screen, so I believe Yu and his team were trying to get us into our "teenager" mode. Most of the background music is stuff that you'd probably hear if you walked into a Junior high school, and it fits the look of the characters perfectly well. Also, the sound effects are also done very well. The hits sound like hits, and when you get slammed into a wall, you hear the sound of your character's body being slammed into a wall and not something akin to a punch being landed. Great job as usual!

Control-9.7. The control on this is as tight as all the other games that AM2 has ever made for the Saturn. You don't feel frustrated with strange things like, why are you throwing a punch when you hit the kick button. Stuff like that, and the characters are extremely controllable, if you know the moves for this game, all you need to know is how and when to use them for maximum damage. Another superb job done here.

Challenge-7. I'm sorry, but this game seems to be a helluva lot EASIER than the arcade version for some reason. No, I'm not bragging about my fighting game skills, I'm saying that this game is a little too easy. How is it that a guy like me, who isn't awesome with fighting games, and usually puts the fighting games on Easy mode can beat this game in Normal mode? Good question, I'd like to know that too. In fact, I wasn't even using special moves..... I was just throwing punches and kicks, and this was when I first got the game! I was using Picky, and I actually beat it using punches and kicks! I'm not saying I wish this game was insanely hard, but this is ridiculous! There should be a little bit of challenge to prevent you from just breezing through the game. Most fighter veterans will blow through this game in 10 minutes if they use all of their fighting game skills. The average joe should take no longer than 1 or 2 hours to get through it, and really bad players should beat it in about an afternoon of play. It's that easy, I don't think there is anybody on this planet who is a gamer that can't possibly beat this game in the same day they rent or buy it. I personally enjoyed it anyway, but they AM2 should've left a little bit of replay value in this game to keep the interest level high for those who get bored with their games in less than 2 weeks.

Overall-9.9. Despite the fact that this game is so incredibly EASY, I would reccomend it to anyone who is A)A Sega fan, B)Virtua Fighter fan, C)AM2 fan, D)Really loves Saturn games, E) 3D fighting games, F)Loved any of the Tekken games but doesn't have a PSX, G)Fighting Vipers fan (obviously), and last but not at all least H)Anyone who loves any good quality games PERIOD. I can't think of anyone that wouldn't like this game except a person who hated Sega or just doesn't care for fighting games in general. I feel most gamers will take well to this once they start playing it for a while, it's one of the Saturn's elite games and isn't one you should miss if you have a Saturn and are looking for quality games for your system. Or I would reccomend it to someone who has a Saturn and is looking to build up their library or just starting their library of games, this is an excellent start.

Synopsis

So are you a Saturn owner? A Saturn and PSX owner? A fighting game fan? Looking for a good game to add to your collection? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you need to consider Fighting Vipers by Sega(AM2). It's a quality game by the folks at Sega's AM Research and Development Department #2, the same ones who made past Sega hits known as Virtua Fighter series, Virtua Cop series, and Daytona USA for both the arcades and Sega Saturn. The story behind the game is that you get to be choose from one of 8 psychotic characters(yes, they really are if you haven't seen or believed the magazine ads!) who is fighting as part of the Vipers tournament held in Armstone city. Each character has his or her own motives for being in the tournament just as each character had in the Virtua Fighter series. The difference being that the characters in the Virtua Fighter series were mostly adults, here there are more teenagers than anything else at all. This would explain the hard rock music that seems to be ever present throughout the entire game. Each character like the Virtua Fighter series shares the usual punch and kick attack that is a part of most fighting games today, 3D or not. It also shares the simple but effective Punch, Kick, Defense buttons that were used as a part of the Virtua Fighter series. The other thing it shares with its polygon cousin is a similar fighting arena setup, with the usual ring and panaromic backgrounds only this time the ring out is eliminated by cage walls which can be knocked down with certain power moves. Right about there is where this game's similarities to its cousin end, right about where the part about ring outs is concerned. See, in Virtua Fighter you could either knock your opponent out of the ring to win, which was helpful if you couldn't out-punch him. And you could also use some strategy to get your wins by ring out, or of course if you had those incredibly terrible opponents you could let him take himself out of the ring. This of course made endless strategy possibilities for winning against your opponent. But in Fighting Vipers, you no longer have the option of outwitting your opponent into getting trapped between you and the edge of the ring. You have to fight him or perish in all your weak glory whether or not you like it. This is not to say that there is no such thing as ring-outs, technically it still exists, but it's not an option you can excercise to gain the win; it comes as a result of doing a power move resulting in your win. This will be explained later. The other differences in the game is to compensate for the ring outs and the endless strategies that were lost with it, you have armor and the cage walls and your armor breaking special moves to use to gain the win. See, where the other game could be won by a thinking man or a cunning opponent, the same can be done here but it would be preferred here that you be brutal as well. To illustrate my point we'll show how the armor figures into this game first. There is this armor that each character wears, and it helps to deflect damage taken like all good armor. But like all good armor it can be knocked off the person's body, which brings a new strategy. If you're one of those guys who just loves strategy like nobody's business, in here if you figure out a combination of moves you can weaken the armor in the areas your opponent is particularly deficient in defending and knock the armor off. By knocking the armor off, that part of the body is exposed and unprotected from your attacks, resulting in more damage being taken as a result. But to knock it off, you need to either keep attacking the area with strong moves to weaken the armor or use special armor breaking moves to knock it off if you already weakend it in that specific area. The armor breaking moves are different for each character but are similarly effective, and of course they are denoted as such in the game's manual. Now, these armor breaking moves don't necessarily need to be used to knock armor off only. You can use them to knock your opponent across the ring into the other cage wall, or if your opponent is ready to go bye-bye you can knock him through the cage walls as the "icing on the cake"(if you get what I mean). The other strategy is your opponents can be thrown into the cage walls for damage, or pinned against the wall so you can use your nasy combinations on him. If you're really good, you can use the cage wall to pin them against it and juggle them for the win. The possibilities are just as endless as Virtua Fighter's ring outs. Other than that the graphics are an improvement, and if you need further proof of that, read my analysis and breakdown of the individual game elements above since I clearly outlined how I felt. The gameplay is the usual quality style gameplay you've come to expect from AM2, and probably won't disappoint you unless you hated Fighting Vipers like anything when it was in the arcades. As for the challenge, it's a little easy for most I'd say. I'm not a fighting game expert and I got through it in about 30 minutes of play using Picky. On top of that, I only used punches and kicks, no special moves whatsoever. Heck, I didn't even know special moves for the game and I actually beat it to my surprise. All in all though, I'd say it's a worthwhile purchase if you haven't rented it and decided it's not for you. If you rented it and said to hell with it, you won't end up changing your mind unless you wake up one day with an acquired taste for the fighting style presented in Fighting Vipers. But still, I think most people who have a Saturn will definitely and should look into this game if not only just renting it and that's about it. This game was never a hit in the arcades due to its release during Virtua Fighter 2's reign of glory in the arcades. But who knows? It may just be the sleeper hit that the Sega Saturn has been looking for to hold us over until the next big game comes in time for the holidays. One thing's for sure, this game is a classic and definitely deserves its place in the Sega Saturn's history alongside Virtua Fighter series, Virtua Cop series, NiGHTS, Sega Rally, and Street Fighter Alpha series. Definitely one of the classics that will be remembered by all Saturn aficianados for some time to come. Like they say, it's the one rare diamond in the rough!