Review by: Dave Z

Fighting Vipers for the Saturn is a translation of the somewhat maligned AM2 Arcade Fighter. Fighting Vipers never achieved the same success of Virtua Fighter 2 in Japan or the United States, largely because most arcade gamers felt the the characters were lame, the graphics were not much of a jump over VF2, and the gameplay was nowhere as deep.

Now that Fighting Vipers has been faithfully translated over to the Saturn, all of a sudden those lame characters seem unique, the graphics seem good, and while the gameplay is still not deep, it is a lot of fun. What a difference it must make to play something in the friendly confines of one's home.

A lot of the popularity of Fighting Vipers for the Saturn comes from the fact that this game displays some of the Saturn's can't do's, like Gourad shading and light sourcing. Both the Gourad shading and the light sourcing in Fighting Vipers are pretty impressive, all Saturn owners should be proud of their bulky black box. It can do. (Although, I must point out that it is the software and not the hardware that is responsible for the Gourad shading and light sourcing).

Fighting Vipers is a 3-D fighter which features eight very unique characters. The characters are Grace, Bahn, Raxel, Tokio, Sanman, Jane, Honey, and Picky. Upon completing various tasks and/or codes you get to use Pepsiman, Mahler, and Kumachan. Plus, in the versus and training modes other versions of Honey and B.M. (the final boss). All the characters are rather unique, ranging from Grace, who fights on rollerblades, and Raxel, who fights with his guitar and Picky who uses his skateboard to smash opponents.

Fighting Vipers brings some special enhancements to the 3-D fighting game genre. Unlike VF2 where there are ring outs when you get to the edges of the fighting arenas, in Fighthing Vipers you fight in a caged area. The cage comes very much into play as you can slam an opponent into it, rub his/her face on it, jump off of the side of the cage onto the opponent, and even knock your opponent through the cage or over the top of it at the end of a match. Fighting Vipers also features the ability to side step similar to Toshinden, and has a custom combo like feature with the use of some codes.

Following the likes of Namco, Sega has loaded Fighting Vipers with various modes of play as well as hidden characters and options. The hidden characters, as mentioned above, are Pepsiman (who will not be in the US version), Kumachan, Mahler, Casual Honey, School Girl Honey, and B.M. The modes of play that are offered by Fighting Vipers include the regular Arcade mode, a VS. mode, a Team Battle mode, a Training mode, and a Playback mode. The Arcade mode is simply the normal mode in which you choose a character and battle it out till you beat all the computer controlled opponents. The Versus mode is simply you versus your friend, though it allows you to choos the stage that you fight in, and allows you to handicap the fight if needed. The Team Battle mode lets you choose to fight a team of computer or human controlled opponents. Each team gets to pick five fighters, which can be all the same or different. When every fighter on one of the teams has been defeated the other team wins. The practice mode allows a person to practice all of a particular fighters moves against opponents in different positions, including standing, crouching, jumping, etc. The Playback mode allows one to save his or her most memorable fights and play them back at a later date.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics in Fighting Vipers is pretty impressive. The game features good use of both Gourad shading and lightsourcing, as well as some moving objects in the backgrounds. CORRECTION The game runs at 60 fps in the interlaced mode (same as VF1 and VFR), and features 3-D and 2-D backgrounds. The cages that encircle the ring, are 3-D while the rest of the backgrounds are 2-D bitmaps. There is some major polygon droppage in the cages of the rings when you are close to them at certain angles, but for the most part there is very little drop out in the polygon's of the fighters, at least in the normal mode. When the game is played with the big heads mode there is a subastantial amount of polygon drop out.

The characters themselves are rather impressive thanks to the good use of the Gourad shading. In some ways, the characters are actually better looking than their arcade counterparts thanks to the smoothing out of the polygons thanks to this effect. The backgrounds are basically well done, as well. Backgrounds such as Jane's, which shows off the light sourcing the best, Raxel's, who's is on a skyscraper, and B.M's, which features a moving 3-D helicopter are the best of the bunch and really show off some of the power of the Sega Saturn.

Sound: 6/10

If you're looking for the Arcade sound, it's here. The arcade music and sound effects are pretty well represented here on the Saturn. If you liked it in the arcade you'll like it here. Why only the 6/10? Well, I didn't care for it in the arcade, and still don't here at home. Although, it must be said that there is nothing wrong with the quality of either the music or sound effect, just a personal prefference by myself.

Control: 9/10

The control is very basic and easy to understand. If you've played VF 2, most of the moves can be learned and mastered pretty easily in Fighting Vipers, though there are some new moves and techniquess to be learned. The game responds well to your button presses, in most cases even better than in VF 2.

Gameplay: 8/10

The game technique is not nearly as deep as Virtua Fighter 2, there aren't as many moves to master, the characters simply don't have as much to offer, but simply put this game is very fun. There are several secret players to find and use, there are plenty of varied options to keep you busy.

Overall: 8.5/10

Fighting Vipers is not a very deep game, but it is very fun to play. If Sega of America decides to market this baby correctly, Fighting Vipers can give Tekken 2 a run for its money this holiday season.