Review of Fighters MegaMix(Import)

Fighters MegaMix

Graphics-9.7. Damn these graphics are quite an improvement over both the Fighting Vipers/Virtua Fighter 2 graphics engines used in the past games respectively. Sure, it's not in high-resolution mode but yet each of the characters has this beautiful gouraud shading, and light sourcing applied to each of them in addition to the usual texture mapping job. Plus AM2 has somehow found a way to further reduce the pop-up and clipping that was somewhat present in Fighting Vipers. Plus they seem to have made the video full screen and running at almost 30fps if not at that exact frame rate with no slowdown or choppiness present. I can't see much to nitpick at since as usual AM2 has done what is necessary to make the graphics as nice as possible without sacrificing a whole lot in the process. A very commendable job.

Sound-9.5. Pretty much the same standard fare as Fighting Vipers/Virtua Fighter 2. Also the sound effects are a little more sharp this time, instead of muffled like they usually are.

Control-10. What can I say? Almost every game that AM2 makes has such a wonderful emphasis on great tight controls! Just like the past 3D fighting games they made in the past, this one is no exception. It's every bit a beauty to control like the past fighters they've made. No complaints here.

Challenge-9.4. A definite improvement here! No longer can a player just breeze through using easy moves to get by. You need a little strategy and a little bit of good ol' fashioned courage to get through this game. Unfortunately for those who enjoyed pummeling their opponents into ring-outs or loved coming up with a last minute victory, you'll have to suffer your destiny and take your punches like a man. No more ring outs, or lucky wins. It's now a fight to the last ounce of energy with no way to get an easy victory except by sheer skill.

Overall-9.8. An excellent Saturn exclusive game that you won't be finding in any arcades anywhere! Sure, you can get the same characters in their individual games respectively but together in a unified whole it can only be found on the Sega Saturn only! You just can't beat this compilation of some of the best arcade 3D fighters period!(Unless Namco produces a compilation fighter combining Tekken and Soul Edge characters, but that would be a rip-off of this concept altogether.)

Synopsis
How many times have you wondered who would win if the fighters from both the Virtua Fighter series, and Fighting Vipers series(including secret characters and bosses) came together for one tournament? Well I'm sure a lot of people, but if this has ever been your wish it has came true courtesy of those wonderful people at Sega of Japan and their Research and Development Department number 2 aka AM2. Yes, they've combined the fighters from VF and FV and thrown in some from Sonic Fighters, a Daytona USA car, Janet from the Virtua Cop series, and one new character never seen in any other games(I think) into one game using the play mechanics of both VF and FV meshed together in one package. Of course to get the other characters mentioned, you need to beat the game's individual levels to gain access to all. Plus there are also a couple of little secrets to be found if one tries hard enough to find it. Bundle this with the FV graphics engine which has been tweaked to perfection(WAY less pop-up and clipping than either of the 2 fighters on the system before), and some great controls and you have a complete package. Of course some things needed to be changed to equalize things between the characters of the 2 games. For one they got rid of the edges of the rings in the Virtua Fighter character stages eliminating the ring outs that aren't present in Fighting Vipers, and they gave the Virtua Fighters armor breaking moves to compensate for their lack of armor. The other thing they did was made some of the Fighting Vipers attacks weaker to compensate for the lack of the armor on the Virtua Fighters. Other than that nothing else has been changed dramatically. So the question comes, with all of these features does the game still stand strongly? The answer is a confident YES without an ounce of doubt. Fans of either of the 2 games will have fun seeing how it is to use their favorite character(s) against characters from the other genres, and newcomers to Sega's 3D fighting games will be able to get a taste of the 2 games without having to buy them seperately. Of course, if you're a fan of neither than you'll hate this compilation just like a diehard Fighting Vipers/Virtua Fighter fan will hate Tekken or Soul Edge games. So with that said, you should know a little about where you stand so go out and get a copy of this game or just avoid it like the plague!