Review by: Dave Z - Editor in Chief

Fighters Megamix is a melding of some of AM2's greatest games and characters. It takes all of the characters from Virtua Fighter, every one of the characters from the US version of Fighting Vipers, two from Virtua Fighter Kids, Janet from Virtua Cop 2, Siba, a character that was originally planned to be in the original Virtua Fighter, two characters from Sonic Fighting, a few oddball characters like the AM2 Palm tree and the Hornet car from Daytona USA, and puts them all in one fighting game. In total you have 32 different fighters to choose from. While the pure novelty of this game alone is worthy of a purchase, AM2 has gone above and beyond their call of duty and created one of the best playing fighters available at home.

Just as Fighters Megamix is loaded with characters, it is also full of various features and gameplay modes. You have the choice of playing the one player mode, survival mode, VS mode, team battle mode, and training mode. The one player mode is the main portion of the game and is where the majority of the secrets and hidden characters will be revealed. When you first play, you will only have 22 different characters to choose from and four different courses to select. Each course has seven different characters that you must defeat with the boss character being one of the secret characters in the game. Once you defeat the particular boss character, that fighter then becomes selectable, and when you complete all of the four courses four more become available and so on. In total, there are ten different courses in total.

The survival mode is a one-player mode where you must fight as many computer controlled opponents in the time allotted, which is either 3, 7 or 15 minutes, without being defeated. The VS mode is for either one or two players and it involves you choosing your character and opponents character and you fight it out in a stage with a wall, without a wall, or a Random area. Then there is the team battle mode that allows one or two players to battle it out with a team of fighters which you get to choose. The last play mode is the training mode that allows you to practice all of the moves and combos for each character in the game. The practice mode is also a key to opening certain secret options, so it is important in the game.

All the characters, modes, options and novelty items are really worthless if the game doesn't have great gameplay, luckily for all of us, the gameplay is probably Fighters Megamix's number one asset. Unlike many other fighters where button smashing and randomness is all that is needed to win, Fighters Megamix has a lot skill based moves and combos that you need to learn. While this may not be noticed in the one player mode where the computer is incredibly easy to defeat even on the hardest difficulty level, once you get in some heated two player battles, you will see where the skill is needed. Another thing that really adds to Megamix's gameplay is the inclusion of Virtua Fighter 3 moves for the Virtua Fighter characters and Janet (who has a lot of Aoi's VF3 moves). While the game plays nothing like Virtua Fighter 3, because everyone moves so much faster, the addition of these VF3 moves gives gamers a chance to get a glimpse of what VF3 is like.

Even though the gameplay is superb, it does have some glaring flaws. First of all, the weird combination of characters really lends to a huge balance problem. Whether you're playing in Virtua Fighter mode or Fighting Vipers mode, the characters from Fighting Vipers have a huge advantage over the Virtua Fighter characters. Plus, it is pretty much impossible to win a two player match if you are using one of the two Virtua Fighter Kids and your opponent is using one of the normal sized characters. Another problem is that characters like Janet and Rent-a-Hero have projectile attacks that can be really hard to avoid at times, giving them a huge advantage over the other characters. While this may seem to be a huge problem for a lot people, it can be avoided rather easily. Since what this game is all about is the two player mode, you have total control over the characters that you use and the type of game play modes that you select. If you don't like the massive juggling and somewhat spazzy gameplay of Fighting Vipers, just stick to using the VF characters in the VF mode and with arenas with no walls. And if you happen to prefer it the other way around you have that choice as well. Plus, when using characters like Janet and Rent-a-Hero, you and your friends do not have to use the projectile attacks.

On the whole, the graphics in Fighters Megamix is a step down from those in the Saturn version of Virtua Fighter 2. With Fighters Megamix, Sega decided to go with a lower resolution but use more special effects like light-sourcing and Gouraud shading. While this does look pretty good with certain characters and in certain stages, like Kage in his stage, on the whole I prefer the sharper hi-resolution graphics in Virtua Fighter 2. Also, the faces of the Virtua Fighter characters in Megamix have a much more blocky appearance when compared to those in VF2. Of course, it must also be said that the characters from Fighting Vipers look a bit better in Fighters Megamix than they did in Saturn Fighting Vipers.

Other problems include the obvious collision detection problems that you would expect when you are using characters based on a Daytona racing car and a Palm tree, disappearing walls in the enclosed cages, and a minor slowdown problem. With regard to the slowdown problem, it does appear that the slowdown in the US version of Fighters Megamix is substantially less than the import version. In fact, in the US version of Megamix many people will not even notice the problem.

The music in Fighters Megamix features a collection of tunes from VF2, Fighting Vipers, Daytona USA, Afterburner and other AM2 games. The sound effects of the punches and kicks are a lot better than VF2's, but the voices are still a bit muffled. But, the great music and sound effects really outweigh the slightly muffled voices.

Overall, Fighters Megamix, while flawed, is probably one of the best overall fighting games on the Sega Saturn or any other home gaming console. Virtua Fighter 2 still gets my vote as the best ever because of the sharper hi-res graphics and the near perfect gameplay, but Fighters Megamix does offer a lot more in the way of extras and will probably appeal to a wider variety of gamers. Fighters Megamix is a must have game for every Saturn owner who even remotely likes fighting games. It just doesn't get much better than this.

RATINGS

Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 8/10
Control: 9/10
Game Play: 9/10
Replay Value: 10/10

OVERALL: 9.0/10