Fighting Vipers 2 for Sega Dreamcast

When Dreamcast was announced, immediately Sega fans were excited that they were going to be able to play Sega franchises. Any fan knows that through AM2 (formerly headed by Yu Suzuki), Sega has been a leader in 3D fighting games since Virtua Fighter. Sega basically invented the genre.

On Saturn, there were three big AM2 fighting games: Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers, andFighters Megamix.

Virtua Fighter 2 needs no introduction. Fighters Megamix was a totally awesome game that combined all of characters from Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers, plus added some really cool extra characters, like a car from Daytona USA, the chick (Janet?) from Virtua Cop 2, Rent-a-Hero, a few characters from Sonic the Fighters, and more. This week's DCGW is, of course, aboutFighting Viper's 2, and so let's start by giving some background on Fighting Vipers.

Fighting Vipers was a mix of Virtua Fighter and Last Bronx. There were 3D rendered models in a psudo 3D environment. Many characters had outlandish weapons that could be brought into combat like a skate board, or flying V guitar.

The fighting arenas were caged in, which means when a player is cornered then they can use the wall to perform moves, they can take damage from the wall, and if an opponent is defeated with a powerful hit, then they can be sent hurling through the barrier, which is a satisfying effect.

The big unique system to Fighting Vipers is that each character has armor, high armor and low armor, which can be weakened or destroyed in combat. When destroyed, it's visibly absent from the character, and players take more damage. This was a very cool effect, especially for the female fighters.

Fighting Vipers 2 is a graphically improved sequel which introduced new characters, but used the same fighting system. That's not a bad thing at all, because the original is good, and to be just like it is also good. Someone at Sega of America didn't think so, however, so the game was never localized. It can be imported from the UK for little money.

Unfortunately, that also meant that Fighters Megamix 2 never came to be. It would've been great to bash on some VF3 guys with Ryo.