Retro Review: Sonic the Fighters

When you are as popular of a video game mascot as Sonic the Hedgehog is, you tend to star in games based in numerous genres. Besides platform games, Sonic has starred in an RPG, a Mario Party-style board game, some pinball games, and more. At one point, Sonic was even the star of a fighting game called Sonic the Fighters, released in 1996 as an arcade game. Known as Sonic Championship outside of Japan, it became the only Sonic arcade game to be released in North America. However, distribution was limited due to Sega of America's concern that the game portrayed Sonic and his friends in a negative light on account of all the fighting action. It was not until 2005, when the game was included in Sonic Gems Collection for the Nintendo Gamecube, that it became widely available. Having played this version of the game, I find it to be a fairly good fighting game, though far limited compared to other mascot-based fighting games.

Believe it or not, there is a story involved here, though much like other earlier Sonic games, it is not very deep. Dr. Robotnik has constructed a second Death Egg after his first one was destroyed by Sonic and his friends in Sonic 3 and Knuckles. The only way to reach the space station is by flying to it on Tails' spaceship, the Lunar Fox. However, it requires the power of eight Chaos Emeralds to fly, and each emerald is held by a character who is not willing to part with it. As such, one character must fight everyone else in order to gather the emeralds and get to the Death Egg II.

At the start of the game, the player selects one of eight characters to take out ten different opponents. Each character has traits that set him or her apart from everybody else. Sonic the Hedgehog is fast and comes with a spin dash to help him deal with his challengers quickly. Tails the two-tailed fox can fly and slam dunk opponents after grabbing them. Knuckles the echidna mainly uses his powerful fists to deal damage. Amy Rose, a female hedgehog who is also called Rosy the Rascal and is seen here in her pre-Sonic Adventure character design, can wallop foes with her hammer. Nack the weasel, also known as Fang the Sniper and never seen again after this game, is armed with a popgun. Espio the chameleon, who would not be featured again for another eight years when he showed up in Sonic Heroes, could turn invisible. Two new characters, Bark the polar bear and Bean the Dynamite, made their debut and dealt with their opponents using brute force and an unlimited supply of explosives, respectively. While these two characters did not materialize in any other Sonic game, they are occasionally featured in Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic book.

The opponents are faced in a set order, and at one point, the character that the player selects is cloned and appears as a gray scale version of him or her. Each challenger can be defeated with kicks, punches, grabs, and various special moves. Whoever defeats his or her opponent before the time runs out or has the most health when time expires is the winner. After a set number of matches, the player can move on to the next challenger or, if his or her opponent wins more matches, choose to try to beat that character again. Once the first eight challengers are defeated, the player moves on to the Death Egg II, where he or she will fight two more opponents: Metal Sonic, a robotic version of the world famous hedgehog, and Dr. Robotnik.

These characters are certainly no pushovers, and Metal Sonic in particular can be a bit of a pain. Even if you are successful in defeating him, you must deal with Robotnik in a fight that must be won within fifteen seconds. If you manage to defeat him, you will receive the game's best ending. If you fail, the game will be over. That's right...while you have an unlimited amount of continues to use against the other nine opponents, simply losing to Robotnik once will result in a bad ending. It can be frustrating to get all the way to the end, just to end up losing to Sonic's archenemy. Also, neither of these characters are playable, as there is no way of unlocking them.

Is Sonic the Fighters any good? Well, yes and no. On the one hand, you have a fair amount of characters, each with their own set of moves. The 3D stages on which you deal with your challengers can be fun, and the game can get challenging towards the end. On the other hand, the game is quite short, though since this is an arcade game, this is not all that shocking. Also, it lacks the massive amount of depth featured in other character-based fighting games, particularly Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl. Lastly, losing to Robotnik is a pain, meaning that all of your efforts to reach him were for naught. Still, this is a fairly good fighting game debut for Sonic...nothing really spectacular, but nothing truly disastrous, either.

This was Sonic's first 3D game, and surprisingly, the 3D graphics are fairly impressive for a 1996 game. The characters look rather blocky by today's standards, but back then, they looked pretty good, as did the stages. In fact, I dare say that they look far better here than they did in Sonic R, in which they looked downright blocky and ugly, even for a 1997 game. The soundtrack consists of numerous dance tunes, some of which are quite catchy. Some of the classic Sonic sound effects, such as the sound that is heard when you lose rings, have been retained, as well. As such, the game is successful in terms of graphics and sound.

While it may not be the best character-based fighting game in existence, Sonic the Fighters is still worth at least trying out. Thanks to its inclusion in Sonic Gems Collection, people who never got a chance to play it in the arcades (and given its limited distribution in North America, that is a lot of people) now have the opportunity to do so. If nothing else, it gives players a chance to see how well of a fighter Sonic was long before he became playable in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I wish that Sega could make a sequel to the game, and maybe give it more depth by featuring more stages, characters, and even more single player and multiplayer modes. In the meantime, give the game a chance and maybe you will enjoy it for a while. Just don't expect a fighting game with a lot to offer in this case.