Fighters Megamix

"It's Virtua Fighter VS Fighting Vipers!!!"

Introduction

Gamers have wondered this for many years- what if all the companies that make fighting games collaborated to make one huge fighting game that stars all of their favourite characters? That probably would not happen because that would involve a huge cross licensing deal. Thanksfully, Sega has combined two fighting games into one. From the genius team that brought you the Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers comes the greatest fighting game collection called Fighters MegaMix- a collection from Sega's best fighters, Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers.

What's The End Result???

The end product is a game which plays slightly more faster than the average game of Fighting Vipers, which includes loaded with secrets, hidden characters, and some other special options. This idea actually works quite brillantly and AM2 has produced another well-established 3-D fighter.

Fighters Megamix runs at a high frame rate and has responsive and intuitive controls. As a 3-D fighter game, you can expect yourself to perform plenty of combos, juggles and special moves. The graphics are asolutely sharp and the animations are smooth. There's no doubt that Fighters MegaMix is easily one of the best looking fighter games around on the Saturn, if not the second best, just after Virtua Fighter 2.

Features

Fighters MegaMix features five main modes, which includes also the one player mode, the training mode, survival mode and so on. What sets it apart from any other collection game is the ability to switch back and forth between Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers modes. For example, in the one player mode, if you choose a character from a Virtua Fighter, you will only fight opponents from the Virtua Fighter game. The same goes to Fighting Vipers as well. Confused? I hope not!

In the survival mode, you have to fight against the whole MegaMix fighters, which includes a mix of Virtua Fighter and Fighters Vipers characters within a certain time limit. The aim of it is to see how many characters you can defeat before the time eventually runs out, or your life bar is depleted until it reaches zero. The team battle mode lets you pick a team of eight characters to versus the computer or a second player. And, lastly, the training mode lets you practise your skills with each fighter and learn all the advanced moves and combos.

Perhaps, the cutest part of Fighters MegaMix is to include some of the cast of Virtua Fighter Kids and even some Sonic friends. Sega finally gets serious this time as many of the fighters have some new moves and new fighting styles. An example is that the Virtua Fighter stars have armour breaking moves, in order to remain competitive with the Vipers. Besides this, there are also walled arenas. The final product is an extremely refreshing gameplay and this extra bonus gives the game a long lasting replay value.

The Only Drawback???

Despite all these good points that I have mentioned so far, Fighters MegaMix has only one mildly disappointing drawback. What is it? That is, most of the characters sport a slightly lower polygon count and some rough textures than the characters found in Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn. Furthermore, the game is played at a slightly lower resolution than Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn. Other than that, Fighters MegaMix, in my opinion, is near flawless.

Conclusion

Need I say anything more? Fighters MegaMix is easily one of the best 3-D fighters on the Saturn. Nothing like this has ever come before. For the first time, I am really applauding Sega for making Fighters MegaMix. Great job, Sega!!! Fighters MegaMix is a classic game and is one that all Saturn owners cannot miss. [Hey, Namco, you heard that? How about giving us a Tekken and Soul Calibur 'universe'? Oh, I must be dreaming again!]

Graphics : 9.5/10.0
Concept : 9.0/10.0
Control : 9.5/10.0
Music : 7.5/10.0
Sound : 8.5/10.0
Gameplay : 10.0/10.0
Replay : 10.0/10.0
Challenge : 9.5/10.0
Overall : 9.0/10.0

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/21/00, Updated 12/16/02