Sango Fighter

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Sango Fighter
Developer(s)	Panda Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Panda Entertainment
Platform(s)	MS-DOS
Release date	1993
Genre(s)	Fighting game
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	OFLC: G8+

Sango Fighter (武將爭霸) is a fighting game for DOS made by the Taiwanese Panda Entertainment and released in 1993. Set in the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, it is very similar to Street Fighter, but with historical context. This game was the first to show great quality 2D computer graphics in this genre on the PC platform.

Shareware developer and publisher Apogee Software was planning on licensing and releasing the game in the United States under the title Violent Vengeance, but the plans for the deal fell through. Panda Entertainment ended up distributing the game in the United States through Accend, under its original title.

The game was ported to the Sega Master System console, with the name Sangokushi, and released only in Asia. This port is one of the larger games in the console library, with 8 megabits of data size.

A sequel was released in 1994, Fighter in China 2, with more characters and better graphics. There may have also been a planned, but unfinished 3D sequel by Panda Software.[1] Fighter in China 2 also featured a conquest mode in which the player attempted to unify the empire by invading other nations. In addition, the kingdom of Wu was added to the game.

"Sango" is a rough romanization of Three Kingdoms. Using pinyin, it would be romanized as "san guo".

Sango Fighter faced stiff competition in the 2D fighting game genre. By 1991 Midway had already found success with Mortal Kombat, and Acclaim developed a home version shortly after. Sango Fighter never came out for Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) which helped both Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. ^[1]

[edit] Characters

The following is a list of the playable characters from Sango Fighter.

The following additional characters are available in Sango Fighter 2.

Cao Cao is not a playable character in Sango Fighter 2, but he retains a role as a character within the story. Liu Bei, Sun Quan, Sima Yi, Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu also serve as story characters.

It is also interesting to note that, even though Sun Ce served as leader of the kingdom of Wu historically before his death, in Sango Fighter 2, he is made a subordinate of his younger brother.