| Sonic the Fighters | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Sega-AM2 |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Designer(s) | Yu Suzuki (Producer) Hiroshi Kataoka (Director) |
| Artist(s) | Masahiro Sugiya (Character Designer) |
| Composer(s) | Maki Morrow Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (Special Thanks) |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, GameCube, PlayStation 2 |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | Sega Model 2 |
Sonic the Fighters is a fighting game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The game's original Japanese title, Sonic The Fighters, is used in North American and European releases of Sonic Gems Collection.
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Dr. Robotnik (Doctor Eggman in the Japanese version. His North American name, Dr. Robotnik, was misspelled as "Dr. Robotonic") has built the Death Egg II, along with Metal Sonic. Tails alerts Sonic to this and they plan to fly into space via the Lunar Fox, a spaceship Tails built in an effort to stop it. However, as it is a single seater, only one of them can go and it requires the energy of eight Chaos Emeralds. The two set off in the Tornado to find them, detecting one in Knuckles's possession. Sonic demands that he hands it over, but Knuckles queries as to why Sonic should be the one to go. It is therefore decided that a tournament of sorts will be held to see who has the honor of piloting the Lunar Fox.
If a character defeats all eight opponents, they will go on to face Metal Sonic and Dr. Robotnik. However, the player has to defeat Dr. Robotnik within 15 seconds of his stage to get the ending. If he is not beaten on time, the player receives a Game Over. If the player wins, the playable character escapes the exploding Death Egg II. Dr. Robotnik and Metal Sonic are seen after the credits, seeking vengeance.
The game's mechanics are based on those used in the Virtua Fighter series. The three buttons are respectively for punching, kicking, and blocking. The block button supplements the barrier system, in which if the blocking character takes several hits then the barrier will be destroyed. Players will have a limited supply of barriers, thus if one has no barriers left, he or she is unable to block. Pressing all three buttons result in a sidestep, which can be followed by a punch. The player can also activate "hyper mode" at the cost of one barrier, which will extend combo possibilities.
Masahiro Sugiyama, a character designer at AM2, added Sonic and Tails into the fighting game Fighting Vipers. Yu Suzuki saw this and decided to present the idea of a 3D Sonic fighting game to Hiroshi Kataoka. Suzuki then presented the idea to Yuji Naka.[1] Initial thoughts about the game were that the game would give Sonic a negative and violent image, and Kataoka thought that Naka would not approve, but Naka loved the idea and approved of the game's development.[2] This was Sonic's first 3D debut and had Naka's full support. The game was released in Japanese arcades in June 1996, running on Sega Model 2 hardware.[3]
These characters are NPCs.
These characters are only accessible by hacking. They are in-game characters, but cannot be used if playing normally.
¹These characters share the name "Dr. Eggman"; thus, their names are unofficial. Model data also exists for another character, which is Eggman in a vehicle resembling a walking tank, but the character itself does not exist. There has been a hack that replaces the normal Eggman Mech model with this one, but due to an incomplete modification, he sometimes flashes back to the normal Mech, but only for a single frame.
The game saw very limited release in North American arcades, as Sega of America considered the game's portrayal of Sonic and his friends to be too violent, and feared it gave Sonic a negative image. Nevertheless, many years later Sega would shy away from this stance with a new and completely different fighting game for the Game Boy Advance called Sonic Battle, and later Sonic himself became an unlockable character in the Wii game Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with a large amount of his moves actually based on attacks that he used in Sonic the Fighters.
A Sega Saturn version of the game was also announced but never released, though some elements appeared in the Saturn game Fighters Megamix. The game was ported to home consoles on Sonic Gems Collection, for the GameCube in North America and, in Europe and Japan, the PlayStation 2 and the GameCube. In the port, model data of all unused characters was removed. Character data still exists, but upon selection, the game crashes due to the missing models.
The game received mixed to negative reviews at all in its initial release, due to a limited release in arcades, and the Sega Saturn version being cancelled. The game garnered more attention in its 2005 re-release as part of Sonic Gem Collection. Gamespot described the game as "a stripped-down version of Virtua Fighter 2, and called it "dated and simplistic"[4] IGN echoed those sentiments, stating that it "plays like a streamlined version of the original Virtua Fighter" and closed with "Not that it's a terrible fighter, mind you, only that it's a very simple one. If you're expecting a wide assortment of moves and 200-hit combos, prepare to be disappointed. The selection of playable characters isn't too shabby, but each character's list of moves leaves something to be desired... like better moves." Screw Attack ranked it #4 in its list of worst Sonic games commenting that the characters have sloppy attacks and you can only beat the game with one button saying that "it's just really ridiculous".[5]
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