Fighting Vipers

Fighting Vipers is a 3D fighting video game created by Sega AM2. While it shares the game engine with AM2's Virtua Fighter 2, it distinguishes itself with enclosed arenas and an armour mechanic. The game is primarily designed for Western audiences, incorporating a U.S. setting and embracing more freeform styles of martial arts.

Released: 30 November 1996
Platforms: Arcade PlayStation 3 PlayStation Portable Sega Saturn Xbox 360
Genres: Fighting
Developers: Sega AM2
Publishers: —
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB T

About

Fighting Vipers is a 1995 fighting video game developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for arcades. A 3D fighter, it uses the same game engine as AM2's Virtua Fighter 2 (1994), but features enclosed arenas and an armor mechanic, and was targeted more towards Western audiences, using a U.S. setting and more freeform styles of martial arts.

The game was released in November 1995 in arcades, using the Sega Model 2 hardware, before it was ported to the Sega Saturn home console in 1996. Though Fighting Vipers was not very popular in North American arcades, the Saturn version was one of the most high-profile games in the system's 1996 holiday lineup, and was met with positive reviews. A sequel was made, Fighting Vipers 2 (1998), and all characters in the original also appeared in a crossover with Virtua Fighter 2, Fighters Megamix (1996).

›Story

Hyper-adrenal combatants in full-body armour, battling night and day in back-alley rings - only such young gurba warriors have earned the right to be called Vipers...

Now in Armstone City, the mayor has formally announced a fighting tournament on a grand scale, with the final bout to be held atop the staggering City Tower in the centre of town.

With City Tower as their ultimate goal, eight young Vipers start down the path to victory, a path which only one will see the end...

Keywords

3d fighter
armor

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Fighting Vipers features a similar style of gameplay to Sega AM2's more renowned Virtua Fighter series, specifically Virtua Fighter 2, using simply guard, punch and kick attack buttons with a focus on combo moves. The Saturn version uses its three extra buttons for three smaller combos.

Each of the 9 characters featured in the game wears armor that can be broken off by opponents, leaving them more vulnerable to taking damage. A human shaped meter in the top corners of the screen monitors damage to the armor. Walls surround each arena, caging the combatants in, allowing for attacks in conjunction with them (bouncing off etc.). If a knockout attack is strong enough, characters can knock their opponent over, on top, or straight through the walls.

Development

Fighting Vipers was developed using the same game engine which was first used for Virtua Fighter 2, and uses a nearly identical arcade board, though with slightly faster processing speed. Unlike Virtua Fighter 2, there are no ring-outs; producer Yu Suzuki stated, "We received comments about the ring-outs in VF indicating different changes, [sic] and so for FV the fighting can continue mercilessly."

The character Mahler was created by reducing the power specifications of the boss, B.M., so that he would be appropriately balanced for player vs. player matches.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Fighting Vipers on their December 15, 1995 issue as being the most popular arcade game at the time. It went on to be one of the top five highest-grossing arcade printed circuit board (PCB) software of 1996 in Japan. It was considerably less popular in North American arcades.

Reviewing the arcade version, Next Generation called Fighting Vipers "a beautiful, highly polished, polygon-rendered and texture-mapped game featuring brand new characters, unprecedented closed-in arenas (for a 3D fighter), a slightly different set of fighting strategies using armor, and a more cinematic style of viewing." The reviewer also praised the more intuitive button combinations used to execute moves. Despite this, he concluded that the game fails to measure up to recent fighting games, chiefly due to the "strained" character designs: "Raxel, Jane, Picky, Sanman are undeniably trendy and conclusively uncool ... They lack the artful, graceful movements of VF2's Lau, Sarah, or Pai."

Legacy

A sequel, Fighting Vipers 2 was released, introducing new characters. It was ported to the Dreamcast but only in Japan and Europe.

All of the Fighting Vipers characters were used in Sega AM2's Fighters Megamix for the Sega Saturn. Fighting Vipers was also re-released for the PlayStation 2 as part of the Sega Ages line. A PAL version was planned, but never released.