Sonic the Fighters
From Sonic Retro
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| System(s): Sega Model 2B CRX, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Now | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publisher: Sega | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Developer:    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Distributor: Deith Leisure (UK)[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre: Fighting | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Number of players: 1-2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sonic the Fighters (ソニック・ザ・ファイターズ), originally released as Sonic Championship in North America and Europe, is a versus fighting game developed for Sega Model 2B CRX arcade hardware by Sega AM2. It was released in relatively small numbers across the world during 1996.
To date, Sonic the Fighters is the only Sonic fighting game of its kind.
Contents
Story
- This is the official story from the Gamest magazine, issue 173. Translation by Windii.
A large quantity of robots suddenly appeared on the land where peaceful days continued thanks to Sonic's frequent actions, and laid waste to its surroundings.
"This must be Eggman's doing! But where is this huge bunch of robots coming from..." as Tails muttered to himself, he got an emergency message from Espio.
In the video that Espio sent, there was a huge fortress floating on the satellite orbit. Dr. Eggman was dispatching large quantities of robots from the giant space fortress, "Death Egg 2"!
Sonic decided to get to Death Egg 2 alone using a single-seat space rocket "Lunar Fox" that Tails invented. However, in order to fly the rocket, 8 Chaos Emeralds must be collected to act as a power source. Sonic's friends, who spread throughout the world, were guarding the Chaos Emeralds separately so that they are not misused by Eggman (one of them ended up being stolen by Fang in the meantime, however...).
First, Sonic and Tails flew over to where Knuckles is. "If the rocket is single-seat, shouldn't the toughest guy be the one riding it?" Knuckles provoked Sonic after hearing what's going on. When Sonic, who obviously believed he was the strongest, accepted Knuckles's challenge and was about to fight him, Tails forced his way between the two. Tails proposed fighting fair and square in the ring, and the one who wins against all of their buddies in the world will ride the rocket.
Who will be the one to win against everyone, collect the Chaos Emeralds, and save the world? The gong of fate is now echoing.
Gameplay
Sonic the Fighters is a one-on-one versus fighting game similar in design to AM2's previous arcade fighting game outings; Virtua Fighter (and Virtua Fighter 2) and Fighting Vipers. Like these games, the objective is to attack the opposing player until a health bar depletes to zero over the best of three rounds. Rounds are also time-limited, meaning if nobody is defeated after a time counter reaches zero, the player with the most energy remaining is declared the winner. If both health bars are at the same value at the end of the round, a "draw" is called and the round is played again.
As one of eight selectable fighters, the player is tasked with completing ten matches in succession to beat the game. There are also three buttons, "barrier" (
), "punch" (
), and "kick" (
), which along with a joystick for movement, can combined to perform more complicated moves and inflict more damage. Taking cues from Fighting Vipers, each of the arenas is enclosed by walls, although unlike that game, it is not possible to slam opponents through them at the end of the match.
Like other Sega fighting games from this period, the world is presented in 3D, but characters still fight on a 2D plane (albeit one that "rotates" depending on which moves are used)
Characters
Under normal circumstances, Sonic the Fighters contains eight playable characters, with a further two being controlled exclusively by the computer.
| Sonic the Hedgehog | |
|---|---|
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Stage: | |
| Sonic can transform into Super Sonic during the final matches if he gets through the game without losing a single round. | |
| Miles "Tails" Prower | |
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Stage: | |
| Fang the Sniper | |
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Stage: | |
| Bean the Dynamite | |
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Stage: | |
| Bark the Polar Bear | |
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Stage: | |
| Espio the Chameleon | |
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Stage: | |
| Amy Rose | |
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Stage: | |
| Knuckles the Echidna | |
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Stage: | |
When two similar characters face each other the second player will be replaced with a grayscale copy created by Dr. Eggman. If a character defeats the first eight opponents, he or she will face Metal Sonic and Eggman aboard the Death Egg II.
Move list
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Main article: Sonic the Fighters/Move list |
Achievements
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Main article: Sonic the Fighters/Achievements |
History
Development
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Main article: Sonic the Fighters/Development |
Legacy
From the moment of its announcement it was expected, and later confirmed, that Sonic the Fighters would be ported to the Sega Saturn in the months that followed, however while the game remained in the schedules as late as mid-1997 (with a vague 1998 release date[20]), no such version ever materialised. Sonic and Tails are not present in the Saturn version of Fighting Vipers either, however Bean and Bark would make an appearance in the 1997 release of Fighters Megamix.
Sonic the Fighters would not make it to the home until the 2005 release of Sonic Gems Collection. It was at this point where the "Sonic Championship" name was dropped from international versions and has never been used since. Sonic the Fighters would then be brought to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade as part of Model 2 Collection in 2012, with online play and the ability to play as the boss characters, Metal Sonic and Dr. Eggman, as well as unused character Honey the Cat. Sonic the Fighters is also playable at the in-game arcades in 2021's Lost Judgment, with Honey and the boss characters once again playable.
While a fighting game of this style has not been attempted since Sonic the Fighters' original release, Sonic Battle for Game Boy Advance offers an alternative style of Sonic fighting game, and Sonic was added as a selectable fighter in the Super Smash Bros. series, beginning with Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii.
Manuals
Japanese Sonic the Fighters Manual
English Sonic Championship Manual
Production credits
- Director: Hiroshi Kataoka
- Game Coordinator: Daichi Katagiri
- Programmers: Daichi Katagiri, Susumu Morii, Eiji Ikuta, Hiroshi Masui
- Character Designer: Masahiro Sugiyama
- Stage Designers: Yasuko Suzuki, Wataru Kawashima
- 2D Graphic & Model Design: Takako Kawaguchi
- Graphic & Model Design: Kazunori Oh
- Motion Designers: Daichi Katagiri, Hiroki Iwasaki
- Sound Designer: Maki Morrow
- Special Thanks: original Sonic Team, Katsunori Itai, Goho Ogura, Syuji Takahashi, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Susumu Takatsuka
- Producer: Yu Suzuki
- Presented by: Sega
Promotional material
Japanese Arcade Poster
Japanese UFO Disc
A Prepaid Telephone Card
The Manual, Bezel Art, Control Panel Overlay, and Billboard for Sonic the Fighters
A T-Shirt
A closeup of the T-Shirt.
Artwork
Character select sprites
Photo gallery
Cabinet
Cabinet
Cabinet Control Panel
Physical scans
Sonic Championship Marquee
Sonic Championship Bezel Bottom
Sonic Championship Bezel Top
Sonic Championship Cabinet Side Art
Sonic Championship Promotional Flyer
Sonic the Fighters Arcade Flyer - Front
Sonic the Fighters Arcade Flyer - Back
Sonic - JP Moveset Card
Tails - JP Moveset Card
Amy - JP Moveset Card
Knuckles - JP Moveset Card
Fang - JP Moveset Card
Bean - JP Moveset Card
Espio - JP Moveset Card
Bark - JP Moveset Card
External links
- Sonic the Fighters on PlayStation.com: JP, US, KR
- Sonic the Fighters on PlayStation Store: JP, US, UK, AU, KR, TW
- Sonic the Fighters on Xbox Marketplace: JP, US, UK, AU
- Japanese Model 2 Collection page on the game
- The Last Arcade Crusaders: Hiroshi Kataoka article by 1Up written by Ali Hasan Almaci and Heidi Kemps, Foreword by James Mielke. 3.31.2006
References
- ↑ [cvg, issue 174, page 26 cvg, issue 174, page 26]
- ↑ File:Sega Arcade History JP EnterBrain Book-1.pdf, page 140
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Xbox LIVE Marketplace (ja-JP; Sonic-the-Fighters/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025841129e) (Wayback Machine: 2012-12-03 04:34)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 http://blogs.sega.com/2012/11/27/round-one-fight-am2-classics-available-now/ (Wayback Machine: 2012-11-30 01:59)
- ↑ Xbox LIVE Marketplace (en-US; Sonic-the-Fighters/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025841129e) (Wayback Machine: 2012-11-29 04:49)
- ↑ Xbox LIVE Marketplace (en-GB; Sonic-the-Fighters/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025841129e) (Wayback Machine: 2012-11-28 15:17)
- ↑ Xbox LIVE Marketplace (fr-FR; Sonic-the-Fighters/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025841129e) (Wayback Machine: 2012-12-15 15:12)
- ↑ Xbox LIVE Marketplace (de-DE; Sonic-the-Fighters/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025841129e) (Wayback Machine: 2018-06-30 00:21)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Xbox LIVE Marketplace (en-AU; Sonic-the-Fighters/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025841129e) (Wayback Machine: 2012-12-29 14:51)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 http://www.jp.playstation.com:80/software/title/jp0177npjb00250_00sonicthefighters.html (Wayback Machine: 2012-12-01 01:39)
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 http://blogs.sega.com/2012/11/20/am2-fighting-games-headed-to-xbla-and-psn/ (Wayback Machine: 2012-11-28 03:56)
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 PlayStation Store (en-us; UP0177-NPUB30927_00-SONICTHEFIGHTERS) (Wayback Machine: 2018-04-03 20:34)
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 PlayStation Store (fr-fr; EP0177-NPEB01162_00-SONICTHEFIGHTERS) (Wayback Machine: 2018-04-03 20:35)
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 PlayStation Store (de-de; EP0177-NPEB01162_00-SONICTHEFIGHTERS) (Wayback Machine: 2018-12-13 02:28)
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 PlayStation Store (en-gb; EP0177-NPEB01162_00-SONICTHEFIGHTERS) (Wayback Machine: 2018-04-03 20:34)
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 PlayStation Store (en-au; EP0177-NPEB01162_00-SONICTHEFIGHTERS) (Wayback Machine: 2018-04-03 20:34)
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 PlayStation Store (ko-kr; HP0177-NPHB00515_00-SONICTHEFIGHTERS) (Wayback Machine: 2018-04-03 20:35)
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 PlayStation Store (en-tw; HP0177-NPHB00515_00-SONICTHEFIGHTERS) (Wayback Machine: 2018-04-03 20:36)
- ↑ http://www.jp.playstation.com:80/software/title/jp0177npjb00250_00sonicthefighters.html (Wayback Machine: 2015-11-01 20:40)
- ↑ File:SegaSaturnPerfectCatalogue JP 1997.pdf, page 87
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Main page |
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| Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems | |
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1991 Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog | SegaSonic Cosmo Fighter | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | SegaSonic the Hedgehog 1996 Sonic the Fighters 2011 Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Arcade 2015 Sonic Dash Extreme 2016 Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Arcade Edition 2020 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Arcade Edition Prototypes SegaSonic the Hedgehog (revision A)
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