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TGS 2003DreamMix TV: World Fighters Impressions

Konami, Takara, and Hudson characters collide in this Super Smash Bros. Melee-like four-player fighter.

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While there have been plenty of fighting games to try to appeal to a wider market by creating a simple, easy-to-master take on the genre, few have done it as well as Nintendo's popular character clashes found in the Super Smash Bros. games. Konami, Takara, and Hudson have joined together and placed their characters into one Super Smash Bros. Melee-like game called DreamMix TV: World Fighters.

In development for both the PlayStation 2 and GameCube, DreamMix contains characters like Simon Belmont, Bomberman, Twinbee, and Optimus Prime. Each character has a series of easy-to-execute attacks and special attacks that are designed to fit their character. For example, Optimus Prime transforms and swings his trailer around to knock enemies away.

The game's backgrounds also come from the same variety of properties. You'll see stages based on Castlevania, Powerful Pro Baseball, and a Transformers-themed stage that has the characters fighting on top of the Decepticon giant, Devastator.

A fighter will continue to fight at normal capacity for quite some time, but each hit knocks out heart icons that can be collected by any player. After taking enough damage, a character will give up a large heart and shrink down to a non-threatening size. If another player collects this large heart, then the small character will stay small and be effectively out of the running, but if you can quickly grab your own heart, you'll grow back to normal size and continue the fight as an active participant.

Graphically, the game has a similar look to Smash Bros. Melee, in that the arenas are roughly the same size and the view will zoom in and out depending on where the action is. Even the blocking function in the game, which creates a colored bubble around the blocking player, looks roughly identical to the blocking bubble found in the Smash Bros. series.

Well, it appears that DreamMix has done an effective job at making a game that is quite similar to Nintendo's fast and furious fighting game, but we'll have to wait and see if the final product stacks up against such a fine (and fun) fighting series. DreamMix TV: World Fighters is coming to the Japanese PlayStation 2 and GameCube on December 18.

See more of GameSpot's coverage of the 2003 Tokyo Game Show.

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