Fighting Vipers 2 Hands-On

Fighting Vipers was the original companion piece to Sega's popular Virtua Fighter series, and we're now awaiting the US release of Fighting Vipers 2, the latest in this somewhat unconventional 3D fighting series. AM2, the same team behind Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter, and Shenmue, has made the Model 3 conversion as well as can be expected for a port of a rather dated Japanese arcade game.

The original eight fighters are back, and it's up to you to decide whether that's a good thing or not. There are three new starting characters and four that can be unlocked, and all the combatants have their own unique gimmicks and sets of moves. Returning to the series are Raxel, the heavy metal icon, Honey, the cosplay girl in her rubber miniskirt, and all the rest. The new characters fit in well among the oddly designed original eight. Emi is your trendy Japanese youth, wearing an oversized teddy bear on her back and incorporating ground-fighting techniques similar to those used by Dr. Boskonovitch of Tekken fame. One of the more out of place characters, Charlie, uses a BMX bike and aggressive Matt Hoffman-esque moves. Mahler is the pre-snakeskin version of the game's final boss, The Great B.M. Surviving fans of the original Fighting Vipers may recognize the popular Pepsi Man character, who makes his return in Fighting Vipers 2 as Kuhn, albeit sans the corporate logo and with an alternate golden sheen. The game also purportedly features more hidden characters, but we haven't unlocked them as of yet.

Fighting Vipers 2 features the series' trademark unique character models, and their design is still rather questionable. The age of the Fighting Vipers franchise is definitely showing--the character models just aren't as smooth or as lifelike as those of other fighters. While realism may not be what AM2 was shooting for, the quality of the selectable fighters is in question. The characters do, however, animate very nicely, and their attacks are smooth enough to make stringing combos together pleasing. The backgrounds are unimpressive in particular, the bar having been raised by games like Tekken Tag Tournament, Soul Calibur, and Dead or Alive 2.

Fighting Vipers 2 incorporates the same elements that originally set it apart from Virtua Fighter--the armor and one-hit kill systems. Each character wears some form of outerwear or accessory as armor over his or her upper torso and lower body, and the pieces of that armor are knocked-off after successful hits. Get whacked enough times, and your armor is totally gone, leaving you vulnerable to a greatly increased amount of damage per blow. You can, however, shed your armor voluntarily, as it enables the one-hit kill maneuver. Pull off the one-hit kill, and you can revel in the flashy special effects that accompany the double-round victory. The one-hit kills are fairly difficult to pull off effectively in the midst of combat, though, and aiming for this sort of win is more likely to net you a loss than any kind of spectacular finish.

The fighting system is a familiar one. Directional arrows in combination with the punch, kick, and guard buttons produce a large array of moves, but players used to fighting games such as Tekken and Street Fighter may find the action a bit simplified in execution. While the mechanics lend themselves toward lots of combos and countering, matches tend toward block-fests, where players wait for the opponent to make a mistake and thus get stung with a four-hit chain. The computer AI is notoriously bad about using the same three- or four-hit chain again and again, whether it's effective or not, to players' chagrin, and, more likely, boredom. Advanced techniques, such as instant guard counters and knocking your opponent out of the arenas, add a unique flavor to the otherwise repetitive duels. Proponents of the Virtua Fighter style of fighting game will find enough depth to keep them happy until the next Sega flagship fighter is released.

Fighting Vipers 2 will also incorporate some form of Internet capability, most likely for uploading your "Viper rank" and win-loss record to the Web for comparison with the records and rank of other players. Our Japanese version didn't allow us to connect, so more details on the connectivity capabilities will have to await the US release.

Fans of kitschy gimmicks and Virtua Fighter-style fighting will undoubtedly enjoy Fighting Vipers 2, as it is steeped heavily in the series' tradition. Those interested in this series should keep an eye out for the game, which is tentatively scheduled to reach US shores in March.