Fighters Megamix

Developer: Sega-AM2
Publisher:  Sega

Fighters Megamix is a crossover between Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers with a few cameos from other games thrown in for good measure like Virtua Cop's Janet and Daytona USA's Hornet car (yes, you play as a car in a fighting game).

Despite the gameplay being a mix of the previously mentioned fighting franchises, I feel that the balance is a little more in favor of Fighting Vipers, for one, there are no ring outs in this game, I also felt that the characters like Candy are faster and easier to control, plus, they still use their armor giving them an edge, though, to be fair, their throwing techniques aren't as useful in stages without walls and barriers, regardless, I'm still fairly certain that they are slightly overpowered in this game.

In the options screen you can select which style of play you want, basically, this amounts to the physics being changed, meaning that when playing with Virtua Fighter rules, it's much harder to air juggle, leveling the playing field, but when playing in Fighting Vipers mode, I felt there were some balance issues, as previously mentioned.

The engine's graphics are closer to Fighting Vipers then it is to Virtua Fighter 2, the resolution was decreased, the gameplay isn't quite as smooth, the backgrounds don't look as good, heck, even the models don't look as detailed as they did in Virtua Fighter 2, for example, remember when Kage's mask or Pai's hair band fell off during matches? Yeah that doesn't happen here.

Overall, Fighters Megamix is a nice crossover game with awesome gameplay and the graphics are still very good by Saturn standards, but this feels like a Fighting Vipers game first and a Virtua Fighter game second, I do like that they threw in a lot of secret characters from other franchises, some of which make no sense at all (again: you can play as a car in this game) it sort of reminds me of Super Smash Brothers in that regard, only not as silly, a bit weaker as a party game, but better as a fighting game.

Pros:

- Gameplay is fast and fun

- For the most part the gameplay between most characters mixes rather well

- While not up to Virtua Fighters 2 level, the graphics look pretty good

- A lot of weird secret characters
- You can play as a car... IN A FIGHTING GAME!

 
Cons:

- Characters still look a bit boxy, Virtua Fighter characters look worse than they did in VF 2

- Some Balance issues when playing in Fighting Vipers mode or when you're on an open stage

Final Score: A

Of course, like every other Sega-AM2 game, the cover is just your usual poor 90's CGI, in this case we get Akira squaring off a partially obscure fighting Vipers character with a lightning bolt striking right between them.

At least the game comes in a nice late Saturn sturdy plastic box.

Alas, I have no idea where I put the manual for this game, so I don't feel comfortable rating this package until I can find a substitute.

Packaging Grade: N/A