EDITOR'S NOTE When my worker drone handed this particular article to me, he kept muttering 'Never again... Never again...' while shivering profusely. After I injected him with the horse tranquiliser to calm him down (it's becoming a habit with him) I got the full story out of him- Saturn emulation these days is, to put it lightly, pretty shitty. As such, the screenshots he gave to me (which I've had to change into .jpegs, urgh) took hours to get when, normally, it'd only take about ten minutes. So, bear that in mind while you're reading this. He'll thank you for it. However, through the power of science, you can click nearly every picture here to get to see a better, bigger, less-looking-like-ass snapshot. So click, damn you. Click like your life depends on it... Because maybe it does.

Remember when Sega were totally awesome and in-your-face, and didn't suck? I miss those days. Back when Sega were in the console market game, they were ballsy. They had what I like to call moxie, and they pulled some pretty crazy stunts. Genesis DOES what Nintendon't. BLAST PROCESSING. Welcome to the Next Level. Sony sucks and Sega rules (that last one comes from The Typing of the Dead). This was the Sega that brought us the pioneer of Blue Skies in Gaming, OutRun... The Sega that delivered the so-close-to-real-life-it's-scary adventure Shenmue... The Sega that re-wrote the book on fighting games with Virtua Fighter... Oh, wait, hold on a second! All of those games are from Sega AM2, the most bitchin' Research and Development department in the world!



Yes, Sega AM2, the guys who brought you Dynamite Dux, Super Hang-On, Power Drift, After Burner II, Space Harrier, Rent-a-Hero... I don't think I really need to go on anymore. If there are better videogame developers out there today (aside from Valve, of course) I've yet to hear of them. These are the guys who were crazy enough to try and make Shenmue for the Sega Saturn and the wonderful people who made Daytona USA, which is often regarded as one of the most successful arcade games of all time. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. So, you know, Sega AM2's pretty cool, and if you see that little palm tree logo, you know you're in for a good time. In case it's not obvious, I am a tremendous fanboy.

But with all that said, there's one thing about Sega AM2 that makes me very sad. They're pretty good for bringing back dead franchises here and there- in recent years, we've had revivals of Virtua Cop, After Burner, and of course, OutRun (with some help from the jolly nice British chaps at Sumo Digital) but, of all their works, they've still yet to go back to one of my personal favourites, all the way from 1995. Since then, there's been one sequel, one re-release, and that's it. What game am I talking about? Well, hopefully you're not completely stupid, and you've figured it out by now. But if not...

Enter... The Vipers!
The Fighting Vipers!



According to the (abysmally translated) instruction manual...

Hyper-adrenal combatants in full-body armour, battling night and day in back alley rings - only such young urban warriors as these 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 to which only one will see the end...

Erm, yes, there you go then. Hyper-adrenal combatants indeed!



Fighting Vipers is essentially the slightly weird sibling of Virtua Fighter 2, and so it shouldn't be surprising that it shares the same fundamental principles- it's a one-on-one fighter with three buttons, Punch, Kick, and Guard, the uses of which should be obvious. Also like VF2, there aren't any fireballs or ridiculous super-powers here; they're entirely absent, as are Street Fighter-esque joystick motions for special moves- both VF2 and FV rely more on strings of button inputs to form combos and combining buttons (P+G for a grab, G+K for a strong kick, etc.). It's a fighting system that's easy to get to grips with, and the only real criticism is the huge pool of moves that all the characters share- on the one hand, this means that you can learn the basics with one character and apply it to the others which makes getting comfortable with the game easier, but on the other, the cast doesn't 'feel' as unique as they could be, at least in terms of move lists. They all have their own individual moves, obviously, but they're really in the minority.

A big difference between Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers, however, is the speed. If VF2 is an elegant waltz between two skilled dancers, with graceful and perfectly timed movements, FV is a breakdance performed by a hobo who's hepped up on raw sugar and makes each move slightly more ridiculous than the last. This isn't poetry in motion- it's fast, flashy stuff without much thought for any of this 'meta-game' or 'subtlety' guff. Fights are so frantic that you're literally bouncing off the walls after being hit! Lots of people accuse the game of being dumbed-down, and that's pretty true, but as a result, it's a bit friendlier for people who aren't fighting game aficiandos. See it as the traditional fighter's rendition of Smash Bros.- easy to pick up, not that hard to master either.



Moves and speed aside, this game also adds in a couple of gimmicky extras into the mix. For one, each character wears completely ridiculous armour, which you can knock off as the fight progresses- there's a little Armour Status picture next to each player's lifebar, and when a part of it starts to flash (either the top of the bottom), you can destroy that part of the armour with the right attack. When they're without it, the Vipers are more vulnerable (and more likely to catch a cold) so they'll take a lot more damage. Furthermore, breaking the armour is accompanied by an awesome snapping sound effect. It sounds... Painful. Some might find this feature a bit worthless, but it adds a tiny bit of strategy to the proceedings- those on the attack can focus their attacks on the top/bottom of their enemy, and those on the defense have to outright avoid attacks rather than simply block them.

There's also the fact that the Vipers all participate in cage matches; every arena in the game is in a walled arena, with no escape for either combatant. Needless to say, this means you can basically pin your enemy to the wall and smack them silly against it, but you can also use special throws that utilise the wall, and some characters can even climb up them to drop-kick their opponent. It adds a really nice claustrophobic feel to the game, which is something that's pretty unique to this game. Also, using the right attack to finish your opponent off can either smash the wall entirely, or sling them on top of the wall to let 'em dangle. Niiiice.



If this was all that Fighting Vipers did, then it'd be pretty forgettable- outside of Soul Calibur IV, has armour-breaking played a part in any other fighting game?!- but what Fighting Vipers truly excells at is really, really stupid character design. The original cast of 8 characters (let's ignore the secret ones for a second) absolutely scream 'we're from the 90s!', complete with gaudy colour schemes, ridiculous armour, and the sorts of bells n' whistles that would make the cast of your average anime show jealous. Despite this, all the characters seem to have this odd charm- you know they're over-the-top but you can't help but like them all the same. To demonstrate my point, here's the cast- click their pictures to see 'em in-game.


Grace First character on the select screen also happens to be the most boring. There's just very little to say about Grace, really- she wanted to be an ice-skating champion according to the manual, and so she fights in rollerblades. I'm sure these two facts are connected somehow. Anyway, something that should be obvious from the fact that she's even wearing rollerblade sin the first place is that her trademark is her feet- she possesses some absolute vicious kicking combos, with the most notable being her 5-hit sweep combo, but she's also got a load of other variations on the theme. Her attacks are also incredibly fast, but not really that strong, though. She's not terribly interesting otherwise.


Bahn Despite not being listed first on the character select screen, Bahn is the Ryu of this game, the Akira, the Jago; whatever you want to call him, he's the typical wandering martial arts guy. Hilariously, the manual says that his self-given nickname is (wait for it) Genghis Bahn the 3rd. I'm serious. Go look it up if you want. Anyway, being the token tough martial arts dude, he's strong with average speed, and he focuses upon his punches. He's also a little bit broken; holding forward and mashing P like no tomorrow will pretty much destroy the computer opponents on any difficulty setting save for Very Hard. Using it on a real-life opponent, however, is not advised, unless you want to take the violence out of the game and into the real world.


Raxel Raxel is very obviously Axl Rose an extremely original character design which is clearly not inspired by anyone famous in the least, and in particular, he certainly isn't based on a nameless rock 'n roll band frontman who was popular during the 90s. This is because he's clearly based on the hair-metal bands of the 80s. Joining in the scuffle to promote his band, Raxel fancies himself the protégé of Pete Townshend of The Who, as he uses his guitar as a weapon for many of his moves Needless to say, it's quite powerful, although using it took much makes it start to flash- if your enemy hits you hard enough, it'll be smashed into pieces. That's all Raxel's got going for him, aside from a few nasty sweep kicks and a spinning piledriver.


Tokio Oh, wait, I'm sorry, did I call Grace the most boring character in the game? Ah, my apologies, but I'm mistaken- that accolade goes to Tokio here, at least when it comes to character design. He's just a pretty boy who used to be in a gang, and that's literally all there is to him. He's here for the ladies, you see. Nice to see that AM2 made sure to include some eye-candy for the women too- he has a habit of taking his shirt off for the portrait pictures (he does it here and in Fighters Megamix, the dirty exhibitionist) and, outside that, there's little to say. Oh, yeah, his speciality is his wide array of combos- starting with a single kick, he can do choose from a nice variety of fast-but-weak combo attacks.


Sanman Enter Sanman! Who is this strange dude? No-one knows, and he ain''t talking. All we know is that he's obssessed with motorbikes and the number 3 for some strange reason. Not that this has any impact on the game, of course... He's the 'tank' of the game, as his moves are slow, but he packs a mean punch, and he's got a wide variety of throws which can do some heavy damage, although the nastier ones require precise timing to pull off. Some may say he's not worth bothering with because he attacks so slowly, but he's got enough strength to make up for it, and even his standard throw is pretty powerful. Tied with Honey for the character I play best with. Amusingly enough, he shares a few moves with Honey, specifically her butt attack... Good Lord, why?!


Jane Wh-wh-wh-what?! Heavens to Betsy, it's a female character in a fighting game that isn't of the fast-but-weak category, and isn't defined by her sex appeal! Could Fighting Vipers be a convention-breaking game in this regard? Well, not really, but Jane's still one of the more interesting characters of this colourful bunch, sporting some really heavy armour to fight in. She's joined the tournament to prove how tough she is, and her immense power is proof enough... Obviously, she's in the slow-but-strong-attacks category, and as well as her vicious punch attacks, she's got a few multi-chain throws at her disposal, which usual centre around kicking her opponent in the ghoulies. Nice.


Honey Ah. The requisite knicker-flashing schoolgirl character, she's apparently here to advertise her fashion line. She's blatantly in this game for the perverts in the audience. Known as Candy in the UK/US versions (I've kept it as Honey to be consistent) she is completely ridiculous. Her gaudy, over-the-top red plastic costume has bloody fairy wings on it and she seems to think she's a cat. Hence the 'cat punch' speciality. Her other attacks include distracting the enemy by tickling them (?!), lunging at them with her butt, and crawling between their legs. Naturally, her attacks are fast but weak, but that goes without saying. Incidentally, she's the other character I'm good with, mostly because she's good at juggling and keeping the enemy on their toes. I don't play as her for, uh, other reasons, I promise.


Picky The youngest Viper, Picky is also in the fast-but-weak camp, has an annoying voice, and is almost entirely insufferable, to the point where I forgot why he's in this game. He is the Sailor Moon of Fighting Vipers, the fist of 90s 'cool' punching you in square in the jaw repeatedly, and if I had my way, he would've been beaten to death with a plank of with with a nail in it long, long ago... Oh, sorry, I guess I should talk about his moves. Like the little cheater he is, he's brought a weapon with him- his skateboard. Using it too much gets it weak, just like Raxel's guitar, so the enemy can smash it. If you're smart, though, you won't use Picky- he's the worst character, because he's so pitifully weak.



It's easy to accuse Fighting Vipers of just being a variant on Virtua Fighter 2, but you know what? I'd take this over VF2 any day of the week. Maybe it's the campy 90s vibe of the game, maybe it's the completely ludicrous character designs, or maybe, just maybe, it's the fact that it's so much faster than VF2 that makes it more enjoyable. Not that I'm saying Virtua Fighter 2 isn't a good game- it's an amazing technical achievement for the Sega Saturn, and an excellent fighting game to boot, but when compared to Fighting Vipers, it's a bit on the sluggish side, and the characters just aren't as interesting. Most people probably won't like Fighting Vipers for the very reasons I like it, preferring VF2's grace to FV's loose-and-wild style, but hey, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Whatever it is that Fighting Vipers has, though, it never got much attention. There was a sequel in 1998 that added a few new characters and made everyone even more ridiculous-looking which was ported to the Dreamcast in 2001, but only released in Japan and Europe. It wasn't very popular, so I guess that's why the series quietly died. There was also an arcade-perfect conversion of the original game released in Japan in 2005 for the PS2 as part of the Sega Ages 2500 series, but without the cool extras of the Saturn release. So, short of the Vipers' appearance in the amazing Fighters Megamix, the series only ever got one unpopular sequel, one bare-bones re-release, and a few scraps of merchandise that can be found on this relatively normal page on an otherwise horrifyingly creepy fansite (click on MY SWEET HONEY for absolute terror) and I think it's a shame. It may not have done that much differently, but the cast's a lot more memorable than some of the other fighting games of the period, and it's got plenty of charm. It tries, bless it, and it's genuinely fun to play, so go and seek it out- the Saturn port, especially the Japanese version, is extremely cheap, and while it's not arcade-perfect, it does the job without compromising the game's speed.



However, writing out a little love-song for this game wasn't the only reason this article's here. The thing is, there's a lot about Fighting Vipers that hasn't been very well-documented on the internet, primarily the unlockable content in the Saturn version. A lot of it is poorly worded and vague, and what compunds this is the fact that the Japanese version has a load of cool stuff that was ripped mercilessly out of the Western versions. Mostly involving Honey. Ahem. So, I decided to clear all this up, and give you people the definitive guide to unlocking everything in the game. You can either click the big button below, or click here for a concise list.

The other thing is that the disc has all the pictures in the Portrait gallery if you shove it into your PC, and these pictures range from 'cool' to 'a glance into the uncanny valley'. To get them, though, you need a special extraction tool (which I found courtesy of one of the extremely useful folks down at The SegaSaturn.co.uk Forums and, since I'm evidently a glutton for punishment, I decided to save you the trouble and extract the lot, presenting them here for all and sundry to view.



No fancy-ass button for the 'back to the index' page, I'm afraid! Clicky-clicky to go home.