Virtua Fighter 2 set the bar for 32-bit fighting games in my opinion. Even at the end of that generation nothing came close to the level of detail and care Sega put into the gameplay and graphics. Sega threw their all into it. Virtua Fighter 3 hit the arcades, and it seemed like a home port to the Saturn console was inevitable. Unfortunately even Sega knew the platform wasn’t up to the task. Instead owners of the planetary console got something completely different. This is Fighters Megamix. It combined Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers, and threw in a bunch of other quirky bonuses. Is Fighters Megamix still worth playing? Let’s check it out!
Sega didn’t bother throwing a storyline into this package, but why should they? Instead of trying to piece together any kind of scenario I’m instead going to start by going over what this game actually is. Fighters Megamix is basically them pitting the casts of both Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers into one singular brawler while meeting in the middle gameplay-wise. That’s no easy task because the two titles were pretty different from one another. Virtua Fighter 2 was hugely technical and requires a lot of memorizing frames, counters, and really getting familiar with your character of choice. Fighting Vipers was more light hearted with a crazy destructible armor system, smaller arenas with a focus on knockouts, and flashier more simple gameplay.
I’ve talked a lot about Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers up to this point. So what is Fighters Megamix though? This is a 3D fighting game where your ultimate goal is to drain your opponent’s life bar to zero, and win two out of three matches against them. As I mentioned before it mixes the rosters and gameplay elements of the two titles. If you have any experience with either game you’ll be able to jump right in because the movesets, counters, and frame responses are pretty much the same or at least similar. That’s the beauty of Fighters Megamix. It’s basically a mish mash of Sega’s biggest fighting games at the time.
Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers thankfully aren’t as far removed as something like Dead or Alive and Street Fighter. What I mean is that they’re both mostly based on realistic fighting and real world martial arts. You won’t find yourself throwing projectiles and instead the special moves are based on punches, kicks, and throws. Despite this there’s a pretty good amount of variety. You basically have two punches, two kicks, a throw, and a block button. It sounds simple on paper but the special moves and their reach allow for a lot of technical gameplay. Moreso if you’re playing as a VF2 character admittedly. I loved the differences between the rosters and how I had to fine tune my Virtua Fighter strategy to win.
On paper the two shouldn’t be able to combine with any amount of finesse. After all if you simply watch the two games in motion Virtua Fighter 2 animates at about half the pace of Fighting Vipers. Additionally it’s really floaty with jumps that linger, and knock backs that make it feel like you’re falling through clouds. Fighting Vipers on the other hand was much faster, and more similar to something like, say, Tekken, in terms of pace. In this respect I would say that Fighters Megamix takes more cues from Fighting Vipers. While I liked that one far less than VF2 I’m not bothered because the latter’s biggest issue was how slow and floaty it was. Fighters Megamix, while not nearly as polished, fixes the biggest gameplay issue I had with Sega’s big fighter.
The improved game speed comes at a cost however. Fighters Megamix doesn’t have as high a polygon count, nor does it animate as well as VF2. Both of these however fare better than in Fighting Vipers. Megamix walks a delicate line in between the two titles, and that’s just where it should be. Movesets from the characters in both franchises are carried over masterfully. Those from VF2 have been sped up to meet the pace of Megamix. In some ways it’s better, in other ways worse. Regardless I really like the pace of combat. As a hardcore VF2 player I was able to get used to it soon enough.
Small box shaped arenas with an emphasis on ring outs is how Fighting Vipers worked. That’s not however how Virtua Fighter 2 did with it’s endless battlefields. Fighters Megamix uses both methods porting over stages from both. You can do ring outs, and it’s kind of fun with the VF2 cast if I’m honest because it changes some of the core functionality of their special moves. It’s nice that for both sets of characters their movesets appear the same, but have slightly different functionality. There are some nuances you’ll have to familiarize yourself with here.
What’s really nice is the fact that you can select which of the two games you’d like Fighters Megamix to play more like. If you choose Fighting Vipers you’ll be able to knock back foes much farther than in VF. This benefits ring outs as well as players that focus on closing the distance fast. The Virtua Fighter style is the one I prefer. This has slightly floatier verticality, and it’s just what I’m used to. The ability to switch modes sounds insignificant but it isn’t. Basically it affects gameplay on some very basic levels as far as strategy is concerned, and I loved trying both out. Switching between them adds a lot of replay value to the game as well.
Let’s talk about the character roster. It’s absolutely bonkers. Fighters Megamix has the complete character line-ups from both Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers. That in and of itself is awesome, but Sega took things a bit further. They included a bunch of bonus characters, and trust me when I say they’re all goofy. You have children variants (from Virtua Fighter Kids) for both Akira and Sarah. There’s also Janet Marshal from Virtua Cop, Bean the Dynamite and Bark the Polar Beat from Sonic the Fighters, Rent-A-Hero (from the Sega RPG), and a few other random ones. The highlight is the Hornet car from Daytona USA. Yes, it stands on two tires and dishes out punches and kicks. Fighters Megamix if anything doesn’t take itself too seriously.
When all is said and done Fighter’s Megamix contains 32 fighters. These days that’s not super impressive. Back then? This number was practically unheard of. Even the beefiest fighters generally had one third of that. That’s not to say they’re all viable. I tried my best but I jsut couldn’t get behind the Hornet car’s moveset. The VF Kids inclusions as well move too slow to be any good, and those from Sonic the Fighters are too clunky and awkward to be of any real use. Still I absolutely love their inclusion. Sega went absolutely ham with this release, and Fighter’s Megamix represents everything I love about the company because of it.
Fighter’s Megamix is a bit disappointing visually. Don’t get me wrong. It looks and plays pretty similarly to a lot of the best 32-bit fighting games. Thing is, it doesn’t quite match up to Virtua Fighter 2. In terms of framerate, resolution, and polygonal count it’s decidedly lower than Sega’s premier fighter. Virtua Fighter 2 is admittedly a high barrier, and Fighters Megamix compares very favorably with many PS1 fighting games even released later (Tekken 3, I’m talking about you). On it’s own merits Fighters Megamix is amazing looking. The soundtrack contains mostly tracks from Fighting Vipers and the Virtua Fighter franchise, but that’s fine by me. Nothing will stick with you after you turn off the console, but it’s all pretty good.