GAME CLEAR No. 185 -- Fighters Megamix

Fighters Megamix (1996, Saturn)

Developer: SEGA AM2
Publisher: SEGA
Clear Platform: Saturn
Clear Date: 7/28/24

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Why should I care?
SEGA AM2’s mashup fighter brings all the chops of their prior games along with a good sense of humor to make it arguably their best effort for the Saturn.

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AM2x2

We’re back at it on the Saturn, this time with the AM2 crossover fighter Fighters Megamix. I’ve written before about Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers 1 and 2, and this here is the game that smashes those two franchies together. The full casts of those games are present, alongside a host of unlockable characters from other AM2 titles like Virtua Fighter Kids, Sonic the Fighters, Virtua Cop, and even Daytona USA.

And so, y’know, it plays like an AM2 fighter! That is, it focuses on pure hand-to-hand combat without any of the silly projectiles or magicks popular in other fighting games. Sure, the Fighting Vipers folks get a bit sillier with it, perhaps willing to strike their opponents with guitars or skateboards, but this is fundamentally fisticuffs.

And it’s fun! As with the others, I don’t really have much to say on the deep technical nature of the game because I don’t really understand it myself. I just sort of try different stuff against the CPU until I figure out some things that work. That’s enough for me, especially since it’s not exactly like there’s a thriving local scene for these games.

And that’s also why Fighters Megamix is the best of the Saturn AM2 fighters for me: it’s got the most single-player content. It’s not exactly overflowing with it, but it at least has 9 different sets of arcade mode challenges to go through, each of which ends with a fight against a secret character, whom you unlock as a playable character for your trouble. This encouraged me to mess around with a bunch of characters, and it kept me guessing who the next unlockable fighter might be. It still only took maybe two hours to get through all of it, but it reminded me of Classic Mode from Super Smash Bros. in a good way.

Plus, as I alluded to earlier, you can unlock the fucking car from Daytona USA as a fighter. That right there is worth the price of admission alone. It reminds me of this amusing Hard Drive article, except AM2 beat them to the punch by over 20 years. It’s got the best fighters from two cool fighting series plus some goofy guys. What’s not to love? Give it a spin sometime.