''Fighting Vipers 2'' is a fighting game developed and published by Sega. The game is the sequel to 1995's ''

Fighting Vipers ''Fighting Vipers'' (ファイティングバイパーズ'' Faitingu Vaipāzu'') is a 3D fighting video game developed by Sega AM2. It uses the same game engine as AM2's ''Virtua Fighter 2'' but features enclosed arenas and an armor mechanic, and ...

'' and was released for the

Sega Model 3 is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...

arcade system in 1998 before being ported to the

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nint ...

in 2001.

Gameplay

Along with the original cast of the first game, Fighting Vipers 2 introduced Emi, a computer geek who fights with a self-developed mecha armor, and Charlie, a BMX rider. New unlockable characters included Del Sol (a Mexican wrestler with a Sun mask), and Kuhn (a copycat character with various movesets from all the other original characters similar to ''

Virtua Fighter is a series of fighting games created by Sega-AM2 and designer Yu Suzuki. The original '' Virtua Fighter'' was released in October 1993 and has received four main sequels and several spin-offs. The highly influential first ''Virtua Fighter'' ga ...

''s

Dural Dural is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 36 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government areas of Hornsby Shire and The Hills Shire. Dural is part of the Hills District ...

Development

AM2 AM2 can refer to: * Socket AM2, a CPU socket for AMD desktop processors * Sega AM2, a research and development team for the video game company Sega * Arp-Madore 2, an open star cluster * a Fictional elements, isotopes and atomic particles#Fictional ...

's Hiroshi Kataoka told ''

Sega Saturn Magazine ''Sega Saturn Magazine'' was a monthly UK magazine covering the Sega Saturn, a home video game console. It held the official Saturn magazine license for the UK, and some issues included a demo CD created by Sega, ''Sega Flash'', which included ...

'' that development began in early 1997 after work on ''

Fighters Megamix is a 1996 fighting video game developed by Sega AM2 for the Sega Saturn. It is a video game crossover of various 3D arcade blockbusters by Sega, from the complete cast of '' Virtua Fighter 2'' and ''Fighting Vipers'' to Janet from ''Virtua C ...

'' for the Saturn had concluded, and lasted for ten months. Members of the development team visited

Alcatraz Alcatraz Island () is a small island in San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military pris ...

early on in the project for inspiration for the caged stages and the character designs were inspired by the "fashionable sports that are being played by young people today, such as BMX riding and skateboarding along with their associated music culture". Motion capture was utilised for the opening sequences and winning and losing poses, but the majority of animation was done by hand.

Release

The game was planned for a U.S. release but was later cancelled. The game was praised for being a perfect Dreamcast port of the original Model 3 Arcade game (unlike ''

Virtua Fighter 3tb is the sequel to 1994's ''Virtua Fighter 2'' and the third fighting game in the ''Virtua Fighter'' series, developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega in 1996. It was the first arcade game to run on the Sega Model 3 system board. Like its pr ...

'' which was a loose port), however the developers did not include any additional extras for this release, making it a straight port.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Fighting Vipers 2'' on their June 15, 1998 issue as being the second most-successful arcade game of the month. Jim Preston reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for '' Next Generation'', rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Dreamcast software sales were always sluggish in Japan, and with mediocre titles like this it's not hard to see why." On release, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the f ...

'' magazine scored the Dreamcast version of the game a 30 out of 40.''ドリームキャスト - FIGHTING VIPERS 2 (ファイティングバイパーズ2)''. Weekly Famitsu. No.915 Pt.2. Pg.52. 30 June 2006.

References

1998 video games 3D fighting games Arcade video games Dreamcast games Fighting games Multiplayer video games Sega video games Sega-AM2 games Sega arcade games Video games scored by Hidenori Shoji Video games developed in Japan {{Fighting-videogame-stub