Sega Fighters Megamix has a weirder-than-ever character in Smash
Part of the appeal of games like MultiVersus and Super Smash Bros. is the extravagant matches they can provide. These games are the only place players can pit Ultra Instinct Shaggy against Superman or Solid Snake against Jigglypuff outside of fan fiction. This gives the games appeal beyond the hardcore fighting game fanbase.
Looking at the list of confirmed characters, it’s easy to assume that MultiVersus welcomes the weirdest characters to adorn a fighting game. It includes characters from franchises like looney tunes and Tom and Jerry, who are known for their various marks of cartoon violence. As strange as it may seem to see these characters clash with sinister characters such as Arya Stark from game of thrones and Batman, there’s a 26-year-old Sega crossover fighter that tops all other games in the subgenre when it comes to bizarre fighters.
Released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn, Megamix fighters followed in the footsteps of SNK king of fighters series by pitting characters from different franchises owned by the same company against each other. These were mostly characters from two of developer AM2’s 3D fighting games, virtual fighter and Fight the vipers. Megamix fighters allowed players to choose between combat styles and arenas from both games, and it also added gameplay mechanics from Virtual Fighter 3.
In addition to the full castings of Virtual Fighter 2 and Fight the vipers, there were 12 hidden characters, most of them from other Sega games, mainly those also developed by AM2. These included characters from other less serious fighting games, like sonic the fighters and Virtua Fighter Kids. It went beyond the fighting game genre to include characters from other AM2 arcade hits.
Janet of the virtual cop small arms games and the genesis game lead only in japan Rent-A-Hero are bizarre inclusions compared to the martial arts masters of virtual fighter and Fight the vipers. That said, at least they’re human. This makes them positively pedestrian compared to the inclusion of Hornet, a car from the classic arcade racing game United States.
AM2 is committed to the joke of a car being a playable fighter. The Hornet scene is straight out of United Statesit is initiation course, and his voice is the sound of an engine and other Daytona sound effects. His “costumes” are based on player paint jobs Daytona when they chose manual or automatic transmission. ‘Cause he plays like a Fight the vipers‘, its shell can be flipped over like armor to reveal its engine.
What makes the Hornet truly absurd is the fact that it stands like every other fighter, using its rear wheels as a substitute for legs. Watch a car fight like a human against MegamixCasting martial artists is an absurd experience that no other fighting game has been able to top after all these years. Watching Hornet face off with fighting bear Kumachan is a real absurd spectacle that newer games simply can’t match.
Leakers and data miners have revealed several DLC characters that will be added to MultiVersus. Everyone, from Gremlins‘ the lovable mogwai Gizmo to giant movie monsters like King Kong, should be summoned from the Warner Bros character catalog to join the game’s roster. As savage as some of these clashes are, none of them can outdo Sega by throwing a stock car into its crossover battle game – unless the Batmobile comes into the game and trades punches with its owner, which is to say who can’t be counted at this point.