Fighters Megamix (1996)
Sega, Sega AM2
Fighters Megamix is a 1996 fighting game developed by AM2 for the Sega Saturn and Game.com. It combines several characters from various Sega games, from the complete cast of Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers to Janet from Virtua Cop 2 and the Hornet car from Daytona USA, while allowing to play the bosses of both games without codes. Highly advertised, it followed Virtua Fighter 2 as a high-profile 3D fighting game for the Sega Saturn. Intended as an introduction to Virtua Fighter 3 (which was never released for the Saturn), Fighters Megamix utilized the concept originally used by The King of Fighters, whereby characters and styles from different games were mixed together. Not only the open ended rings from VF are present (but now, with no ring-out), but also the closed cages from Fighting Vipers. VF characters have new moves taken from VF3, but the most impressive feature was the dodge move, which allowed characters to sidestep, avoiding a dangerous blow and opening at the same time room for a counter. Sega capitalized on this, calling Fighters Megamix the first "real 3D" fighting game in the market. Unlike most of AM2's games of the era, Fighters Megamix did not have an arcade release. In 1998 a Game.com port was released by Tiger Electronics.