“Sonic the Fighters” is an arcade fighting game made for the Sega Model 2 arcade system. It was made for both fighting game fans and beginners according to its website. This review will be for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions because that has more characters than the Arcade version or the Sonic Gems Collection on Nintendo Gamecube.
The Core Gameplay of “Sonic the Fighters” is based on “Virtua Fighter”, another fighting game series made by Sega. You only have punch, kick and guard buttons and it’s in a 3D space so you have side steps to avoid attacks. Of course, this is a Sonic game so what makes it so? Well, the game is way faster than “Virtua Fighter” with a 30 second timer despite the 3 rounds. Also “Blocking” is a resource which is quite unique from other fighting games. This resource is called a “Barrier” and you have only five of them. You can use them to block or spend them for Hyper mode. Hyper Mode is like a custom combo, damage is reduced but all your moves have greatly reduced recovery meaning it’s more spammable. This mode is beneficial for all characters but the amount of times it’s used varies between characters. This game also has this technique that allows you to get out of hitstun by pressing all 3 buttons. However you can also get mixed up with this technique by your opponent. Overall, these are some of the techniques that you can do.
The characters are oriented around the gameplay so the power gap between characters is small. “Bark the Polar Bear” is a grappler with the slowest walk speed but the fastest dash in the game. He might not be the best character but he is at least not too bad. “Sonic” is a beginner friendly character and he is a rushdown character. He can turn himself backwards. Sonic is also pretty great because he has many fast moves and his sidestep is pretty fast so he can play tricks. “Knuckles the Echidna” is also a rushdown character and he is also really good. He is Sonic if he couldn’t turn backwards on command. “Fang the Sniper” is a Jerboa with a toy gun. He appeared in the Game Gear game “Sonic Triple Trouble”. He shoots his gun to get people away but at least all the characters have a move to grab his gun and shoot him with it. “Bean the Dynamite” is a woodpecker. He plays like Fang but he throws bombs instead of shooting. “Tails” is a strange character because he has a bunch of moves that don’t really mix. He has a command input grab. “Amy” is also strange because her movelist is weird. She can spawn random items using an up to down command. For the PS3/X360 versions, it adds secret characters to the playable roster by pressing start and a button on a character. “Super Sonic” and “Metal Sonic” are here and are extremely strong characters. “Dr. Eggman” or “Robotonic” as he is incorrectly named in the English version is a weak character with the best forward punch in the game. “Honey the cat” is a reference to “Honey” from the “Fighting Vipers” series that Sega also made. This character is an amalgamation of Knuckles and Amy. Those are the characters of Sonic the Fighters.
How does it play? With all of that in mind, it plays pretty alright. Rounds are quick and insane which makes it fun. Maybe it can be a bit too insane because there is an extra mechanic that boosts damage based on how low your health bar is and it may be a bit unbalanced but it’s cool. Like bark on low health can do crazy damage with his command input grabs and in general. Hyper mode is also a bit situational in practice because you need to know when to use it and it gives you almost enough time to do good damage so if you mess up the timing, you wasted a barrier. The barriers mechanic might not be for everyone but it adds resource management which makes blocking unique and strategic. You can also climb walls which are neat. Overall, this game is neat. It’s unfortunately locked away to Playstation 3 territory if you want to own it but it is a fun game if you do get it.
