Fighting Vipers (Arcade)

Fighting Vipers
Developer: Sega AM2 Publisher: Sega Platform: Arcade (Sega Model 2B CRX) Released in JP: November 1995 Released in US: November 1995 Released in EU: February 1996 This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused graphics. This game has regional differences. This game has a prerelease article

Fighting Vipers took Virtua Fighter's engine, and then cranked everything up to the extreme. Everyone's sporting ludicrously gaudy outfits, certain attacks can shatter your armor (leaving some characters in nothing but their skidders), opponents can be launched across the arena like pinballs, and above all else, Sonic and Tails are in here. Kinda.

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Prerelease Info

Debug Menu

To do: Document this more thoroughly.

Fighting Vipers' debug menu can be accessed in a similar way to Virtua Fighter 2's and in the exact same way as Sonic Championship's.

While holding the Service Switch, input Right, Right, B1, Left, Right, B1, B2, Right, Right, Up, B1 using the 1P controls. Once this is done, pressing Start and B3 on the 2P controls will enter debug mode - at this point, pressing 2P Start will bring up the debug menu.

(Source: BiggestSonicFan & SuddenDesu)

This script created by Link and BiggestSonicFan can be used with the Nebula Emulator, and simplifies the button code to holding the Service Switch and pressing Button 1 simultaneously , after which Button 3 and Start on the 2P controls will start Debug Mode as normal.

Unused Fighters

To do: Get the codes up to activate these.

Sonic and Tails

A very well-known piece of trivia: Sonic and Tails are both hidden in the game. As the story goes, a programmer added Sonic and Tails to Fighting Vipers in his spare time. While intended as a joke, Yu Suzuki showed the result to Hiroshi Kataoka, who then showed it to Yuji Naka, who in turn loved the idea and approved of it being developed further - the result being Sonic the Fighters.

Sonic and Tails share a character slot, with Tails considered to be Sonic's 2P color. Both have a unique nameplate (unsurprising given that the 1P and 2P color nameplates for all characters are stored as separate graphics), but only Sonic's is used in-game. The duo also share a single bio, though it's mostly blank.

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  Sonic on the Character Select screen.

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  Sonic and Tails on the Character Select screen.

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  Tails' nameplate, as seen in Cell Display Mode.

Daichi Katagiri and Hiroshi Kataoka

Somewhat less well-known is that a couple of the staff members responsible for making Fighting Vipers are in the game too!

Character DUM3 (Sonic is DUM2) is Daichi Katagiri, listed as Game Co-Ordinator in the credits; he also has a proper, unique bio for the Character Select screen. Character DUM4 appears to be Hiroshi Kataoka, the game's director.

They're fairly glitchy, particularly in that the head models seem to get swapped out a lot - during his victory animation, Kataoka's head suddenly changes to Katagiri's. The Nebula emulator also makes them look reflective, though this may be an emulation issue (evidenced further by the fact that they outright don't appear if hacked into older versions of the emulator). They also have slots for alternate costumes, but having a mirror matchup seems to glitch their graphics even further. Unlike the rest of the characters, the character models of these characters uses a simpler texture mapping and basic models akin to the characters in Virtua Cop, another Sega AM2 game.

Unlike Sonic and Tails, the Sega employees will crash the game upon the start of a match, as they seemingly lack intro animations. As such, the only way to load them into a fight is by using the Debug Menu during a match or memory editing.

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  Katagiri on the Character Select screen.

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  Kataoka on the Character Select screen.

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  Katagiri in a fight against Sanman.

Unused Assets

To do: Figure out if the heads specifically correspond to an alternate or if it just glitches between each one. Only available screens of them in-fight right now are questionable MAME images, and in motion it almost seems like it cycles through some during a match, such as the third and fifth images both possibly being used for Kataoka. There's probably a better way of getting the Kumachan base texture than Nebula's grayscale texture cache dump. There's almost certainly more unused stuff than this.

As with Virtua Fighter 2 and Sonic Championship, Fighting Vipers' debug menu includes a Polygon Test for checking every single polygon object in the game. Some notable examples are included below.

Heads

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  An unused head very clearly based on, if not outright taken from, the civilians in Virtua Cop.

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  Presumably a Sega AM2 staff member, and shows up as one of the alternate costumes for Katagiri/Kataoka.

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  Presumably another Sega AM2 staff member, and again shows up as one of the alternate costumes for Katagiri/Kataoka.

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  This appears to be the head that DUM3 (Katagiri) uses, but DUM4's victory pose uses this head too.

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  This appears to be the head that DUM4 (Kataoka) uses.

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  This one doesn't seem to be used at all.

Ring

A yellow, donut-shaped object that doesn't appear to be used by any fighter or stage in the game. This could be intended to be a ring from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, as it's relatively close to the models for Sonic and Tails in the Polygon Test and in Sonic Championship, fighters drop rings in true Sonic fashion whenever they are attacked; perhaps the programmer responsible for Sonic and Tails in Vipers toyed with that here?

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  Showing the texture laid over the ring to make it appear circular.

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  Another angle.

Early Kumachan

While technically not unused, in Old Armstone Town stages, Kumachan's face and stomach tattoo reading "ALL THE SINNERS SAINTS" are actually laid over this texture, which appears to be an early draft for Kumachan's design. He's dramatically more gruesome-looking here, and his chest appears to say something along the lines of "FACK YOU! DICK", which is just lovely.

Regional Differences

To do: Somehow verify if Honey's skirt removal Easter egg is Japan-only in any revision, or if that was only the case for the Saturn version. Same with Picky's skirt flip.

Honey's Name

Japan	USA/Export

In the USA and Export versions of the game, Honey is instead named Candy. The Western version also gives her weight, whereas the Japanese version just says "Secret". On a general note, the US/Export versions give measurements using the imperial system.

Pepsi Advertising

In Japan, advertising for Pepsi Cola was present throughout the game.

Japan	USA/Export

In the game's second attract mode, Tokio is seen with a can of Pepsi. It's missing in the USA/Export version.

Japan	USA/Export

Likewise, all of the Pepsi branding was removed from Picky's Diner stage, and replaced with more generic advertising.

Japan	USA/Export

Picky himself also got caught in the changes; in Japan, he has the Pepsi logo on his 1P Color's skateboard. It's changed to a "HYPER VIPER" logo for other regions.

Pepsiman is not present in the Arcade version; he was only added for the Saturn port.