I love how the game poster has the actual 3D models of the characters in it instead of more polished renders or some artist commissioned artwork. It's like they're so proud of their polygon count they're going "yeah kids, look at this, this is gonna sell, it's full 3D baby!"
Under Night In-Birth does this too. Everyone will tell you to boot up Mutual Situation (Hyde v. Seth), but Cross Thought (Gordeau v. Chaos) also goes hard. If Arc System Works in involved, you *know* they're gonna get the composer to make a match-up specific theme.
I get people disliked how easy the single player arcade mode is. Honestly though, it’s kind of refreshing to have a 90s fighting game where the AI isn’t blatantly cheating you out of quarters.
The AI kicking your ass forced you to learn the game and its mechanics though, sonic the fighters can be beat in one quarter, and at that point, why play again? It doesn't matter how complex your game is on a technical level if you can beat it with one button
Sonic the Fighters deserves alot of love and respect. Its wild how the game that was made by the legendary AM2 and based off of Fighting Vipers is considered one of the worst but its a underrated fighting game and thank you showing it some love
This game always showed up in those "Top 10 Worst Sonic Games of All-Time" lists, and when I played it in Sonic Gems Collection my first thought was "What were they talking about this game's fun as hell"
Thank you for giving this amazing game the video it deserves, and for the shoutout! We’re in agreement when it comes to other reviews of this game not exactly being well-researched or informed. Always hoping that Sega decides to release this game again so we can have more success with our tournaments!
Not just a re-release, Sega should really cash in on their huge cast of characters that's perfect for a fighting game and make a sequel already! The world needs Sonic The Fighters 2!
I always think about the interviews saying that they weren't sure if this game would work given how stubby the classic sonic designs are so its so awesome that despite that they made one of the most faithful and expressive interpretations of the characters ever at that point
10:57 Correction: Bean is a character made for Fighters. But he’s based on Bin and Pin from Dynamite Dux. He’s actually the son of Bin Dynamite, as confirmed in the guide for Fighters Megamix. A game Bean, Bin, and Bark appears in also.
Funnily enough, the 3 obscure characters in the game, Fang, Bean and Bark, are typically paired together in side material like the comics, which honestly makes sense. Their personalities mesh together pretty well and make their group, Team Hooligan, one of my favorites whenever they’re allowed to show up.
Don’t forget Mania, where one of the bosses will transform into one of the three and cycle between them. Honestly the most memorable boss in the game, and I wish there was more representation for obscure characters like this.
Which doesn't make that much sense considering that Bark is stated to be good-hearted, and Fang is a Treasure Hunter and Bean just wants to throw bombs. We could say that Fang bribed Bark, maybe.
so glad you did this. the community for this game is very small and passionate and they've been dying for a video that actually represents the game without the snobbery that comes from both sonic fans and traditional fgc player when talking about this game.
The Gems Collection was one of the only games I had on my PS2 for a good few months, so it was all I played. Specifically, I played Sonic the fighters all the time. It's only until I got more into the internet that I see how many people just don't like this game. I still don't see why because it's genuinely one of the better spin off games. When I first started I'd just mash the punch button too! It wasn't until I actually took the time to just read the move list, I realized this game actually has a lot more than it initially seems. I wish Sony hadn't removed all its sonic games from PSN on the PS4 because I'd love to play some Sonic the fighters online and see how much it's evolved.
@@CassiDS I don't think we're speaking on the same thing. PlayStation Now was the only way to play PS3 games on the PS4, that subscription included all the PS3 sonic games like Generations, Unleashed, Adventure & Adventure 2 as well as Fighters. All of which have been removed from the service about a year ago. I still have the games downloaded on my PS4 & can't access them. If you're talking about playing them on PS3, then they may still be on that storefront, but I'm referring to specifically playing it on PS4 and online. Which the only way I know is by playing Lost Judgment. (which unfortunately doesn't have online play). I don't own either a PS3 or Xbox which is why I specifically brought up the PS4.
Thankfully the game is still fully accessible on Xbox One and the Series consoles! Everything (except Sonic 1 through Knuckles, because Origins exists) can still be purchased and played on an Xbox. Even Unleashed, and it plays better than it ever did on the 360!
I loved this game growing up! Pure BLISS when it appeared in Lost Judgement as a playable arcade cab. Picked Bark the Polar Bear cos he has a command grab lol! So happy youre covering it Mr. Winquote
Yessss yesssss! Sonic the Fighters is so rad. In that one interview Heidi had with the developers, I remember they mentioned giving the character modeler a 3D Sonic keychain as reference for how he should look in full 3D. I had that exact keychain!! They really did such a fantastic job converting that into a Model 2 character model, and then on top of that, gave everyone such over the top fun cartoony animations. I wanted to play it so much and waited for the advertised Saturn port so badly, but when it never came my kid Sonic heart broke. I remember the only arcade that had “Sonic Championship,” the American name for the arcade game, was in the Sega owned Gameworks arcade in Las Vegas. Whenever I’d go with my family to Vegas, I’d head to Gameworks and try to get a 1CC with Sonic, which was pretty tough bc I was terrible at VF controls as a kid. I think they had that cabinet up until the late 2000s, or whenever Gameworks closed, because I was able to get that 1CC eventually after learning VF in VF4. In college, my friends and I would play the Sonic Gems Collection version and get some heated battles. We’d have a bunch of sets with my buddy’s Knuckles vs my Sonic. To this day the custom versus song between Sonic & Knuckles, North Wind, traumatizes my friend if I play it for him. Good times. Did you ever hear the vocal cover of Bark’s theme that Takenobu Mitsuyoshi did? It’s pretty killer
Here’s a link to his cover: th-cam.com/video/hTOEgYHocJg/w-d-xo.html I never heard it in Sonic Gems Collection, only found out about it when he included it in his second solo album. I was so shocked he covered a Sonic song, I loved it. In his liner notes, I think he said he really loved the melody so much he had to include it in his album, and he wasn’t wrong. What a king, that Take-san.
OMFG I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THE COVER I USE TO HAVE IT MY CHILDHOOD MUGEN PACK AHHHH MEMORIES UNLOCKED THANK YOU also every story I've heard about seeing the game in America has been in Vegas for whatever reason, lol. Same with Buriki One too 🤔
@@GuileWinQuote that same Gameworks is also the only place I know that had a Love and Berry machine, which my friends and I got super into despite the gameplay being so so dumb. Strangely addictive to win little cards to dress up little Fashion Magic Witches with 🧙♀️
@@GuileWinQuoteI came across the arcade cabinet tucked away in a corner at a Sega Gameworks arcade in Texas when I was a kid. Played it for about an hour before my parents told me it was time to leave. The graphic design is so good that the intro and character select screen have stuck around in my memories for over 20 years now. It's up there with Alpha 3 in terms of memorable aesthetics, in my opinion. This video was a treat. You're doing a real service by evaluating and analyzing these "lesser games" in good faith.
Fun Fact: did you know that this game released in North America in arcades under the name Sonic Championship but it was a limited release because Sega of America feared the game would be considered to be too violent despite the violence in the game being all slapstick
I know that two second joke of Guile being in the character select screen probably took some doing so I want you to know that your effort is noticed, good job
I do believe there's a reasonable amount of love for Sonic the Fighters, mostly over Honey the Cat but there was a proper tournament arc on the comics before they were cancelled. That one featured a Sonic OC version of Jane from Fighting Vipers and just... regular Segata Sanshiro somehow.
@@Mateus_Carvalho While not ingame, I do love that SNK actually got him to portray Haohmaru in the live action ad for the KOF All Stars x Samurai Shodown crossover😂
Its absolutely INSANE how hood Sonic the Fighters looks, some of my favourite stylistic 3D models in the series for literally every character, and their animations are spot on
Great video, dude. Fighters is definitely one of the more underappreciated 3D fighters I know of. Like you said, I think the distaste largely comes from the "anything Sonic does that isn't running fast is automatically bad" crowd and how a lot of Sonic fans who played it when they were younger probably didn't understand it. I love that Bark got brought back for a boss in Mania and appeared in a Classic Sonic special issue in the IDW comic.
I’ve always loved this game. It was super exciting when it got re released in PS3. I really wish I’d seen this in arcades as a kid. It would have been right at home. It feels nostalgic to see these characters portrayed in this 3D super polygonal style.
This is a game I hope to see get a fan decompilation. The idea of being able to natively play this on pc with online play, new characters and updated controls is amazing!
This video came out great and I am glad people are enjoying it. I helped GuileWinQuote with the recording of this video by playing some online matches against him. The tags are cut off due to screen size, but whenever you see "yBones" on P1 and "GuileW" on P2 that is us netplaying. I had to do a lot of troubleshooting to get the PS3 emulator netplay working right on my PC so I am glad that paid off.
Happy to see some positivity for this game, it's always been a niche favorite of mine. As a Sonic fan, who's also a Looney Tunes/classic Animation fan, who ALSO really respects fighting game animation, it brings me a very specific kind of joy seeing how creatively it brings all those parts together. I've never really wanted to pick up a fighting game more complicated than Smash Bros until I saw this and button mashed through the campaign a few times, but I'm happy to know people in it's actual target audience can get complexity and fun out of it.
I thought it was pretty interesting to learn the crazy history about this game. To be honest, I didn’t know that sonic and tails was playable in a fighting game for a hilarious joke. But then sega turning that joke into fighting game is pretty mind blowing also pretty cool they made that honey character from fighting vipers into an actual Sonic character. I never played this game, but I always saw it as a cool game. Never understood the hate for it though.
its because the way to unlock them in the cabinet was so ludicrously specific fan thought it was a Joke/Hoax for the longest time untill somebody dove deep into the code to actually find out that "no they are actually there!"
@alex_-yz9to I didn’t know that actually. Pretty crazy that’s the case and makes me think of a lot of secret characters unlocks for certain video games.
Great video. I was definitely one of those kids who thought this game was bad. But when I came back to it after getting into fighters, I realized it's actually quite fun. Seems like it'd be a blast to learn with friends.
I think there ought to be more Sonic fighting games. Sonic's inherent fast pace lends itself really well to the genre and it's crazy we havent seen more of them.
Considering the popularity of Sonic fan games, and retro decompilation projects, I'm surprised a decomp project for StF hasn't shown itself yet. Hopefully this game _"Blows up??"_ -after this, so we can really see some magic happen Thanks again WinQuote, cheers!
I didn't grow up with any real arcade culture here in the UK, however I did have the absolute pleasure of playing a Sonic the Fighters machine at Segaworld in London in the 90s. It created a huge impression on me and, as stated in this video, it was Sonic's first ever polygonal appearance. Not the deepest fighter for sure but it oozes charm and honestly I wish the mainstream games had more of this Warner Bros. animation.
I remember going to Segaworld when I was very little. I also remember the Sonic the Fighters machine, however I don't think I was old enough to actually understand what I was looking at - because looking back on it now, I'm pretty sure I was just mashing player 2's buttons while the game was in singleplayer mode. So I didn't really "play" it. ... It looked amazing to my Sonic-loving child self nonetheless!
capcom vs sega concept is the best part of this video, i unironically think that would be the exact kind of wacky fun shit we need to keep fighting games fresh and interesting :p but really this is a great video! DEFINITELY do a vid on the best fan game fighting games! especially for IPs that never got a proper FG
This channel is fantastic. I remember finding a Sonic The Fighters AND a Fighting Vipers arcade cabinet at an arcade I frequented when I was a kid. The sonic one blew my mind and I spent all my quarters trying to finish it. Had to wait like 7 years to be able to play it at home on the gems collection.
I know everyone is praising the video and the game that it is about, but I wanna highlight something low-key amazing that Guile did in the beginning of the video: The pitch perfect description of the long enduring appeal of Sonic The Hedgehog He manage to distill the entire Internet's ever changing conflicting feelings on The Blue Blur and he did this in a few short sentences. Brilliant! It's true - if Sonic wasn't a big part of your childhood, you will never understand why people love him, not even if his games where universally praised. You either get it or you don't - it sucks that there is hardly a middle ground, but that is Sonic in a nutshell: 0 to 60 in under a minute and back again.
One of the selling points of Lost Judgment was the fact it had Sonic the Fighters playable in it, for some for the first time without having to emulate it themselves. I remember running to the arcade the first change I could so I could enjoy it for a bit lol.
They did technically do another Sonic persona, Sticks The Badger from Sonic Boom has a heavy resemblance to Aika from Skies of Arcadia between the hairstyle and the Boomerang weapon.
I think this is the best looking fighter on the Model 2 when looking at it from an artistic side, the characters are very expressive and the low poly look helps it even more, kinda sad that Sega delisted this game off the PSN store in 2020 for Europe, but not in the USA for some reason. The sound quality isn't that great when comparing it to other Model 2 games but the music slaps, especially the remastered versions that came later.
Thanks for this informative and easy-to-follow editing/narrative. On top of that, thanks for talking "normal". Some people have great content and choose to have shitty mics or "vocal fry" while they're talking. So, yeah, weird compliment but basically you have a nice voice.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT, I LOVE THIS GAME, WOOOOOOOOOOOO, THANK YOU GuileWinQuote FOR MAKING A VIDEO ON THIS! Also, play Sonic the Fighters Blitz, it's such a good 3D to 2D fighter fan-Game
If you want to talk more about good FGs with bad/unfair reputations I think the DOA series is one of the best to bring to the topic, god knows how many offenses I got yelled to me by just recommending the game.
Is that just from the horny bait, or are there other things people dislike about it? The only thing I know of would be the ridiculous amount of dlc in one of them
@@no64256 I've only ever heard people hate on it cause of how horny it is, and to be fair... it IS really horny. Still a good time though, I remember playing dead or alive 4 on my cousin's xbox because he had it for whatever reason. Spartan-458 is still the goat
Thanks for giving praise to one of my most favourite Sonic spin-offs. It surprisingly still purchasable on Xbox One and still works fine for what I played
This game is owed a sequel. Like, I remembered my brothers making fun of this game all the time as a kid, but I never really got to play it until the Gems collection. And I was kind of blown away. It was Virtua Fighter...with Sonic. And I loved both, so naturally it appealed to me.
I absolutely will always fall in love with any game that has cartoony physics and model stretching like a looney tunes cartoon. Cel Damage is also a game that fits into that category! But yeah. I only heard of this game via the gems collection, and even with the input lag I had great fun with it.
FINALLY somebody sings the virtues of Sonic the Fighters!! i remember being very impressed by it as a kid playing it on gamecube and even though i knew jack shit about how to play it i was like "this looks really really good" and "why didn't they do this again" also i literally just noticed watching this video that bean's wind-up uppercut is a direct reference to how Bin/Pin from Dynamite Dux attack. very very cute :)
thanks for putting this together. the looseness of this one makes it a perfect game to play casually with a fighting game-playing friend where you can just mess around with the goofy stuff you can do in it. and as you say the presentation is superb, the elasticity of the models is really impressive and the soundtrack is a real favourite too. appreciate you explaining the history too, fighting vipers will never die, and as a few people have pointed out, it's one of the arcade games in lost judgment but we know it needs a proper rerelease. model 2 collection when, m2? my one comment is that perhaps you could include the sources for some of your live-action footage, someone else in the comments wanted to see where one of them was from and i think it'd be good for others to be able to see 'em too.
Sonic the Fighters has that early 3d look that I love and that keeps getting more and more popular as time goes on. Looking at it gives me a similar feeling as the old Mega Man Legends games, the colors are all super vibrant and pop, really helps the low poly models fit into the world. I'm glad to see that Sonic the Fighters has it's own small tight knit community. I liked the game as a kid, but honestly I would go back to Sonic R on the Sonic Gems Collection much more frequently. It's truly a product of it's time, in many ways it feels like a really good fan-game that's aiming for that specific era of Late genesis/CD/Early Saturn of Sonic. I can't blame too many sonic fans for looking over the game, since unless you're a fighting game fan with at least one other friend who also wants to try to get into the game, all there really is to the game is an arcade mode, at least on the Sonic Gems Collection maybe in the PS3/360 version there's more to it. So if you're not someone looking deeply into the game's mechanics and trying hard to see what it's about (or aren't familar enough with fighting games to know what too look for in other fighting games), it's pretty easy to overlook compared to the many more single-player focused sonic games. I hope one day this game gets a rerelease with a practice and VS mode to go with it (even Tekken 7 doesn't have a way to play against CPUs in the VS mode, which seems insane to me) because it genuinely looks like a very fun game to play!
Thanks for the look on this game! I agree with you, unless you grew up with Sonic, you really wouldn't be able to understand his appeal. I didn't grow up with this though. Seeing it explored and explained makes me more fascinated with Sega's 3D fighters now. Maybe it's time I learned how to combo as Akira Yuki...
there was a mystical quality to this for me since i first saw it in an arcade, briefly, and then never saw it again (until compilation releases ofc). I like this game and the music is INCREDIBLE and very "Sonic". My favorite is the flying carpet stage
thanks for covering sonic the fighters! it was my first fighting game ev er and got me into the genre when i was a small kid so im happy about it finally getting the good attention it deserves for being a fun and wacky fighting game
I’ve always loved this game, I actually think it was the first fighting game I ever played, and one of the few I ever got to play on an actual cabinet, a pizza place I went to as a kid had a cabinet and I remember absolutely loving it. Glad to see you give it some love. Now if only Sega would bring the 7th gen port to modern consoles, cause I don’t have anything that has it, and it’s a pain in the ass to emulate
brilliant video as always mate in fact, this was so well-researched that after I finished watching it, I thought "wait, what do you mean I grew up playing a version with terrible input lag?"
Good to see some respect laid to the name for once. And for actually describing how the mechanics work, weird how I never see that mentioned amongst the sea of "game bad because reasons."
A few years back I hosted a tournament of this game just for me and some friends and it was an absolute blast. The game is not only fun, but more deep than you'd think so it felt like there was a level of skill as we played more. Bark is my boy
I always had a soft spot for this game. My family would take trips to Las Vegas every summer when I was a kid, and an arcade my dad would take me and my brother to had a sonic the fighters cabinet. My brother and I would usually kill time with this game waiting for other games to free up from others playing them. I haven't played this in a while but this video made me wanna check it out again.
Great video, and a fantastic introduction to your channel! One aspect that I think made this game less successful, and all of AM2's games for that matter, was the lack of content on their home ports. Virtua Fighter 2, 3 and Fighting Vipers 1 & 2 were leagues more fun to play than Tekken and Soul Blade, as well as performed better despite the Saturn's limitations. Despite that, Tekken and Soul Blade's massive wealth of modes and number of characters really sold themselves to both fighter enthusiasts and casual gamers alike (and that the Playstation was a wildly more popular games console). AM2 released Daytona USA and Sega Rally, both of which outshone any arcade racing game you cared to mention. But their console ports had mere arcade races, and you could be done with them in an afternoon. As opposed to Namco's Ridge Racer Type 4 had 123 cars to collect, double the tracks, and even damn story and mission modes. With the benefit of hindsight, I think that a port of the arcade version of Sonic the Fighters, along with a bunch of other Sonic games all bundled together, would see the game being appreciated much more now than it was back in the day. But I doubt that would happen. I'm assuming the ports of their arcade games on 360 and PS3 weren't massively successful, hence they haven't seen the light of day on newer consoles. Such a shame.
Awesome video! I've always loved this game's art style, though I've never been very good at it, haha. I'm glad they made an HD port that added the missing characters. Especially Honey, as she's one of my favorite Sonic character designs of all time! Fun fact by the way, there actually is a modern way to play it! In the 2021 game "Lost Judgement", you can visit an arcade at some point in the story, which houses a fully playable Sonic the Fighters cabinet! I'm not entirely sure which port the game uses, but it's a pretty cool easter egg nonetheless!
I’m glad there’s a small fanbase for Sonic The Fighters online. It was my favorite game to play growing up and I recently got to play it on an arcade cabinet with my gf! Thank you for shedding some positive light on this game!
I got this game in the 360, You could say im a 2010s starting fighting game player, at the time I didnt knew there was a fighting game community and tutorial for many fighting game that I played, I have to discover how to do combos all by myself. UMVC3, MK9, MKvDC and Sonic The Fighter were my game I slowly switch back and forth on learning each game. This game is so much fun, you learn how to play it casually to competitively without knowing youre already getting used to it. Most fighting game are missing the "fun" aspect back then and wanted to be more of a ESport, SF6 has finally stepped down a bit and let the game be a game that everyone can pick up and play as they get into it. The animation for this game is amazing for its times, the model are lively, so many cool move like taking Amy Hammer and taking it away from her, the attention to detail. This was the only game that Masahiro Sakurai used to create Sonic Moveset for Smash despite being so rushed. Back then I has started to enjoy fighting game and over come my anxiety on playing online as I enjoy it, as a person who is on the spectrum. I enjoy the 360 era.
Sonic the fighters, I remember seeing a lot of pictures in magazines as a kid. I've also played in on the gem collection in highschool I liked this some games like this should be packed as dlc for some newer games
I love how the game poster has the actual 3D models of the characters in it instead of more polished renders or some artist commissioned artwork. It's like they're so proud of their polygon count they're going "yeah kids, look at this, this is gonna sell, it's full 3D baby!"
And these models aged pretty well
I love these like hd low-poly models, heh~
They weren't wrong. I adore those models to this day.
@@mr.sentryanddispenser this model is honestly a much better representation of classic sonic than the one from generations.
@@Substantial-hf1rm Gladly they tweaked that model to be closer to an actual classic sonic in the new 2d game
My favorite thing about Fighters is Sonic and Knucles have their own rival theme song, 'North Wind.' I wish more fighting games did that
I believe there's something like this in BlazBlue
Guilty Gear does that! I love it
Under Night In-Birth does this too. Everyone will tell you to boot up Mutual Situation (Hyde v. Seth), but Cross Thought (Gordeau v. Chaos) also goes hard.
If Arc System Works in involved, you *know* they're gonna get the composer to make a match-up specific theme.
@@fanofsimonpeggDon't forget about Incompatible Relation (Wagner v Londrekia)
King of Fighters does this in a few games. It's inconsistently used throughout the series, but KOF98 and XV are the notable examples.
I get people disliked how easy the single player arcade mode is. Honestly though, it’s kind of refreshing to have a 90s fighting game where the AI isn’t blatantly cheating you out of quarters.
That's true, tho Metal Sonic is still a pain in the butt
The AI kicking your ass forced you to learn the game and its mechanics though, sonic the fighters can be beat in one quarter, and at that point, why play again? It doesn't matter how complex your game is on a technical level if you can beat it with one button
I guess 90’s fighting game fans were a bunch of masochists
Funny you mention the Bark/Alex parallel, Doctor Robotnik's Ring Racers actually gives him Alex's voice clips and it fits perfectly.
And Ring Racers is made by fighting players devs
I really love the vibe of the game, AM2 puts such a distinct charm into their games that you just don’t see now
They could've been working on more Saturn games instead of this garbage nobody asked for.
Sonic the Fighters deserves alot of love and respect.
Its wild how the game that was made by the legendary AM2 and based off of Fighting Vipers is considered one of the worst but its a underrated fighting game and thank you showing it some love
I love seeing people’s reactions to Bark deleting health bars in this game, dude’s just built different lol
Realistic depiction of getting grabbed by a polar bear
This game always showed up in those "Top 10 Worst Sonic Games of All-Time" lists, and when I played it in Sonic Gems Collection my first thought was "What were they talking about this game's fun as hell"
As far as mid-90's Sonic games goes, Fighters is heads above the rest of the games released between Sonic 3 & K and Sonic Adventure.
They stay exaggeraitng
Thank you for giving this amazing game the video it deserves, and for the shoutout! We’re in agreement when it comes to other reviews of this game not exactly being well-researched or informed. Always hoping that Sega decides to release this game again so we can have more success with our tournaments!
Yee
I would love to see if they released this game to new consoles and PC too!
@@noahfloofster4271u can play the 360 version on Xbox one thats about all ik tho
Not just a re-release, Sega should really cash in on their huge cast of characters that's perfect for a fighting game and make a sequel already! The world needs Sonic The Fighters 2!
Hey man, how's Sonic tier-wise in this game? And Metal Sonic?
I always think about the interviews saying that they weren't sure if this game would work given how stubby the classic sonic designs are so its so awesome that despite that they made one of the most faithful and expressive interpretations of the characters ever at that point
10:57
Correction: Bean is a character made for Fighters. But he’s based on Bin and Pin from Dynamite Dux.
He’s actually the son of Bin Dynamite, as confirmed in the guide for Fighters Megamix. A game Bean, Bin, and Bark appears in also.
Funnily enough, the 3 obscure characters in the game, Fang, Bean and Bark, are typically paired together in side material like the comics, which honestly makes sense. Their personalities mesh together pretty well and make their group, Team Hooligan, one of my favorites whenever they’re allowed to show up.
Don’t forget Mania, where one of the bosses will transform into one of the three and cycle between them. Honestly the most memorable boss in the game, and I wish there was more representation for obscure characters like this.
@@abaddon1503 Apparently Sonic Heroes was gonna have a team of those three, I wonder what they'd being doing in the series now if that came to be
They're called Team Hooligan? That rules!
Which doesn't make that much sense considering that Bark is stated to be good-hearted, and Fang is a Treasure Hunter and Bean just wants to throw bombs.
We could say that Fang bribed Bark, maybe.
And Honey too
so glad you did this. the community for this game is very small and passionate and they've been dying for a video that actually represents the game without the snobbery that comes from both sonic fans and traditional fgc player when talking about this game.
The Gems Collection was one of the only games I had on my PS2 for a good few months, so it was all I played. Specifically, I played Sonic the fighters all the time.
It's only until I got more into the internet that I see how many people just don't like this game. I still don't see why because it's genuinely one of the better spin off games.
When I first started I'd just mash the punch button too! It wasn't until I actually took the time to just read the move list, I realized this game actually has a lot more than it initially seems.
I wish Sony hadn't removed all its sonic games from PSN on the PS4 because I'd love to play some Sonic the fighters online and see how much it's evolved.
It deserves better
Surprisingly, it's *just* the classic Sonic platformers (1, 2, CD) that they took down from PSN and XBLA; Sonic the Fighters is still there
@@CassiDS I don't think we're speaking on the same thing. PlayStation Now was the only way to play PS3 games on the PS4, that subscription included all the PS3 sonic games like Generations, Unleashed, Adventure & Adventure 2 as well as Fighters. All of which have been removed from the service about a year ago. I still have the games downloaded on my PS4 & can't access them.
If you're talking about playing them on PS3, then they may still be on that storefront, but I'm referring to specifically playing it on PS4 and online. Which the only way I know is by playing Lost Judgment. (which unfortunately doesn't have online play).
I don't own either a PS3 or Xbox which is why I specifically brought up the PS4.
Thankfully the game is still fully accessible on Xbox One and the Series consoles! Everything (except Sonic 1 through Knuckles, because Origins exists) can still be purchased and played on an Xbox. Even Unleashed, and it plays better than it ever did on the 360!
@@BlueAizu_ Yeah, I know. But I'm not personally going to buy an Xbox for one or two games.
5:26
DISCOMBOBULATE
Discobobombombulate
Block his blind jab
Nailed it.
I loved this game growing up! Pure BLISS when it appeared in Lost Judgement as a playable arcade cab. Picked Bark the Polar Bear cos he has a command grab lol!
So happy youre covering it Mr. Winquote
Yessss yesssss! Sonic the Fighters is so rad. In that one interview Heidi had with the developers, I remember they mentioned giving the character modeler a 3D Sonic keychain as reference for how he should look in full 3D. I had that exact keychain!! They really did such a fantastic job converting that into a Model 2 character model, and then on top of that, gave everyone such over the top fun cartoony animations. I wanted to play it so much and waited for the advertised Saturn port so badly, but when it never came my kid Sonic heart broke.
I remember the only arcade that had “Sonic Championship,” the American name for the arcade game, was in the Sega owned Gameworks arcade in Las Vegas. Whenever I’d go with my family to Vegas, I’d head to Gameworks and try to get a 1CC with Sonic, which was pretty tough bc I was terrible at VF controls as a kid. I think they had that cabinet up until the late 2000s, or whenever Gameworks closed, because I was able to get that 1CC eventually after learning VF in VF4.
In college, my friends and I would play the Sonic Gems Collection version and get some heated battles. We’d have a bunch of sets with my buddy’s Knuckles vs my Sonic. To this day the custom versus song between Sonic & Knuckles, North Wind, traumatizes my friend if I play it for him. Good times.
Did you ever hear the vocal cover of Bark’s theme that Takenobu Mitsuyoshi did? It’s pretty killer
Here’s a link to his cover: th-cam.com/video/hTOEgYHocJg/w-d-xo.html
I never heard it in Sonic Gems Collection, only found out about it when he included it in his second solo album. I was so shocked he covered a Sonic song, I loved it. In his liner notes, I think he said he really loved the melody so much he had to include it in his album, and he wasn’t wrong. What a king, that Take-san.
OMFG I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THE COVER I USE TO HAVE IT MY CHILDHOOD MUGEN PACK AHHHH MEMORIES UNLOCKED THANK YOU
also every story I've heard about seeing the game in America has been in Vegas for whatever reason, lol.
Same with Buriki One too 🤔
@@GuileWinQuote that same Gameworks is also the only place I know that had a Love and Berry machine, which my friends and I got super into despite the gameplay being so so dumb. Strangely addictive to win little cards to dress up little Fashion Magic Witches with 🧙♀️
@@GuileWinQuoteI came across the arcade cabinet tucked away in a corner at a Sega Gameworks arcade in Texas when I was a kid. Played it for about an hour before my parents told me it was time to leave.
The graphic design is so good that the intro and character select screen have stuck around in my memories for over 20 years now. It's up there with Alpha 3 in terms of memorable aesthetics, in my opinion.
This video was a treat. You're doing a real service by evaluating and analyzing these "lesser games" in good faith.
Fun Fact: did you know that this game released in North America in arcades under the name Sonic Championship but it was a limited release because Sega of America feared the game would be considered to be too violent despite the violence in the game being all slapstick
huh. i knew it was a limited release but i didn’t know why.
Far as I know that's also the game's JP name.
"Sonic Championship" sounds like a vague name, too.
I know that two second joke of Guile being in the character select screen probably took some doing so I want you to know that your effort is noticed, good job
I do believe there's a reasonable amount of love for Sonic the Fighters, mostly over Honey the Cat but there was a proper tournament arc on the comics before they were cancelled. That one featured a Sonic OC version of Jane from Fighting Vipers and just... regular Segata Sanshiro somehow.
More games need just regular Segata Sanshiro
I really miss Honey The Cat. Her design is one of the best in the series. I really wish Sega brought her back.
@@spacedoutcowboy5211 Damn right. Think his last appearance in a game was Project X Zone 2.
@@Mateus_Carvalho While not ingame, I do love that SNK actually got him to portray Haohmaru in the live action ad for the KOF All Stars x Samurai Shodown crossover😂
There are a lot of humans in the Sonic series really.
This game definitely has a lot of fun with its animations. The OST is killer too, even by Sonic’s already high standards there.
i love seeing you fighting griffybones, like of course of all people he would be the one to run some sets with you 😭
That 3D Guile model ROCKS 12:31
Its absolutely INSANE how hood Sonic the Fighters looks, some of my favourite stylistic 3D models in the series for literally every character, and their animations are spot on
Great video, dude. Fighters is definitely one of the more underappreciated 3D fighters I know of. Like you said, I think the distaste largely comes from the "anything Sonic does that isn't running fast is automatically bad" crowd and how a lot of Sonic fans who played it when they were younger probably didn't understand it.
I love that Bark got brought back for a boss in Mania and appeared in a Classic Sonic special issue in the IDW comic.
12:27 Oh, man. What a great video! That was a very funny section, I'm glad you included that.
Thanks for being so positive. ❤
I’ve always loved this game. It was super exciting when it got re released in PS3. I really wish I’d seen this in arcades as a kid. It would have been right at home. It feels nostalgic to see these characters portrayed in this 3D super polygonal style.
Bark looking like alex is EXACTLY why i like him. Surprised someone even mentioned this
This is a game I hope to see get a fan decompilation. The idea of being able to natively play this on pc with online play, new characters and updated controls is amazing!
Baberuthless jump scare 0:35
This video came out great and I am glad people are enjoying it. I helped GuileWinQuote with the recording of this video by playing some online matches against him. The tags are cut off due to screen size, but whenever you see "yBones" on P1 and "GuileW" on P2 that is us netplaying. I had to do a lot of troubleshooting to get the PS3 emulator netplay working right on my PC so I am glad that paid off.
Happy to see some positivity for this game, it's always been a niche favorite of mine. As a Sonic fan, who's also a Looney Tunes/classic Animation fan, who ALSO really respects fighting game animation, it brings me a very specific kind of joy seeing how creatively it brings all those parts together. I've never really wanted to pick up a fighting game more complicated than Smash Bros until I saw this and button mashed through the campaign a few times, but I'm happy to know people in it's actual target audience can get complexity and fun out of it.
wow, that sonic smackdown game looks INSANELY polished. wtf it's so pretty!
Wow the tastefully cartoony animation works perfectly for these characters
I thought it was pretty interesting to learn the crazy history about this game. To be honest, I didn’t know that sonic and tails was playable in a fighting game for a hilarious joke. But then sega turning that joke into fighting game is pretty mind blowing also pretty cool they made that honey character from fighting vipers into an actual Sonic character. I never played this game, but I always saw it as a cool game. Never understood the hate for it though.
its because the way to unlock them in the cabinet was so ludicrously specific fan thought it was a Joke/Hoax for the longest time untill somebody dove deep into the code to actually find out that "no they are actually there!"
@alex_-yz9to I didn’t know that actually. Pretty crazy that’s the case and makes me think of a lot of secret characters unlocks for certain video games.
Great video. I was definitely one of those kids who thought this game was bad. But when I came back to it after getting into fighters, I realized it's actually quite fun. Seems like it'd be a blast to learn with friends.
I think there ought to be more Sonic fighting games. Sonic's inherent fast pace lends itself really well to the genre and it's crazy we havent seen more of them.
Considering the popularity of Sonic fan games, and retro decompilation projects, I'm surprised a decomp project for StF hasn't shown itself yet.
Hopefully this game _"Blows up??"_ -after this, so we can really see some magic happen
Thanks again WinQuote, cheers!
There's one that has been in the works for ages now, afaik.
@@nobodyinparticular9640 Fun Fact: Sonic the Fighters can be played in The Man Who Erased His Name and Lost Judgement.
It is definitely an underrated and unique Sonic game. Glad to see the attention it deserves.
And this is thanks to this game that Honey is officially approved by Sega as their character.
I didn't grow up with any real arcade culture here in the UK, however I did have the absolute pleasure of playing a Sonic the Fighters machine at Segaworld in London in the 90s. It created a huge impression on me and, as stated in this video, it was Sonic's first ever polygonal appearance. Not the deepest fighter for sure but it oozes charm and honestly I wish the mainstream games had more of this Warner Bros. animation.
I remember going to Segaworld when I was very little. I also remember the Sonic the Fighters machine, however I don't think I was old enough to actually understand what I was looking at - because looking back on it now, I'm pretty sure I was just mashing player 2's buttons while the game was in singleplayer mode. So I didn't really "play" it. ... It looked amazing to my Sonic-loving child self nonetheless!
Most of the arcades shut down by the mid 90s
capcom vs sega concept is the best part of this video, i unironically think that would be the exact kind of wacky fun shit we need to keep fighting games fresh and interesting :p but really this is a great video!
DEFINITELY do a vid on the best fan game fighting games! especially for IPs that never got a proper FG
Yeah, what happened to crossover games?
This channel is fantastic. I remember finding a Sonic The Fighters AND a Fighting Vipers arcade cabinet at an arcade I frequented when I was a kid. The sonic one blew my mind and I spent all my quarters trying to finish it. Had to wait like 7 years to be able to play it at home on the gems collection.
I know everyone is praising the video and the game that it is about, but I wanna highlight something low-key amazing that Guile did in the beginning of the video:
The pitch perfect description of the long enduring appeal of Sonic The Hedgehog
He manage to distill the entire Internet's ever changing conflicting feelings on The Blue Blur
and he did this in a few short sentences. Brilliant!
It's true - if Sonic wasn't a big part of your childhood, you will never understand why people love him, not even if his games where universally praised.
You either get it or you don't - it sucks that there is hardly a middle ground, but that is Sonic in a nutshell: 0 to 60 in under a minute and back again.
One of the selling points of Lost Judgment was the fact it had Sonic the Fighters playable in it, for some for the first time without having to emulate it themselves. I remember running to the arcade the first change I could so I could enjoy it for a bit lol.
I find it so funny that the only official way to play STF on modern platforms is through the Yakuza games, Lost Judgement and Like A Dragon Gaiden
Man, I was a huge Sonic fan as a kid but never got around to playing this. I’m going to check it out immediately if I can
wow those animations are remarkably smooth especially for the time period
They did technically do another Sonic persona, Sticks The Badger from Sonic Boom has a heavy resemblance to Aika from Skies of Arcadia between the hairstyle and the Boomerang weapon.
I think this is the best looking fighter on the Model 2 when looking at it from an artistic side, the characters are very expressive and the low poly look helps it even more, kinda sad that Sega delisted this game off the PSN store in 2020 for Europe, but not in the USA for some reason. The sound quality isn't that great when comparing it to other Model 2 games but the music slaps, especially the remastered versions that came later.
I wanna see a sequel to this game honestly.
The two biggest crimes of the rerelease is that there's no training mode and that it's not on more systems
Ah yes, the real Sonic cycle.
"I heard this game is bad"
*plays game*
"Honestly it's not so bad"
The reverse sonic cd (but it's not bad)
sonic the fighters is so full of personality it makes me mad when people just say "uoughg its bad!!!"
And that gametos had tech so deep
Thanks for this informative and easy-to-follow editing/narrative. On top of that, thanks for talking "normal". Some people have great content and choose to have shitty mics or "vocal fry" while they're talking.
So, yeah, weird compliment but basically you have a nice voice.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT, I LOVE THIS GAME, WOOOOOOOOOOOO, THANK YOU GuileWinQuote FOR MAKING A VIDEO ON THIS!
Also, play Sonic the Fighters Blitz, it's such a good 3D to 2D fighter fan-Game
If you want to talk more about good FGs with bad/unfair reputations I think the DOA series is one of the best to bring to the topic, god knows how many offenses I got yelled to me by just recommending the game.
Is that just from the horny bait, or are there other things people dislike about it? The only thing I know of would be the ridiculous amount of dlc in one of them
@@no64256boobs are bad and you should burn in hell, just ignore the fact that the characters are cool and the game is fun
@@no64256 People don't understand the counter hold system, either
@@no64256 I've only ever heard people hate on it cause of how horny it is, and to be fair... it IS really horny. Still a good time though, I remember playing dead or alive 4 on my cousin's xbox because he had it for whatever reason. Spartan-458 is still the goat
Absolutely. I need to learn more about the series first myself, but it sucks how the community and games have a stigma around them.
Thanks for giving praise to one of my most favourite Sonic spin-offs.
It surprisingly still purchasable on Xbox One and still works fine for what I played
This game is owed a sequel. Like, I remembered my brothers making fun of this game all the time as a kid, but I never really got to play it until the Gems collection.
And I was kind of blown away. It was Virtua Fighter...with Sonic. And I loved both, so naturally it appealed to me.
Cool video, nice to get a positive and appreciative light on this game
I absolutely will always fall in love with any game that has cartoony physics and model stretching like a looney tunes cartoon. Cel Damage is also a game that fits into that category! But yeah. I only heard of this game via the gems collection, and even with the input lag I had great fun with it.
I played this game on my PS3 and I instantly fell in love with it, and it's now one of my favorite fighting games ever.
FINALLY somebody sings the virtues of Sonic the Fighters!! i remember being very impressed by it as a kid playing it on gamecube and even though i knew jack shit about how to play it i was like "this looks really really good" and "why didn't they do this again"
also i literally just noticed watching this video that bean's wind-up uppercut is a direct reference to how Bin/Pin from Dynamite Dux attack. very very cute :)
just the background stage graphics alone look pretty impressive & better than some of its Am2 contemporaries.
The animation is awesome, especially for its time
The models and animations in this game have probably aged the best out of any low poly 3D game I've ever seen from the 90's
Fantastic video! I’d love to see one on bushido blade. I know it’s not exactly a fighting game but you cover a lot of those types of spin offs
I think I'll have to talk about the series eventually 🤔
thanks for putting this together. the looseness of this one makes it a perfect game to play casually with a fighting game-playing friend where you can just mess around with the goofy stuff you can do in it. and as you say the presentation is superb, the elasticity of the models is really impressive and the soundtrack is a real favourite too. appreciate you explaining the history too, fighting vipers will never die,
and as a few people have pointed out, it's one of the arcade games in lost judgment but we know it needs a proper rerelease. model 2 collection when, m2?
my one comment is that perhaps you could include the sources for some of your live-action footage, someone else in the comments wanted to see where one of them was from and i think it'd be good for others to be able to see 'em too.
Sonic the Fighters has that early 3d look that I love and that keeps getting more and more popular as time goes on. Looking at it gives me a similar feeling as the old Mega Man Legends games, the colors are all super vibrant and pop, really helps the low poly models fit into the world. I'm glad to see that Sonic the Fighters has it's own small tight knit community. I liked the game as a kid, but honestly I would go back to Sonic R on the Sonic Gems Collection much more frequently. It's truly a product of it's time, in many ways it feels like a really good fan-game that's aiming for that specific era of Late genesis/CD/Early Saturn of Sonic.
I can't blame too many sonic fans for looking over the game, since unless you're a fighting game fan with at least one other friend who also wants to try to get into the game, all there really is to the game is an arcade mode, at least on the Sonic Gems Collection maybe in the PS3/360 version there's more to it. So if you're not someone looking deeply into the game's mechanics and trying hard to see what it's about (or aren't familar enough with fighting games to know what too look for in other fighting games), it's pretty easy to overlook compared to the many more single-player focused sonic games. I hope one day this game gets a rerelease with a practice and VS mode to go with it (even Tekken 7 doesn't have a way to play against CPUs in the VS mode, which seems insane to me) because it genuinely looks like a very fun game to play!
The fact that some guy randomly putting sonic and tails into fighting vipers out of boredom made this entire game happen
Thanks for the look on this game! I agree with you, unless you grew up with Sonic, you really wouldn't be able to understand his appeal.
I didn't grow up with this though. Seeing it explored and explained makes me more fascinated with Sega's 3D fighters now. Maybe it's time I learned how to combo as Akira Yuki...
11:28 THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS, HELL YEAH
there was a mystical quality to this for me since i first saw it in an arcade, briefly, and then never saw it again (until compilation releases ofc). I like this game and the music is INCREDIBLE and very "Sonic". My favorite is the flying carpet stage
Oh those animations have so much SAUCE
Haven’t touched this in probably 10 years. You’ve inspired me to set up my GameCube and invite friends over for games!
thanks for covering sonic the fighters! it was my first fighting game ev er and got me into the genre when i was a small kid so im happy about it finally getting the good attention it deserves for being a fun and wacky fighting game
Thanks for being one of the few content creators for fighting games that doesn't use ugly clickbait thumbnails
Definitely not the only one to compare Bark to Alex, exactly why I like him myself! Haha. Was happy to see him even for a brief moment in Sonic Mania.
Wonderful video, thanks.
I’ve always loved this game, I actually think it was the first fighting game I ever played, and one of the few I ever got to play on an actual cabinet, a pizza place I went to as a kid had a cabinet and I remember absolutely loving it. Glad to see you give it some love. Now if only Sega would bring the 7th gen port to modern consoles, cause I don’t have anything that has it, and it’s a pain in the ass to emulate
brilliant video as always mate
in fact, this was so well-researched that after I finished watching it, I thought "wait, what do you mean I grew up playing a version with terrible input lag?"
I was hurt when I found out, haha.
But we didn't know any better!!
Good to see some respect laid to the name for once. And for actually describing how the mechanics work, weird how I never see that mentioned amongst the sea of "game bad because reasons."
Wooow memory umlocked! I remember button mashing to this as a kid. Thanks for this man much love 👍
Thanks for making this amazing video I'm really big fan of this game!
A few years back I hosted a tournament of this game just for me and some friends and it was an absolute blast. The game is not only fun, but more deep than you'd think so it felt like there was a level of skill as we played more. Bark is my boy
Just bought the 360 version m’self. Good to know that amongst others at least will still be buyable on Xboxone/series
Great video. I love Sonic, fighting games, and early 3D's aesthetic, so Sonic the Fighters is awesome.
LET'S GOOOO THE SONIC THE FIGHTERS VIDEOOOOO
I always had a soft spot for this game. My family would take trips to Las Vegas every summer when I was a kid, and an arcade my dad would take me and my brother to had a sonic the fighters cabinet. My brother and I would usually kill time with this game waiting for other games to free up from others playing them. I haven't played this in a while but this video made me wanna check it out again.
Nice video! You seriously have a lot of potential my friend! I wish you great amounts of happiness and success! 😃
This video reminded me i had this game on my Xbox, i just spent forever beating metal sonic and eggman
13:13
Sega DID RERELEASE IT. You can play the HD version of Sonic the Fighters in the arcades in Lost Judgement.
I. LOVED. Seeing Amy take the gun and shooting Fang. It was a real joy.
THAT GUILE MODEL LOOKED PERFECT!
Great video, and a fantastic introduction to your channel!
One aspect that I think made this game less successful, and all of AM2's games for that matter, was the lack of content on their home ports. Virtua Fighter 2, 3 and Fighting Vipers 1 & 2 were leagues more fun to play than Tekken and Soul Blade, as well as performed better despite the Saturn's limitations. Despite that, Tekken and Soul Blade's massive wealth of modes and number of characters really sold themselves to both fighter enthusiasts and casual gamers alike (and that the Playstation was a wildly more popular games console).
AM2 released Daytona USA and Sega Rally, both of which outshone any arcade racing game you cared to mention. But their console ports had mere arcade races, and you could be done with them in an afternoon. As opposed to Namco's Ridge Racer Type 4 had 123 cars to collect, double the tracks, and even damn story and mission modes.
With the benefit of hindsight, I think that a port of the arcade version of Sonic the Fighters, along with a bunch of other Sonic games all bundled together, would see the game being appreciated much more now than it was back in the day. But I doubt that would happen. I'm assuming the ports of their arcade games on 360 and PS3 weren't massively successful, hence they haven't seen the light of day on newer consoles. Such a shame.
Awesome video! I've always loved this game's art style, though I've never been very good at it, haha.
I'm glad they made an HD port that added the missing characters. Especially Honey, as she's one of my favorite Sonic character designs of all time!
Fun fact by the way, there actually is a modern way to play it! In the 2021 game "Lost Judgement", you can visit an arcade at some point in the story, which houses a fully playable Sonic the Fighters cabinet!
I'm not entirely sure which port the game uses, but it's a pretty cool easter egg nonetheless!
I’m glad there’s a small fanbase for Sonic The Fighters online. It was my favorite game to play growing up and I recently got to play it on an arcade cabinet with my gf!
Thank you for shedding some positive light on this game!
I love this game and I love Bark. So glad to see someone finally bring up Fighters in a positive light!
And yes, bring back Bark!
Me & my sister found Sonic the fighters really fun, It's just a simple tekken like game easy to learn.
I got this game in the 360, You could say im a 2010s starting fighting game player, at the time I didnt knew there was a fighting game community and tutorial for many fighting game that I played, I have to discover how to do combos all by myself. UMVC3, MK9, MKvDC and Sonic The Fighter were my game I slowly switch back and forth on learning each game.
This game is so much fun, you learn how to play it casually to competitively without knowing youre already getting used to it. Most fighting game are missing the "fun" aspect back then and wanted to be more of a ESport, SF6 has finally stepped down a bit and let the game be a game that everyone can pick up and play as they get into it. The animation for this game is amazing for its times, the model are lively, so many cool move like taking Amy Hammer and taking it away from her, the attention to detail. This was the only game that Masahiro Sakurai used to create Sonic Moveset for Smash despite being so rushed.
Back then I has started to enjoy fighting game and over come my anxiety on playing online as I enjoy it, as a person who is on the spectrum. I enjoy the 360 era.
Sonic the fighters, I remember seeing a lot of pictures in magazines as a kid. I've also played in on the gem collection in highschool I liked this some games like this should be packed as dlc for some newer games