How have I not heard of this game! If you told me that there was a fighting game where you can play as a guy who look's like Jotaro from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and punch the clothes off a human version Honey the Cat from Sonic the Fighters, I would be like what the hell are you smoking. For those of you who don't know Fighting Viper's is a 3D fighting game released in 1995 for the Sega Saturn. I'm not too keen on 3D fighters however I don't hate them, in fact Tekken was one of the first fighters I ever played. But when I heard about this game a few days ago I had to check it out.
Fighting Vipers is a game devolped by Sega-AM2 the devlopers of the more sucessfull Virtua Fighter Series. With this game they apparently wanted to appeal to a more western demographic which would explain the 90's-tacular designs for some of the characters, especially Grace with her rollerblades and skate gear. Most of the design's are pretty cool and unique though. With the exception of Bahn because like I mentioned earlier he is just Jotaro, down to the fact that he's a 17 year old High School student despite looking like he's about 30. Plus his alternate colors look like Jotaro's outfit from Diamond is Unbreakable. He's still super cool though even if he's a rip-off.
Like most early fighting games Fighting Vipers isn't big on story. It's just the typical guy holds a fighting tournament and a cast of colorful characters, who come from all walks of life, decide to join for their own reasons. From there it's your typical 3D fighter however what makes this game unique is the armor mechanic where every character has armor that can be knocked off and cause the fighter more damage. Also unlike most 3D fighters the stages are surrounded by walls so you can throw your opponents into them and if you win with a specific move you can actually knock your opponent threw them. Which makes the game super hype when you win against an opponent you were having trouble with by air juggling them and punching their ass threw a wall.
Speaking of difficulty I didn't have too much trouble playing threw the arcade mode until the very end. Except when playing as Honey (Candy in the American version). I don't know if the character isn't very good or I just sucked using her, but when I played threw with Bahn it was a cake walk until I got to Jane and then I had to play a bit more strategically. I say part of the blame is my inability to learn how to properly utilize a block button since I'm so use to just holding back to block I just do it unconsciously even when it doesn't work. Although f--k Sanman and his stupid bowling throw.
In closing I really enjoyed my time with Fighting Vipers, it's defintly up there with the few 3D Fighters I like. I think it actually aged a bit better then the early Tekkens and I haven't really played Virtua Fighter except the shitty port of 2 on the Genisis so I can't really compare this that series. I would love to have a new Fighting Vipers but I doubt that's going to happen. There was a sequel released in 2001 for the Dreamcast but sadly it was Japan only. Even if it dosen't get another sequel Fighting Vipers lives on, Bahn recently made an appearence in Project X Zone and the Sonic the Fighter's version of Honey recently appeared in the "Challengers" story arc in the Archie Sonic Comic.
Anyway we can only hope this game will not fade into obscurity like most of Sega's non-Sonic games like Streets of Rage and House of the Dead. I definitely think you should check out this game if your a fan of 3D Fighters. It's available on the PS3 and Xbox 360 for only $4.99, or if you have a PSNow account on PS4 you can get it for free. So it not that big of an investment, they even added online. Though I don't think there will be a whole lot of people playing it online. Or you can go hard core and buy the Sega Saturn version. But if your willing to go that far I suggest getting the Japanese version so you can play as Pepsiman. No. I'm not joking.
