Sonic the Hedgehog the speedy blue hedgehog has some amazing 2D platforming games but however its share of bad spinoff games and this game right here is the most bizarre of them all. Originally an idea that someone came up with during the development of another fighting game Fighting Vipers where they could have Sonic in a fighting game and somehow it got approved and the final result was a watered down simplistic version of Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers called Sonic the Fighters (or Sonic Championship in arcades outside Japan). It was released in arcades with a planned Sega Saturn release before being cancelled but finally made it to consoles on the PS2 and Gamecube as part of the Sonic Gems Collection and later on the PS3 and XBox Live Arcade as a cheap downloadable game.
The premise in the game is that Dr Eggman (or Dr Robotnik who in this game has it spelled as Robotonic in the intro likely due to a translation error) aims to take over the world with the Death Egg II and Sonic and Tails or any of the characters that the player decides have to get 8 Chaos Emeralds to power up the Lunar Fox and then fly up to the Death Egg II and stop Dr Eggman and his plans. It is a very stupid and ridiculous setup that does not make that much sense, first up how are there eight small Chaos Emeralds in this game? And how or why are they needed to power up a small one seat ship? It is just one of those things I just cannot wrap my head around.
Sonic the Fighters is a one-on-one fighting game where you pick one of eight different characters with each of them having their own different set of moves. You have of course Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose and then you have Espio the Chameleon and then characters like Fang the Sniper, Bark the Polar Bear and Bean the Dynamite who are more known in the Sonic the Hedgehog Archie Comics.
Now remember when I say that the game is a simplistic version of Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers that could not be more further from the truth as the game only uses three buttons to control your fighter compared to other fighting games around that time which use six buttons, these are a punch, a kick and also put up a Barrier which is used to protect yourself from damage. The Barriers are at least unique in the sense that you have to manage them carefully as they do break when you take enough damage and there is a limit to how many you can use which means that if you run out of Barriers then you are completely vulnerable to damage. A character can also do a grab move which can also break barriers but some characters have their own unique grab animations like you can grab either Amy Rose's Piko Hammer, Fang's gun or Bean's Bombs and your character will use the said weapon against them doing a good amount of damage before throwing them off screen, of course Amy and Fang end up pulling another weapon out to attack you anyway which is kind of weird the more I think about it.
The best thing to come from this game is the comedic element, everytime a character takes a hit you will see Rings pour out and that aspect fits in very well with a fighting game and the gameplay has a slapstick feel it which makes the game very cartoonish. You'll see the character models inflate when hit and the way the characters get smacked into the wall or when you are jumping or stumping onto the enemies' downed body it is pretty humorous and comical to try and made the game appeal to children. However on top of the controls the depth with the fighting system is very lackluster, characters do have special moves and multiple combos but however the combo attacks are done with one button literally making the game into nothing more then a button masher. Look I get that because the game was aimed at kids the gameplay suffered gratefully and it really makes the game overly too easy to play and hugely unenjoyable. A one-on-one fighting game is all about learning about each of the characters' various strengths and weaknesses and working each of the characters' special moves and how to effectively use them which makes a fighting game have depth to them. Here in Sonic the Fighters some characters may be slower yet hit hard or are faster but however do not do as much damage as the other but however each character has one or two similar moves that you can easily do with frantic button mashing. You can also add that despite all fight takes place in a ring there are unfortunately no Ring Outs like you could do in the earlier fighting game Fighting Vipers, nope, not even a way to break down the boarders around the ring.
If you are playing the game on Easy or Normal difficulties then you'll go through the first few fights without much trouble. When you get about halfway through the AI gets get a bit challenging at least till you get to the last two fights. There are about 10 fights in the game and you need to beat 8 characters before reaching the final boss fights. First up is Metal Sonic which has attacks that can knock about half of your health bar, grabs you annoyingly and can knock you back halfway across the ring. Metal Sonic in this game is not hard or cheap compared to other fighting games and you can get into a rhythm where you can learn its attack pattern, block its attacks, counter attack it and eventually beat him. After beating Metal Sonic you then fight against Dr Eggman in his robot where you have 15 seconds and only one chance to beat him and that fight is much easier compared to Metal Sonic because you fight him in Hyper Mode where you can get him into an endless array of combos into him and win easily unless he counter attacks which is something he rarely does. If you are playing as Sonic and go through 8 rounds without losing and then after winning the first round with Metal Sonic move back while pressing the punch and kick buttons together then you'll be able to use Super Sonic against Metal Sonic and Dr Eggman and I was able to do that once during one of my playthroughs. After beating Dr Eggman you won the game and you can congratulate yourself with a pat on the back, the main game takes about less then 15 minutes on your first playthrough to complete.
There is a two player mode where you can play locally with another friend as well as also an online multiplayer mode on the HD versions where you can play other players online but however no one is playing this game online. Also in the HD versions there are unlockable trophies/achievements that you can easily unlock in a single run and also the ability to play as Metal Sonic, Dr Eggman and lastly Honey the Cat who is a character inspired by Candy from Fighting Vipers who in the Japanese version of that was known as Honey. Playing the game is much more fun with a friend that is willing to play with you if you both want to have a bit of a laugh at all of the comedic stuff in the game but it only ends up being enjoyable for only a few hours until the novelty wears out.
On PSN and Xbox Live Arcade stores Sonic the Fighters is cheap to download and you can kind of see what the game is. Still the idea of a Sonic the Hedgehog fighting game was not a bad idea on paper but in execution it ended as a fighting game that plays like a watered down Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers lacking depth, refinement and being too overly simplistic for a fighting game even if it is intensionally made for children. Still compared to other Sonic spinoffs and other bad fighting games that might have existed around in 1996 it at least functions and like I said it is comical and can be funny at times watching Sonic characters get whacked in the face. This would not be the last time we would ever see Sonic in a fighting game, aside from Sonic the Hedgehog being a playable character in later Super Smash Bros games there was another Sonic fighting game called Sonic Battle released for the Gameboy Advance and that is actually much better executed then this.
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Game Score: 5.2/10
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Game Title: Sonic The Fighters
Platform: PlayStation 3
Developer: Sega AM2
Genre: Fighting
Age Rating: PEGI: 7+
Release Date: 5th December 2012 (Europe)
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The Good Points:
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Comedic slapstick damage that is funny at times
Unique grab animations and use of barriers add thought to the fighting
The Bad Points:
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Story is stupid and does not make much sense
Feels overly simplistic to control and play
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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