Smashboards Creates: Battle of AGES, a SEGA platform fighter

[YoshiandToad]

Honestly, I'm really happy with the final base roster.

If there was one thing I'd tweak it'd be swapping one of the Virtua Fighter cast for a Fighting Vipers character, but this is the sole minor tweak, which is frankly an incredible feat. I'm picky as hell.

Obviously there's characters I'd love to have seen get in that didn't quite make the cut (Gunstar Heroes, Ecco, Horatio, King, etc), but this is probably the best celebration of Sega we could ask for and finishing with good old Princess Kurumi as our final (and oldest character on the roster) was a great way to end.

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Anniversary talk if you don't mind!

This past year has been incredible and it's genuinely helped me through an incredibly tough period by giving me a creative outlet AND allowed me to discover a whole heap of entirely new franchises through doing research for the game.

Spoiler: Since the thread started here's what I've played and bought due to this thread:

• Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX(admittedly this was one I planned to nab anyway)
• Valkyria Chronicles
• Valkyria Chronicles 4
• Valkyria Revolution
• Endless Space
• Endless Space 2
• Love Thyself - A Horatio Story (this one is free)
• Jet Set Radio
• Crazy Taxi
• Panzer Dragoon: Remake
• NiGHTS into Dreams
• Shenmue I & II (only played the first now)
• Shenmue III
• Shining Resonance Refrain
• Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit
• Two Point Hospital
• Wonder Boy Returns Remix
• Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
• Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World
• Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
• Total War: Shogun
• Space Channel 5: Part 2
• Samba De Amigo Wii
• The House of the Dead Wii
• Yakuza 0
• Yakuza Kiwami
• Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg
• Streets of Rage 4
• The Typing of the Dead: Overkill
• 7th Dragon III Code VFD
• Sakura Wars (2019)
• Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics
• Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania
• The entire Alex Kidd game collection including Lost Stars (both versions), BMX Trial, Shinobi World, Enchanted Castle
• Sega Ninja
• Dynamite Dux
• Teddy Boy Blues
• Sega Superstars Tennis
• Sonic Riders
• Sonic Gems Collection
• Sonic Mania
• Sonic Lost World
• Tails Adventure
• Virtua Tennis (in the arcades)
• Virtua Striker (also in the arcades)
• Golden Axe (also in the arcades)
• Virtua Cop (also in the arcades)
• Soul Hackers (not played yet)
• Bayonetta (not played yet)
• Catherine Classic (not played yet)

Many of these games were brand new to me, and I wouldn't have discovered them without the thread. Luckily sales happened throughout the year too. Valkyria Chronicles and Two Point Hospital have ended up as personal favourite, and Sakura Wars (2019) has ended up being a far better game than I anticipated thanks to reviews.

I feel I've personally come a long way since the first post I did in this thread. Whilst my adoration for Alex Kidd has only grown stronger if anything, I feel like I'd have a lot more wide a pool to pick from for the second character pick now than just Billy Hatcher and I'd be hard pressed to suggest he'd be my first pick for a post console Sega character now. Alicia would probably get that role today...so I'm glad she made it at the end.

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

I have a fraction of the knowledge on sega other people have in here. That said, I think this is an absolutely amazing roster which does a good job representing the company.

Only pick I’m not the biggest fan of is Ichiban because, while I like him, I don’t really like when a series with multiple protagonists is added into a crossover game and it has two protagonist characters in it. But that can easily be corrected with DLC.

I learned a lot about sega from this thread and tried out a lot of the games because of it! know I didn’t participate that much because I have limited knowledge on a lot of the series in here, but I’m super excited to see where this thread goes for DLC.

 

[PuyoWitch]

I know I only got into here late last year, but I've had a great time with this thread. I'm happy I get to do write-ups for franchises and games I've long had a connection to. It's a nice creative project for me to work on. I also love reading the write-ups and seeing people passionate about SEGA, including ones I've never really played and SEGA franchises I've met no fans of before besides myself. I mean, Skies of Arcadia is a big one, and this thread is literally led by someone with Vyse in his avatar. I think we all have specific SEGA franchises we all just really love, and I love that. Everyone brings a lot to the table, and I'm looking forward to continue sticking by this project to its completion.

As for the overall roster, all complaints I would have are really just nitpicking more than anything. It has a really good sense of SEGA's history, and a few fun underdog picks that I really respect, too. If this roster was placed in front of me and I had no idea how things played out, I think it passes 'the test' because no series or big character feels like it's "missing" to me, but I do think I would maybe push one of the Virtua Fighter reps (not Akira) and Selvaria to DLC, or swap them out for two other characters. I read back, so I know how things played out, and hindsight is 20:20, so again, these are more just nitpicks. I STILL genuinely feel like this is the best "SEGA Smash" fan roster I have ever seen, so...



I'll say that I knew of Sakura Wars and Phantasy Star, but I didn't really know where to start or how to jump in, so they were always major blind spots for me, and I've played Shining, but no games I've really liked from that series, but this small community/thread has actually gotten me interested in them, so I need to check them out eventually.

 

[Megadoomer]

I just saw the character select screen image in the intro post - that CSS icon for the Blue Dragon is amazing, and it's put together really well.

 

[Speed Weed]

I'll just get straight to the point: I love our roster.

Like, seriously, it's so good. We have so many facets of SEGA repped, an excellent balance between all kinds of characters, old and new, standard choices and deep cuts, this roster feels like it manages to perfectly encapsulate SEGA's history in 36 characters. My only two complaints are that we didn't include a Phantasy Star Online rep and that I think one of the Bryants could have been replaced with a different VF character, but these are just nitpicks cause holy damn this roster is so varied and creative and such a great representation of why SEGA matter. I've made it no secret that I'm not a fan of most fan SEGA rosters I see - I find that they often lack a proper understanding of SEGA's history and either play it really safe or fill it up with a bunch of frankly unimportant characters, and in both scenarios there are almost always some major omissions. I feel like we avoided all those issues with this roster. We dug deep. We had a proper understanding of SEGA. Everyone here feels important to a degree. I don't feel like we have any particularly egregious omissions. I'm obviously gonna be biased cause I helped put this roster together, but I'm gonna have to second Witch when I say I think this is the best SEGA fan roster I've ever seen. It absolutely rules, and I can't wait to see it get even better with DLC.

 

[Flyboy]

I think it's easy to have some nitpicks with any roster. I'd probably change one or two things, such as adding a PSO rep in base or replacing one of the VF characters with Honey from Fighting Vipers or something, just for fun and variety...but like...man, this is such a fun base roster.

I said it earlier and I'm echoing people here but this really has been such a delight to be part of. Every time something like King or Horatio got pitched I was giddy. The wild assists, toys, and stages that flew around, the deep dives into SEGA history, and my own personal wins of getting Nei, Ichiban, and THE OOZE represented in this game in varying capacities has made me so happy. I think it's a roster to be proud of, one that we all worked towards with a unified vision to create one that contains some crazy deep cuts, major fan favorites, and more importantly feels coherent and cohesive and unique. I want to imagine TEPPEN-style reveal trailers for so many of these characters because the hypothetical reveals and interactions between them all would be so cool!

It's wild how we genuinely have a 35-year-range in this roster from Kurumi to Ichiban. 1985 to 2020. That's so cool. DLC is going to be really exciting because I feel like there are so many new series' we could still dive into. Like, look at our lists of previously-submitted characters! We have so many utterly fascinating ideas and choices there! I hadn't even heard of Resonance of Fate before Osby submitted Leanne and now I think she's a prime DLC character! And I never once submitted Derek Stiles to this project and I know I'm gonna be gunning for him!

It's just so cool! It's such a cool roster and I think we're only gonna make it cooler. It's just been so fun seeing everyone bring their own experience and tastes to the table to help create something unified. It feels like we're all working together to make something neat.

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright fellas, I think it's time we close things down. This was fun! I do have another fun discussion period slated towards the proper end of the base game.

Now it's time to start doin some stuff:

Job #187: Submit a moveset for Kurumi

Our final base game moveset! Not much else to say here. I imagine there prolly won't be much going on with this one, so we'll also be doing:

Job #188: Submit a stage from an 80s SEGA game

I believe I mentioned this in our Discord, but it was likely that with this final character, we'd basically treat them as a "misc." character, and in place of their stage and assist, do a misc stage and assist that are somehow related to them. This is the case with Kurumi: we're doing an 80s SEGA stage and assist to accompany her.

So errrr yeah! Submit a miscellaneous stage that comes from a SEGA game that came out in the 80s. Some cool stuff we can do here.

 

[Speed Weed]

Job #188: Super Locomotive

Okay so Super Locomotive was this arcade game SEGA did in 1982 and it rules. You control a speeding train in a sidescrolling enviroment, as you have to outrun and defeat various types of vehicles that are after you. Here's a gameplay video (warning: some small flashing lights):

I've thrown this idea around in the server before, but I really think this could make for such a cool stage. Characters would be fighting on the train as it speeds through a grassland. All the while, the various enemies from the game will show up as hazards chasing the train down - this includes other trains with angry faces and muscles, and also planes that'll drop bombs on you. The train will also be shooting missiles at said enemies, and will sometimes turn brighter-colored and start going even faster. Is it kinda dollar store Spirit Train? Yeah, kinda. But all in all, I think this would make for a very fun hectic stage. Also, if we're considering this as Kurumi's home stage, then I think it makes sense to pick out a stage from the earlier days of SEGA arcade games.

And while I obviously won't be putting any tracklists together just yet, I do believe it's worth noting this stage's musical potential. You see, Super Locomotive's high-octane action is famously backed by a rather good chiptune remix of the instrumental track Rydeen, by pioneering Japanese synth-pop band Yellow Magic Orchestra. We have precedent for including licensed tracks in our game and goddammit YMO are one of my favorite bands and I will take advantage of the opportunity to get a song by them in our project.

Anyway yeah funny train

 

[Megadoomer]

A bit late to this discussion, but I haven't seen many Sega Smash-like rosters; what characters do they tend to omit/leave out? (or what sort of unimportant characters do they add instead?)

 

[YoshiandToad]

Job #187: Princess Kurumi

Basic Playstyle:
Kurumi is a projectile heavy character with a focus on dodging and racking up damage from multiple angles. She is fast on her feet with good aerial combat as well as the ability to wall cling and wall jump.
However she also has very low stamina and is very light weight so if an opponent gets too close, Kurumi is almost definitely at a disadvantage. She'll want to escape those who wish to capture her!

Kurumi's Basic moves:
Kurumi's basic moves consist of rapid strikes with her dagger blade. With her speed she can charge in and combo decently well, although the end of the combo will leave her open to counter attacks, and thus you won't want to overstay your welcome.

Kurumi's dodge makes her briefly disappear and reappear. It allows Kurumi to travel quite far being a long dodge, but it does have a long ending lag, meaning her opponent can catch her off guard as she reappears if they guess the direction correctly.

Kurumi's shield is Kazamaru, the 'ninja' who replaced Kurumi in the Master System version of the game. He blocks her from damage with his samurai sword.

Kurumi has lower than average attack damage, high attack speed, a very high jump, very low stamina, light weight, fast ground speed, fast air speed and fast falling.

Special attacks:
Neutral Special: Throwing Knives
Kurumi's default special allows her to throw a throwing knife. This move can be rapidly pressed to rack up damage.

Down Special: Kunai Storm
When used in the air, Kurumi will fire dozens of kunai down at the ground at a slight angle, allowing you to attack from above.

When used on the ground, Kurumi will shoot kunai out both in front and behind her.

Side Special: Giant Shuriken
Kurumi will pull out a giant shuriken and throw it. This stuns opponents when hit. Can be charged and angled, allowing Kurumi to hit from less usual angles than her throwing knives.

Up Special: Ninja Vanish
Kurumi will vanish from sight, before reappearing. Much like Zelda's up special in Smash, Kurumi can angle her return allowing her to reappear in a more favourable shot. Upon reappearing she'll perform an upwards kick, knocking any foe she appears before skywards.

All Star Move: Gyokuro's Trap
Several enemy ninja, working for the tyrant Gyokuro, will appear behind Kurumi before rushing towards her. She will vanish out the way of their attack and the ninjas will carry on charging forwards. If the ninjas swords strike an opponent they will be transported to the middle of Kurumi's kingdom of Ohkami.

Kurumi will wait with the opponent, or opponents the All Star move hit, when suddenly a stampede of horses will appear running towards them. Kurumi will deftly vanish in and out between the stampede whilst her less fleet footed opponents get crushed by rampaging horses underneath.

Occasionally the horses will be replaced with giant boulders, but the animation Kurumi does and the damage dealt is the same as with the horse stampede.

Misc:
Entrance animation: Kurumi will be carried onto stage by some ninja captors in a royal litter(a type of vehicle that is a room carried by servants typically). She leaps out of the litter in her royal dress before using ninjutsu to transform into her ninja outfit.

Idle animation: Kurumi will play with a fan.

Taunts:
Taunt 1: Kurumi transforms back into her princess dress and performs a fan dance.
Taunt 2: Kurumi will pull out her dagger and look around expectedly for an enemy attack. About 2% of the time this dagger will be replaced by the radish she held in Segagaga's Ninja Princess parody cover instead of her weapon.
Taunt 3: Kurumi lifts a score card up that reads “Kurumi”. A reference to her Sega Ages cameo.

Victory Animations:
Victory animation 1: Kurumi suddenly appears in a puff of smoke, winks at the camera and wiggles her hips (her animation for beating Ninja Princess) whilst her father dances with fans next to her.
Victory animation 2: Kurumi will transform back into a princess and fan herself as the camera zooms out to her in front of a bowing Kazamaru.
Victory animation 3: Kurumi finishes tying up Gyokuro in rope, and dusts her hands off. Kazamaru will lead the tyrant away, as Kurumi flips a kunai in the air and catches it.

2nd Place animation: Kurumi will accidentally transform her outfit into that of Kazamaru before changing back whilst looking embarrassed.

3rd Place animation: Kurumi will accidentally transform her outfit into that of Hibana from Shinobi, before changing back whilst looking embarrassed, not even getting the right game series.

4th Place animation: Kurumi will fall to the floor and weep, her animation when she loses a life in Ninja Princess.

Palettes:

1. Kurumi regular
2. Sega MyCard
3. Sprite
4. Western Arcade cabinet art
5. Colleco version
6. Arcade flyer
7. Kazamaru (The Ninja - character who replaced Kurumi in the Master System port)
8. Hibana (Shinobi)

 

[OrpheusTelos]

Job #188: Space Fortress (Zaxxon)

Zaxxon is an isometric shooter released in 1981 for arcades in which you play as a spaceship gunning down a heavily guarded apace station. Zaxxon was incredibly revolutionary for its time, being one of the earliest uses of isometric graphics in gaming and going on to be one of Sega’s earliest hits at the time. I fully agree with Speed’s line of thinking that a stage representing Sega’s earliest arcade outings would make the most sense to accompany Kurumi, and while there are many other memorable games from that era worth pulling from, Zaxxon stuck out to me personally as one of the more iconic entries, and something that would make for a fun stage.

The stage takes place in the halls of the space fortress. There’s an electrical forcefield on one side of the screen and a brick wall on the other. There’s a few fuel drums on the ground that can act as platforms, but will explode if hit. Gun turrets can pop out of the ground at any point during the fight and start firing at players, and occasionally you may see the titular Zaxxon robot himself pop up to give you a bad time. For the aesthetic, we’re keeping the blockiness and overwhelmingly blue color scheme, just translating it into HD.

 

[YoshiandToad]

A bit late to this discussion, but I haven't seen many Sega Smash-like rosters; what characters do they tend to omit/leave out? (or what sort of unimportant characters do they add instead?)

In my (very) limited experience I've seen Sega rosters go one of five ways:

1. Sonic Stuffed
   Over half of the roster will be filled with Sonic the Hedgehog characters(usually with one oddball choice like Honey the Cat), a third will be spent on Persona/Puyo/Yakuza and/or Bayonetta depending on whether they're Smash Bros fans, Persona specific fans, Yakuza fans or vaguely aware that Puyo is big. The remainder of the roster, if there's any additional room will be Sega All Stars characters.
   
   
2. Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (Transformed) + DLC
   Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing mixed with Sonic & All Stars Transformed roster with someone like Ristar, Vectorman, Tempo, Bug or Chuck D Head as the only additions.
   
   
3. Multiple characters from one or two single entry games
   For an extreme example; having up to all four playable characters from Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg despite Rolly, Chick and Bantam all playing the exact same with no stat differences as Billy himself in said game. I've witnessed this a few times. I love me some egg rolling action, but a balanced roster it does not make with four chicken suited kids that have the same abilities.
   
   
4. Platformer character heavy
   I'm amongst the biggest platformer pusher of the regular posters here, but a mix is always preferrable for moveset variety as your roster will end a little bland otherwise. If the cast is just Sonic (+ five Sonic characters), Alex Kidd(again my favourite), Billy Hatcher, Ristar, Vectorman, Dynamite Headdy, Chuck D Head, Bug and Astal it could do with some spice from another genre.
   
   
5. Sega Mega Drive/Genesis heavy
   The roster designer has played only one Sega console in their childhood and hasn't looked into any others. If you see characters from other consoles, they'll likely be derived from Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing or Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed.

Across all of these different trends there tends to be a general ignoring of Sega's series that haven't appeared in the Racing titles no matter the impact:
For example Sakura Wars has a huge cultural impact in Japan but as it's not been in many western crossovers it tends to be ignored.
RPG giant Phantasy Star doesn't always get a character from either the RPG side or MMO side despite being hugely influential in both.
Panzer Dragoon, Valkyria Chronicles, Virtua-On, Wonder Boy, and Shining are likely to be completely missed.
Unless in the 5th section, not even super popular Streets of Rage tends to get a look in.

Just some observations anyway.
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Stage coming soon

 

[Speed Weed]

In my (very) limited experience I've seen Sega rosters go one of five ways:

1. Sonic Stuffed
   Over half of the roster will be filled with Sonic the Hedgehog characters(usually with one oddball choice like Honey the Cat), a third will be spent on Persona/Puyo/Yakuza and/or Bayonetta depending on whether they're Smash Bros fans, Persona specific fans, Yakuza fans or vaguely aware that Puyo is big. The remainder of the roster, if there's any additional room will be Sega All Stars characters.
   
   
2. Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (Transformed) + DLC
   Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing mixed with Sonic & All Stars Transformed roster with someone like Ristar, Vectorman, Tempo, Bug or Chuck D Head as the only additions.
   
   
3. Multiple characters from one or two single entry games
   For an extreme example; having up to all four playable characters from Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg despite Rolly, Chick and Bantam all playing the exact same with no stat differences as Billy himself in said game. I've witnessed this a few times. I love me some egg rolling action, but a balanced roster it does not make with four chicken suited kids that have the same abilities.
   
   
4. Platformer character heavy
   I'm amongst the biggest platformer pusher of the regular posters here, but a mix is always preferrable for moveset variety as your roster will end a little bland otherwise. If the cast is just Sonic (+ five Sonic characters), Alex Kidd(again my favourite), Billy Hatcher, Ristar, Vectorman, Dynamite Headdy, Chuck D Head, Bug and Astal it could do with some spice from another genre.
   
   
5. Sega Mega Drive/Genesis heavy
   The roster designer has played only one Sega console in their childhood and hasn't looked into any others. If you see characters from other consoles, they'll likely be derived from Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing or Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed.

Across all of these different trends there tends to be a general ignoring of Sega's series that haven't appeared in the Racing titles no matter the impact:
For example Sakura Wars has a huge cultural impact in Japan but as it's not been in many western crossovers it tends to be ignored.
RPG giant Phantasy Star doesn't always get a character from either the RPG side or MMO side despite being hugely influential in both.
Panzer Dragoon, Valkyria Chronicles, Virtua-On, Wonder Boy, and Shining are likely to be completely missed.
Unless in the 5th section, not even super popular Streets of Rage tends to get a look in.

Just some observations anyway.
-----------------

Stage coming soon

Some of this is right yeah. For me, some of the personal gripes I have are:

• Rosters acting like Sonic, Yakuza, Puyo and Persona are the only important SEGA franchises, meanwhile stuff that's also super important like Phantasy Star and Sakura Wars gets either the bare minimum or nothing at all
• General overreliance on the All-Stars picks, treating some of the series featured in them (JSR being a prime example) like they're these super huge essential additions when really they're just neat series that probably should be in but aren't that high-priority
• Also oftentimes a lot of bias towards the Mega Drive era, also treating the arcade stuff pretty badly despite how important it is to SEGA
• Along with that, just too much emphasis on random old stuff that's really not important at all. It gets tiring seeing rosters that feel the need to add a bajillion characters like Ristar and Vectorman and Sketch Turner and ****. These characters are fine, but I'm tired of seeing them treated like these super important additions and them getting the spotlight at the expense of so much stuff that's just so much more important. I've seen rosters that put in **** like the Floigan Bros. and don't even have someone like Sakura. It just makes things feel pointless, like if you're not gonna bother with actually giving some thought and consideration to your picks and are just throwing out random bottom-of-the-barrel people for the sake of it, then it's just not fun. I don't even mind much if you just throw Ristar in there or something, I think he's neat, but putting in so many of these characters at once starts to make you come off less like you understand SEGA's history and more like you just want to flex the fact that you know about Bill Wibbly's Space Odyssey for the Pico.
• Generally not bothering with almost anyone who doesn't fall into any category of either All-Stars picks, Big Mainstream Franchises, or the aforementioned random old ****
• In general, a lot of stagnation with the picks. There's not a lot of interesting stuff being done with these rosters, it sometimes feels like they're all just different combinations of the same set of characters over and over. It's getting a bit better, I'm starting to see some cool fresher faces pop up in more rosters - for example, I've noticed an upswing in rosters including the Magician lately, which is very good - but in general it feels like the vibe is that not many of these rosters have a deep proper understanding of SEGA's history and library and so are just parroting what other people say. Things get a bit stale when it feels like every roster is made either from an outsider's perspective (which isn't necessarily a bad thing mind you) or by someone who just wants to flex that they know some random-ass obscure game.

 

[Janx_uwu]

Gain Ground

Gain Ground is a 1988 strategy game where you move forward, defeat enemies and free captives with an impressive roster of 20 unique characters, each with a different weapon. The goal is to reach the exit point of the level while saving as many captives as you can.

The stage takes place in Round 5, Stage 5, which can be seen in the video embedded above. It takes place up on the raised platform/balcony bit. It's kind of like a walk-off with a long soft platform in the middle and above the main stage. Occasionally, a captive from Gain Ground will appear at a random point on the stage, far from the exit point, with a blue "HELP!" text box. If you walk by them, they're freed and will follow your character at their own pace. You'll have to lead them from wherever they spawned to the exit point without them taking more than 20% of damage from other fighters (the savior of the captive cannot damage them, however).

Spoiler: Old submission, might use later

JOB 188: Time Traveler

Time Traveler is a 1991 holographic FMV game where you help a cowboy (Marshal Gram) travel throughout time to stop the evil time lord, Vulcor, and save Pincess Kyi-La. It was groundbreaking for its time, being the first holographic game ever! The gameplay consisted of quick time event's as many other FMV games from its time.

To reflect the original game, the look of the stage would be almost completely black save for outlines of the stage and four three-dimensional shapes in the background.
The stage's layout would be similar to that of The Forest Floor from Rivals of Aether - basically a long base platform with four soft platforms arranged above it. Sometimes the screen will flash a bit, and background elements will appear or be swapped out (such as the aforementioned shapes, cacti from Western times, castles from Medieval times, neon signs from near-future times, and strange metal infrastructure from future times). With hazards on, enemies corresponding to the current time period will appear on the left or right of grounded fighters and do a quick, powerful attack - you'll have to be on your toes for sure!
I also think this would make for a pretty cool and atmospheric Training stage unless we already have one of those.

 

[Speed Weed]

JOB 188: Time Traveler

Time Traveler is a 1991 holographic FMV game where you help a cowboy (Marshal Gram) travel throughout time to stop the evil time lord, Vulcor, and save Pincess Kyi-La. It was groundbreaking for its time, being the first holographic game ever! The gameplay consisted of quick time event's as many other FMV games from its time.

To reflect the original game, the look of the stage would be almost completely black save for outlines of the stage and four three-dimensional shapes in the background.
The stage's layout would be similar to that of The Forest Floor from Rivals of Aether - basically a long base platform with four soft platforms arranged above it. Sometimes the screen will flash a bit, and background elements will appear or be swapped out (such as the aforementioned shapes, cacti from Western times, castles from Medieval times, neon signs from near-future times, and strange metal infrastructure from future times). With hazards on, enemies corresponding to the current time period will appear on the left or right of grounded fighters and do a quick, powerful attack - you'll have to be on your toes for sure!
I also think this would make for a pretty cool and atmospheric Training stage unless we already have one of those.

This prompt is for a stage from an 80s game (one without a playable character), so this sadly is ineligible

 

[Janx_uwu]

This prompt is for a stage from an 80s game, so this sadly is ineligible

darn I'll replace it soon, my bad
EDIT: New one's up!

 

[Speed Weed]

YoshiandToad's moveset wins by default!!!!!

Stage submissions are still going

 

[Flyboy]

Job 188: Space Harrier

Space Harrier is one of my favorite SEGA arcade games. It is a rail shooter released in 1985 that had a unique cockpit-shaped cabinet and has gorgeous technicolor visuals, a striking checkerboard floor, and plenty of colorful and strange enemies to shoot at and avoid. The game sees you go through several levels, each with their own unique graphics, tilesets, and scenery. I'd love to pay tribute to Space Harrier with a somewhat unique gimmick - similar to Flat Zone's Game & Watch from Super Smash Bros. Melee, this stage sees you actually battling inside the screen of the cockpit cabinet!

In the background, Harrier runs along the ground, firing at enemies as the stage beautifully transitions between various stages in Space Harrier (and Space Harrier II). It is a walk-off stage, as leaving the edges of the CRT would be out-of-bounds. Now, while the scrolling screen and Harrier are safely behind the competitors, if hazards are on the villains may attempt to over-reach and fire into the foreground. Be careful, or you could be on the receiving end of a really nasty surprise!

I just think it'd be neat to pay tribute both to the cabinet itself as well as the game with a neat retro aesthetic, something we don't really have yet to this degree.

 

[YoshiandToad]

Job #180: Space Colony 9 (Quartet)

Taking place on the surface of a strange alien world, Quartet's Space Colony 9 seems to translate rather well to a platform fighter.

Pods will open up and launch small robots and alien life forms out, however our fighters need not worry about that as the Quartet of Lee, Joe, Mary and Edgar will fly around with their jet packs and clean up the robots in the background, zipping around destroying them and allowing the fighters in the foreground to continue with their own battle.

However, enemies defeated by one of the Quartet will occasionally drop items which can be picked up by our combatants in the foreground, so you may want to keep an eye on the space battle to give yourself an advantage against your enemies.

Quartet's a really cool four player (or even two player on the Master System) title, to the point I'd have been happy to see Mary appear as a playable character on the roster, but I feel seeing her get to work alongside the rest of the player characters (in their QUARTET no less) would still be a great way to include her in Battle of Ages.

 

[Tankman from Newgrounds]

1980's Stage:
Pengtarctica (Pengo)

Pengtarctica is a main setting of Puzzle Arcade game Pengo, released in 1982. The place is Pengo's home, where he pushes blocks straight at Snowbess, main enemies of Pengo game.
Pengo was one of early successful Sega arcade games that spawned a lot of clones and it also inspired Bomberman by it's mechanics.

The layout is like Pac-Maze, but it's icy and Slippy and there are icy or crystal blocks appearing on the stage. The blocks can be thrown, pushed, picked up or serve as Steve's Block-like platform that is also Slippy.
Occasionally, Pengo makes a Cameo appearance in background, pushing ice blocks at enemies like in OG game.

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright, it's time to vote!!!

Here are our picks:

Super Locomotive (meeeeeeee)
Space Fortress ( OrpheusTelos )
Gain Ground ( Janx_uwu )
Space Harrier ( Flyboy )
Space Colony 9 ( YoshiandToad )
Pengtartica ( Tankman from Newgrounds )

lotsa space stages this time

Vote for your top 3 picks - keep your own submission in third place if you're going to self-vote.

 

[Janx_uwu]

1. Super Locomotive
2. Space Harrier
3. Space Colony 9

 

[osby]

1. Pengtartica
2. Super Locomotive
3. Space Colony 9

 

[Tankman from Newgrounds]

1. Space Harrier (I love the concept, since we need proper Space Harrier representation)
2. Space Colony 9 (Nice 80's Throwback)
3. Pengtarctica (Self-Votem but sure)

Shout-Out to Space Fortress and Super Locomotive.

 

[Speed Weed]

1. Space Harrier
2. Space Fortress
3. Space Colony 9

 

[Deleted member]

1. Space Harrier
2. Space Colony 9
3. Super Locomotive

 

[tonygameman]

1. Super Locomotive (obscure, yet hidden gem - better get Rydeen in before anything else)
2. Gain Ground
3. Space Fortress

 

[YoshiandToad]

1. Gain Ground
2. Pengartica
3. Space Harrier

Didn't even realise how space heavy the 80s was until it was pointed out. That's a lotta space.

 

[Flyboy]

1. Space Fortress
2. Super Locomotive
3. Space Harrier

 

[HyperSomari64]

Super Locomotive
Gain Ground
Space Fortress

 

[OrpheusTelos]

1. Harrier
2. Locomotive
3. Space Colony

 

[PuyoWitch]

1. Locomotive
2. Fortress
3. Harrier

 

[Megadoomer]

1. Space Harrier
2. Space Fortress
3. Space Colony 9

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright so here's a lil somethin to keep us busy while voting goes on

Job #189: Submit Capsule Toys, artwork and/or VMU RPG mooks from the Sonic series

So Capsule Toys, artwork and VMU RPG mooks have, so far, been a "free" thing: submitting whatever you wanted whenever you wanted. But! Our roster is now done, and with that, I think we need to start looking towards finishing up our Capsule Toy/artwork/mook lineup as well. So we'll be doing specific jobs that will be focusing on submitting more of these things several series at a time. We'll do 10 of these in total, and the first one will revolve entirely around Sonic stuff! For these jobs, I'm also upping the per-post cap for each collectible from 3 to 5. So for this period of time, you're allowed to submit up to 5 of each type of collectible from the Sonic series. Go off.

 

[Tankman from Newgrounds]

Job 189:
Capsule Toys:

• Sally Acorn
• Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
• First Appearance: SatAM (18.09.1993)
• System Debut: Comics

• Heavy King
• Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
• First Appearance: Sonic Mania (15 August, 2017)
• System Debut: Multiplatform

Description: Heavy King

• Time Eater
• Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
• First Appearance: Sonic Generations (01.11.2011)
• System debut: Multiplatform

Description: Time Eater

• Death Egg Robot
• Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
• First Appearance: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (21.11.1992)
• System debut: Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

Description: Death Egg Robot is Eggman's mecha that he built in Sonic 2 on SEGA Genesis. The Robot was built to defeat Sonic while fighting on Death Egg, which it floats above the Earth or Mobius. The Robot has similar look to it's creator, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik.
Death Egg Robot also appeared in Sonic Generations as Boss again, but it's piloted by Classic Eggman and it git destroyed again by Sonic. Another reappearance of Death Egg Robot was in Sonic Forces, which it appeared in Green Hill Zone and it had updated look, which it looked more mechanical and advanced.
Moreso, the Death egg Robot didn't appeared in Sonic Forces, which it got replaced by Monochromatic Gray one-eyed robots that were destroying the city.
Now this Robot appears as Capsule Toy that you were collecting. It's not big enough, but I has the same size as other capsule toys that locate on your shelves. I hope it won't destroy you.


Mook submission:
Eggrobo (Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 1994)

I'll do the descriptions later.

 

[HyperSomari64]

Since Sally was already submitted, then....

Grounder, Scratch, and Coconuts
Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
System Debut: Television

Longclaw
Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
System Debut: Cinema

Dave the Intern
Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
System Debut: Nintendo 3DS/Wii U/Television

 

[YoshiandToad]

Edit: I was typing this PRIOR to the Sonic capsule toy job drop, so I'll leave this here and move on to Sonic!

CAPSULE TIME

• Masayuki Fukuhara (Shenmue)
  • First Appearance: Shenmue (December 29, 1999)
  • Series: Shenmue
  • System Debut: Dreamcast

"Fuku-San" lived with Ryo Hazuki as a live in apprentice of Iwao Hazuki. He and Ryo are extremely close, and share a brotherly relationship often sparring together. He attempted to prevent Lan Di from taking Iwao's life, but was easily defeated and thrown out the dojo, causing Ryo to rush in and witness Lan Di kill his father. A good hearted young man, Fuku-San helps Ryo's investigation however he can, hands over his life savings to Ryo in order to help him get to Hong Kong and promises to look after both the dojo and Ine-San in Ryo's absence.
The loss of his master has also deeply affected him, causing him to socialise less at the Yokosuna bar, even visiting Akemi Sato, a hostess he has a crush on less. He also seems to be a fan of Virtua Fighter, and in particular Pai Chan.

• Ine Hayata (Shenmue)
  • First Appearance: Shenmue (December 29, 1999)
  • Series: Shenmue
  • System Debut: Dreamcast

"Ine-San" was the live in housekeeper of the Hazuki residence, and is the closest thing Ryo has to a mother figure, having helped raise him since he was three years old. When Ryo returns on that fateful night, Ine-San is the first person he comes across, as she has been knocked down by Lan Di's men. After helping her up, Ryo runs to the Dojo.
After Lan Di kills Iwao, Ine does her best to keep busy and avoid depression, attempting to dissuade Ryo from chasing after Lan Di, but also providing him with his daily allowance. In the end she hands over a letter from Yuanda Zhu sent to Iwao warning him about Lan Di and telling him to contact Master Chen if he should need help.

• Nozomi Harasaki (Shenmue)
  • First Appearance: Shenmue (December 29, 1999)
  • Series: Shenmue
  • System Debut: Dreamcast

Nozomi is Ryo's classmate, and friend. She has a crush on Ryo which is obvious to everyone but him.
With a strong sense of justice, Nozomi is willing to stand up for the weak, even confronting two street punks when they picked on a small child, and helping look after an orphan kitten when it's mother is killed by Lan Di's car driving away from the Hazuki residence.
She begins to get worried about Ryo after he stops attending classes, and ends up being kidnapped by the Mad Angels as leverage to get Ryo to get rid of their rivals. Luckily for Nozomi she is rescued, but hearing Ryo still wishes to pursue Lan Di to Hong Kong, she decides to go back to her family in Canada. As a parting gift, she gives Ryo a charm to keep him safe.

 

[cashregister9]

1. Space Colony 9
2. Space Harrier
3. Gain Ground

Job 189

Capsule Toys

• Shahra
• Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
• First Appearance: Sonic And The Secret Rings, 2007
• System Debut: Wii

• Merlina
• Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
• First Appearance: Sonic And The Black Knight, 2009
• System Debut: Wii

Artwork

Classic Symphony
This was a piece of art released to commemorate the anniversary concert

Sonic Battle
This was a piece of Promo art from Sonic Battle

Metal Virus
This is an IDW Cover, it would not have any text in game

VMU Rpg Enemies

Soldier One (Sonic and the Black Knight)
Caterkiller (Sonic The Hedgehog)
GUN Hunter (Sonic Adventure 2)

 

[YoshiandToad]

Just going to put my placeholder here and continue these entries via an edit:

• Bean the Dynamite
  • First Appearance: Sonic the Fighters (May 1996)
  • Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
  • System Debut: Arcade

Bean is a woodpecker* who is absolutely obsessed with explosives. When the Death Egg II appeared, Bean was one of the eight chaos emerald guardians and one of the champions who could feasibly fly into space to take Dr. Eggman on. Bean also faced off against the likes of Akira Yuki, Jacky Bryant and Sarah Bryant in battle before in Fighters Megamix. Rumour has it he's actually the son of Dynamite Dux' protagonist Bin, although how a duck fathered a woodpecker is anyone's guess. Bean's also made appearances in Virtua Striker 2, and most recently his likeness was used to face off against Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Mighty and Ray in Sonic Mania as part of Heavy Magician's attack.

*Bean's a woodpecker according to the official Sonic the Fighters manual rather than a duck like you'd assume given his supposed heritage...but then again Bin's sometimes not even a real duck rather a human transformed INTO a duck, so this whole family tree is a mess.

• Bark the Polar Bear
  • First Appearance: Sonic the Fighters (May 1996)
  • Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
  • System Debut: Arcade

Bark is a mighty polar bear who doesn't say much but hits like a truck. When the Death Egg II appeared, Bark was one of the eight chaos emerald guardians and one of the champions who could feasibly fly into space to take Dr. Eggman on. Much like Bean, Bark's faced off against Akira Yuki, Jacky Bryant and Sarah Bryant in Fighters Megamix. He and Bean have also appeared in wanted posters in Sonic Generations, indicating some truth to the rumour that he, Bean and Fang the Sniper have teamed up as a group of troublemakers. Bark's recently also appeared in Sonic Mania as an illusion used by Heavy Magician to fight Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Mighty and Ray.

• Tikal the Echidna
  • First Appearance: Sonic Adventure (December 23, 1998)
  • Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
  • System Debut: Dreamcast

Tikal was the daughter of the ancient Knuckles clan's tribe leader, Pachamac. As a pacifist, Tikal was often at odds with her father's warmongering ways, and spent many days at the Master Emerald performing prayer and befriending the Chao and their guardian, Chaos. After Pachamac attempts to steal both the Master and Chaos Emeralds for his own power, Chaos went on a destructive rampage, killing Pachamac and most of the echidna tribe. Realising Chaos was blinded by rage, Tikal turned to the Master Emerald, reciting her prayer and sacrificed her own soul to strip Chaos of his power and seal him inside the Master Emerald alongside her own soul. When the Master Emerald was shattered by Dr. Eggman, Tikal's soul was freed where upon she helped guide the heroes to attempt to prevent Perfect Chaos from becoming complete again. After Super Sonic defeats Perfect Chaos, Tikal and Chaos' souls leave together to live their lives in peace and watch over Chao everywhere.

VMU Mooks:

• Caterkiller (Sonic the Hedgehog - 1991)
• Crabmeat (Sonic the Hedgehog - 1991)
• Sniper Kukku (Tails Adventure - 1995)
• Am-Bush (Knuckles' Chaotix - 1995)
• Artificial Chaos (Sonic Adventure 2 - 2001)

Wanted to give some enemies that were exclusive to Tails and Knuckles' games AND something for Eggman to fight that doesn't seem...ya know...weird for him to fight. Why is he destroying his own badniks?!?

 

[osby]

• Marine the Racoon
  • First Appearance: Sonic Rush Adventure (October 18, 2007)
  • Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
  • System Debut: Nintendo DS

Marine is a young sailor from Southern Island in Sol Dimension. Joining Sonic and Blaze on their seafaring quest for the Jeweled Scepter, she formed a close friendship with both of them. Marine has childish energy around her and even if she rarely listens to others and talks a lot, one can't help but admire her wanderlust and aspiration to be a ship captain. She also seems to be some hydrokinetic powers...

• Chip
  • First Appearance: Sonic Unleashed (November 18, 2008)
  • Series: Sonic the Hedgehog
  • System Debut: Playstation 2

A small, fairy-like creature suffering from amnesia that Sonic meets after he crashes into the earth shattered by Dr. Eggman. While the duo helps each other on their quests, they discover that the events causing the primordial Dark Gaia emerges from the planet's core are inherently linked to his lost memories. Chip is a happy-go-lucky person that often tries to act tougher than he is, only to fail. He has a boundless appetitive but it can't be compared to his loyalty.