Smashboards Creates: Battle of AGES, a SEGA platform fighter

[Champion of Hyrule]

Zeus (Altered Beast)

Yep, the rise from your grave guy. He would appear in the middle of the stage (And maybe even say his signature catchphrase) and then whoever summoned him will gain either a speed buff, defense buff or power buff. He would then quickly disappear.

 

[tonygameman]

Job #34: Arcade Assist (Mary - Quartet)

Quartet is a 1986 4-player run n' gun/shoot 'em up arcade classic, which involves a titular warrior team (Lee, Joe, Mary and Edgar) being sent to clear out space colony Zero-6 which has been overtaken by Space Pirates and retrieve the late Princess Cynthia's casket. In the Master System version, Mary is the first player character alongside Edgar, so I chose her to represent a game. It's music is also used in 1991's Spider-Man, maimai, Groove Coaster Zero and Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Future Tone.

Mary flies around in the air by using a jet-pack on her back, while using her laser bazooka to shoot opponents. Sometimes, she will change up weapons and shoot additional projectiles such as Lee's wide beams, Joe's speed gun and Edgar's slight-arching miracle gun. She basically functions similar to Ray Mk III as it works as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

 

[osby]

Job #34: Mushiking (Mushiking: The King of Beetles)

Mushiking is a series of arcade game/collectible cards released in 2003 that involve bugs duking it out, and also the name of the mascot, a Japanese rhinoceros beetle. While the series never made it out of Asia, it enjoys great popularity in there (to the point of making it into Guinness World Records) and a minigame inspired by it appeared in Yakuza Kiwami.

As an assist character, Mushiking would appear as a beetle that dwarfs most fighters. He appears under his summoner and rides them on the stage depending on directional inputs. He'll hold any opponent he comes across with his horn before knocking them upwards. He'll be seen disappearing into his card when his timer is up.

 

[cashregister9]

Job 34

Bruno Delinger (Dynamite Cop)

Dynamite cop or Dynamite Deka was an arcade Series that SEGA Had, Dynamite Cop is actually Dynamite Deka 2, The first game was localized as Die Hard Arcade.

This dude once summoned will run around the stage, he will punch enemies when close by, and will shoot enemies if far enough, He also has a chance to hit an opponent with an Axe, which does large damage He can also Hit someone with a Mop, Which causes them to trip and Throw a pepper at an opponent which causes them to burn. Before Bruno leaves, he drops a Bomb Clock on the ground which then explodes dealing a large amount of damage.

 

[AirMac1]

Job 34: Bonanza Bros.

While you could argue that the Bonanza Bros would make for fine fighters, I really feel like this plus a stage is where I'd put them. Bonanza Bros is a classic Sega arcade game featuring a co-op gameplay style where the titular burglars try and rob a bank. I think it'd be fun to have two guys running around firing at opponents. This gets us some really meaty arcade representation without sacrificing Opa-Opa or Space Harrier, who I would prefer as reps. Of course, I'm a Bonanza Bros fan too or else I wouldn't be nominating them, but y'know.

C’mon! We need Bonanza Bros. to be playable! They’re even playable in 2 Sega All Stars games! They’d be this game’s equivalent of the Ice Climbers!

 

[osby]

C’mon! We need Bonanza Bros. to be playable! They’re even playable in 2 Sega All Stars games! They’d be this game’s equivalent of the Ice Climbers!

Wait, I know they were in the first SEGA All-Stars Racing but what's the second one?

 

[OrpheusTelos]

Before I start I just wanna say that yall have no idea how tempted I was to submit The Fonz as an assist because of how the US version of Road Race was rebranded into a Happy Days game. I’ll show restraint this one time because I figured we’re limited to characters who originated from video games but now I know who I’m submitting if we ever do guest characters

Job 34: Flicky

Flicky was an arcade game released by Sega in 1984 and was meant to be their answer to Namco’s Mappy. If the name Flicky sounds familiar, that’s because this is where the Flickies from the Sonic series originated from. Being one of Sega’s earlier arcade hits and the character later becoming a notable part of Sega’s flagship franchise, I think she’d make a lot of sense to be included as an assist.

For Flicky’s assist, she’ll fly around the stage with a group of chirps for a short period of time, dropping hammers and flower pots from the sky to damage the opponents. There’s also a chance that she’ll drop a random item that anyone can grab.

 

[AirMac1]

Job #34: Misc. Arcade Assist
Ken-ta (Top Skater)

Top Skater is a skateboarding arcade game that Sega made in the ‘90s, which is so obscure that it doesn’t have a page on Sega Wiki. In the game, there are 6 characters for you to choose from. Anyway, Ken-ta would skate around the stage for 20 seconds, dealing 20% damage to anyone he hits.

 

[AirMac1]

Wait, I know they were in the first SEGA All-Stars Racing but what's the second one?

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. They were only in the Wii U version, but still.

 

[Speed Weed]

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. They were only in the Wii U version, but still.

.....No they weren't

 

[osby]

.....No they weren't

Maybe they are talking about the Bonanza Bros cameo in the Race of AGES stage?

 

[Speed Weed]

Maybe they are talking about the Bonanza Bros cameo in the Race of AGES stage?

They specifically noted "being playable in 2 All-Stars games"

 

[YoshiandToad]

Job 34: Virtua Cop Squad (Janet, Rage and Smarty)

Virtua Cop is one of Sega's biggest success stories in the arcades and revolutionised the Light Gun genre that would later go on to influence the likes of Goldeneye and Sega's very own House of the Dead series.

This elite team of trigger happy police enforcers when summoned will appear, then vanish.

Gun reticles will appear on screen. First one, then two and then all three cops will be firing away on screen with their ammo (yes I know Virtua Cop was only ever 2 player, but we got three characters here)

The reticles automatically follow the other fighters, although every so often a 'Hostage' will pop up on screen allowing opponents a brief window of safety, as they dive behind them to avoid the onslaught of shooting.

 

[AirMac1]

.....No they weren't

https://sonic-sega-allstars-racing.fandom.com/wiki/The_Bonanza_Bros

.

 

[Speed Weed]

https://sonic-sega-allstars-racing.fandom.com/wiki/The_Bonanza_Bros

.

Uhhhhhhhhh

I don't think this is a very reliable wiki

 

[Megadoomer]

https://sonic-sega-allstars-racing.fandom.com/wiki/The_Bonanza_Bros

.

What comes up is basically "there is currently no text on this page", so that's not very helpful.

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright, so I was planning to go with a Virtua Cop assist, but YoshiandToad already submitted one and it's, like, the exact function I was thinking of. Guess I know what I'm voting for now.

So here's my plan B:

Job #34: Pengo

Pengo is an old SEGA arcade game released in 1982, starring a funny little penguin named Pengo as he went through a maze. The objective of Pengo was to crush these things called Sno-Bees by sliding ice blocks in their direction. If you did the slide input on an ice block that was already against a wall, it'd break.

So that's what Pengo is doing here: he'll send ice blocks sliding through the stage. If one of them comes into contact with an opponent, they'll freeze. Pengo can also then waddle up to them and break the ice, sending them flying away - thus referencing both main quirks of the gameplay.

Why include Pengo? Well, I think Pengo would be a pretty good way of representing SEGA's early arcade hits: your Flickies and Zaxxons and whatnot. The game was successful in Japan, at least!

Also just look at him, what a chad.

 

[AirMac1]

What comes up is basically "there is currently no text on this page", so that's not very helpful.

https://sonic-sega-allstars-racing.fandom.com/wiki/The_Bonanza_Bros.

Sorry about that. It messed up the link the first time.

 

[YoshiandToad]

is so obscure that it doesn’t have a page on Sega Wiki.

Until I joined the admin team a month ago, it didn't have a page for Skies of Arcadia, Gunstar Heroes, Virtua Cop, Two Point Hospital, Seaman, Crazy Taxi 2(or Crazy Taxi 3), Phantasy Star II, Doki Doki Penguin Land, Quartet, Ghost House, Virtua Tennis 1-4 or even AiAi, Axel Stone, any of the Crazy Taxi drivers other than B.D. Joe, etc. It's surprising this wikia has been around since 2006 and has so little actually done on it...;;

I'll try and get around to adding Top Skater eventually, now I know the game exists at least

 

[Megadoomer]

https://sonic-sega-allstars-racing.fandom.com/wiki/The_Bonanza_Bros.

Sorry about that. It messed up the link the first time.

Not sure how reliable that wiki is - the page for Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed doesn't list the Bonanza Bros. (even though it does on the Bonanza Bros' page), and it includes Mario even though he's not in the game.

 

[YoshiandToad]

Bonanza Bros. are fine choices for fighters(or assists tbh) but the Bonanza Bros. definitely didn't return in Transformed on any version.

Only Ryo Hazuki and Alex Kidd returned as DLC after missing from the base game roster initially.

Although some of the missing characters do still appear. Zobio and Zobiko for example are too busy having their wedding on the House of the Dead course to join the race.

 

[AirMac1]

Bonanza Bros. are fine choices for fighters(or assists tbh) but the Bonanza Bros. definitely didn't return in Transformed on any version.

Only Ryo Hazuki and Alex Kidd returned as DLC after missing from the base game roster initially.

Although some of the missing characters do still appear. Zobio and Zobiko for example are too busy having their wedding on the House of the Dead course to join the race.

Sorry, my bad.

 

[YoshiandToad]

Sorry, my bad.

No worries man, you had some bad info on that wiki. That's the problem with Fandom Wikia unfortunately, you're at the mercy of who writes the article.

There was someone claiming there was a game titled 'Miles "Tails" Prower' that came out prior to 'Shadow the Hedgehog' as a prequel over on the Sega Wiki.

Not Tails' Adventure, or Tails Skypatrol or even Tails and the Music Maker, mind you(all real titles btw) the claim was it was a 3D platformer title.

Liars, the lot of em!

 

[AirMac1]

No worries man, you had some bad info on that wiki. That's the problem with Fandom Wikia unfortunately, you're at the mercy of who writes the article.

There was someone claiming there was a game titled 'Miles "Tails" Prower' that came out prior to 'Shadow the Hedgehog' as a prequel over on the Sega Wiki.

Not Tails' Adventure, or Tails Skypatrol or even Tails and the Music Maker, mind you(all real titles btw) the claim was it was a 3D platformer title.

Liars, the lot of em!

Yeah. I didn’t see the Mario part, so I believed it. The problem is that you can tell it was meant to be a real wiki, but someone else decided to ruin it.

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright, so I don't usually like ending submission periods this soon, but given the amount of submissions that came in at this speed, I imagine the people who had something to say have already said it. So **** it, submissions are closed!

Let's look at our suggestions:

Bonanza Bros. ( Flyboy )
Zeus ( Champion of Hyrule )
Mary ( tonygameman )
Mushiking ( osby )
Bruno Delinger ( cashregister9 )
Flicky ( OrpheusTelos )
Ken-ta ( AirMac1 )
Virtua Cop Squad ( YoshiandToad )
Pengo (meeeeeeeeee)

Ranked voting is in effect here: vote for your top 3 - you can't put your own pick in first or second place.

1. Virtua Cop Squad
2. Mushiking
3. Bonanza Bros.

Really liked the lineup this time

 

[Megadoomer]

1. Bruno Delinger
2. Virtua Cop Squad
3. Pengo

 

[tonygameman]

1. Pengo
2. Flicky
3. Virtua Cop Squad (seems like we're going to change Michael's Capsule Toy)

 

[Speed Weed]

1. Pengo
2. Flicky
3. Virtua Cop Squad (seems like we're going to change a Toy Capsule I made for Michael Hardy)

If the Virtua Cop Squad wins, I think I'll just add Capsule Toys for James and Janet as well

 

[Flyboy]

1. Mushiking
2. Virtua Cop Squad
3. Flicky

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

1. Mushiking
2. Flicky
3. Zeus

 

[osby]

This was hard but also fun. A lot of good suggestions.

1. Bonanza Bros
2. Pengo
3. Bruno Delinger

 

[OrpheusTelos]

1. Virtua Cop Squad
2. Mushiking
3. Pengo

 

[cashregister9]

1. Mushiking
2. Mary
3. Virtua Cop Squad

 

[AirMac1]

1. Mushiking
2. Virtua Cop Squad
3. Ken-ta

 

[Speed Weed]

And voting is closed!

Let's look at the results:

Bonanza Bros: 4 points
Zeus: 1 point
Mary: 2 points
Mushiking: 16 points
Bruno: 4 points
Flicky: 5 points
Ken-ta: 1 point
Virtua Cop: 14 points
Pengo: 7 points

Alright, so I was only gonna add one...but a change in plans relative to the "misc." assists happened. I was gonna have 7 of them in this game and simply add one per prompt, but then I started thinking that the themes I had for the prompts spread them out too thin and didn't give each one enough material, and then as I started condensing some of them, there were now some empty spots for misc assist prompts that I had no idea what to do with, and after a lot of thinking, I decided on something: there'll only be 4 misc assist prompts through the project, but they'll all be very widely-encompassing in terms of material and I'll add 2 per prompt instead of just one. Now, this means there'll be 8 of them instead of 7, but most importantly, it means that Mushiking and the Virtua Cop Squad will be our next two assists and the first ones in the "Other" category! Notably, this also means that characters from these two IPs are now out of the running for the base roster.

Alright, so last time we were about to get to our next character prompt, I did a lil' list detailing all the IPs we'd included in the project so far and in what ways, and I thought it'd be fun to share the list each time we were about to do a new character prompt, always being updated to account for what new things we've added. So here's the updated list:

Series mainly repped by characters: Sonic, Virtua Fighter, Alex Kidd, Yakuza, Sakura Wars, Space Channel 5

Series mainly repped by stages: OutRun

Series mainly repped by assists: Mushiking, Virtua Cop

Series mainly repped by items so far: early SEGA arcade machines in general (through the Periscope item), Golden Axe

Series mainly repped by VMU RPG mooks so far: 7th Dragon, Bayonetta, Billy Hatcher, ChuChu Rocket, Ecco the Dolphin, Fantasy Zone, House of the Dead, NiGHTS, Phantasy Star, Shinobi, Space Harrier, Streets of Rage, ToeJam and Earl, Valkyria Chronicles

Series mainly repped by music so far: Pit Pot, Teddy Boy Blues, Scud Race/SEGA Super GT

Series mainly repped by Capsule Toys so far: Rhythm Thief, Arabian Fight, Virtua Racing, SEGA Rally, Cyber Troopers Virtual-ON, After Burner, Hang-On, Galaxy Force

Now with that out of the way, it's time for our next character prompt, and it's one I've promised since day 1:

Job #35: Submit a second Sonic rep and a second Virtua Fighter rep

It's time for us to start experimenting with double dips, and let's start off simple with the two series that are guaranteed to get more than one character in this project.

Now then, I originally intended to do this one after we did the starting 4, but then I realized it'd be pretty lame if the first thing we did after mainly covering the same 4 series for so long was cover them again, so I held off on it for a bit. But now it's time. Just for clarity in the future, Sonic and VF are getting their own specialized "submit a character from this series" prompts, while there's 3 additional reps for other series that'll be decided on by "submit an additional character for any other series" prompts.

Now get to it!

 

[tonygameman]

Job #35:

Second Sonic Rep (Doctor Eggman/Ivo Robotnik)

A certain two-tailed fox may obviously be included, I do think that every fighter on the roster thus far are all heroes, and a villain rep would be deservable. And who else may appear on everyone's minds when it comes to discussing about SEGA's villains? The evil genius mad scientist with an IQ of 300 himself. It's also his 30th anniversary alongside Sonic's today, after all.

Eggman would obviously fight on his Egg Mobile/Walker with various attacks being based on multiple boss fights such as Drill Mobile, a wrecking ball, big arms, a giant hammer, etc., maybe even summon Badniks to attack opponents and use a Death Egg Robot or Egg Dragoon as his All-Star Move.

 

[osby]

Job #35:

Sonic the Hedgehog: Amy Rose

Amy is a cheerful and unpredictable girl who first appeared on Sonic CD and became a major character with Sonic Adventure. Along with Tails and Knuckles, she's one of the central protagonists of the series and notably was pretty much the main character of a previous crossover, SEGA Heroes. Being Sonic’s self-proclaimed girlfriend, it's only natural that she follows him in Battle of AGES.

As for what she can bring to the table in terms of moveset... well, her giant Piko Piko hammer immediately sets her apart as a weapon user and can allow her to be a nice contrast to Sonic's playstyle by allowing her to be a small, yet hard-hitting character with long-range.

Virtua Fighter: Pai Chan

Pai is a practitioner of the Mizongquan, a martial arts that focuses on unpredictable attacks from all angles, and an action movie star. She's the daughter of Lau Chan and a training partner of Akira. She's a consistently popular and important character and being the "Chun-Li" of Virtua Fighter, she is one of the most prominent characters in other media after Akira.

Pai's moveset would be a more air-oriented take on the VF formula, given how her fighting style is especially dangerous against airborne opponents. Attacking with weaker attacks that leave little vulnerability after, she would focus on quick air combos over flashy finishers and balance low stamina with high agility.

 

[OrpheusTelos]

Job 34:

Sonic: Knuckles the Echidna

Knuckles is one of Sonic’s closest friends and the guardian of the Master Emerald. Originally introduced as a secondary antagonist in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 after being tricked by Eggman, Knuckles has since become an ally to Sonic and has appeared in most Sonic games since.

I’ll admit that I’m biased towards Knuckles because he’s my favorite Sonic character, but honestly I can’t imagine a Sega crossover fighting game roster without him. He’s practically the most equip to fight out of any Sonic character. While sharing some common abilities with Sonic, he has so many unique abilities to separate himself from the blue blur. Most notably are his ability to climb walls, glide, and dig. I can see him being a slower, but harder-hitting alternative to Sonic.

Virtua Fighter: Jacky Bryant

Jacky Bryant, also known as the Blue Flash, is an Indy racer from San Francisco who is well versed in the Jeet Kune Do fighting style. He is also the brother of Sarah Bryant.

I know Jacky seems like the obvious choice because he was a Smash costume, but honestly this dude seems rad as hell. He’s this cool racer dude who dedicated his life to fighting like Bruce Lee. Plus as someone from Indiana having an Indy racer is probably the closest I’m ever gonna get to having representation on this roster lmao. As his Blue Flash nickname suggests, Jacky’s fighting style would primarily focus on dealing quick blows and racking up combos as quickly as possible.

 

[Flyboy]

Job 35:

Sonic the Hedgehog Rep: Metal Sonic

So, honestly, I know who my first choice would be and he's already been submitted, but I thought I should toss in a somewhat unexpected pick into the mix! I love Metal Sonic, and have since Sonic 3 and especially the Sonic OVA (hence the picture). I don't think he'd be a mere Sonic echo - I'd prefer him to be based on both the OVA and Mecha Sonic/Silver Sonic incarnations, with energy blasts, the golden transformation mechanic, strong kicks, and teleportation. Metal Sonic becomes such a cool villain in the series, more than just a Sonic clone, and so I want to see him thrown into the mix. Plus, a Land of Darkness or Stardust Speedway stage? Yes please.

Fun fact, in looking for this image, I've learned that a full demo tape with music made for the Sonic OVA has been found and dumped online! This is so cool, just hearing South Island makes me smile.

Virtua Fighter Rep: Wolf Hawkfield

Wolf Hawkfield has appeared in every Virtua Fighter game to date, and is a Candian professional wrestler who focuses on grapples - a stark contrast to fellow wrestler El Blaze's luchador style. In-story, he was defeated by Akira Yuki and considers him a great friend and rival, as Wolf only looks for stronger opponents to fight and believes in sportsmanship.

While Wolf isn't as high on the priorities list as someone like Jacky or Sarah, he is still an important part of the Virtua Fighter roster, and as a grappler would bring a unique archetype to this game and we don't have a ton of Sega wrestlers to choose from... Plus, honestly, while I find Virtua Fighter to be less exciting than pretty much all of my favorite fighting games cast-wise, this dude always stuck out to me.

Fun fact, Wolf has also appeared in an arcade title that crossed over Virtua characters with All Japan Pro Wrestling, and he was in Fighters Megamix too!

 

[YoshiandToad]

Job 35:

Miles "Tails" Prower

Sonic's sidekick.
The original Player 2(ignoring Luigi).
The perfect fusion between Sonic's spindash and agility and Dr. Eggman's mechanical genius.
Also he can fly. That's pretty damn cool.

Tails has had three games all of his own, making him the character with the most Sonic the Hedgehog spinoffs as the lead protagonist outside the titular hedgehog himself, and at least two of those titles lend themselves pretty well to moveset potential.

Tails has all manner of gadgets he's invented himself including but not limited to Napalm Bombs, ChuChu Bombs, Extendo Arms, Buddy Bots, Mecha Walkers, Tornados, Rockets, Forcefields, Dummy Rings, a fake chaos emerald that can simulate a real chaos emerald's energy, a robot that transforms into a submarine with a drill on the front...you name it, Tails has probably invented it, or improved it.

Add on to this that he's still perfectly capable of attacking himself via spindashes, tail attacks and even has his own (rarely seen but does exist) super form, and he's a pretty great contender.

I know modern Tails depictions tend to have him as somewhat of a weak but brainy individual, but he's more than capable with going head to head with Dr. Eggman on his own as we saw in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2.

When many of Sonic's friends were left in the dust and the cast trimmed down, Tails is one of the very few that stuck around the entire time.

Not going to lie, I absolutely adore Tails, and if it wasn't for Alex Kidd, he'd be my favourite SEGA character bar none. I implore you to try Tails' Adventure if you ever get the chance, it's a brilliant Metroidvania style game that doesn't get nearly the love it deserves.

...also Sonic 2 was a pretty cool title. Gotta give him that.

------

My first two Virtua Fighter picks were actually taken, but that doesn't mean there aren't others worth the second spot...
Sarah Bryant

Sarah Bryant is one of the most celebrated female characters in Sega, and amongst Virtua Fighter she is a firm favourite with reason to be the second VF character:

• She was the only character aside from Akira to recieve both their regular and 'Kid' form in Fighters Megamix
• She was picked as one of the four heroes for Virtua Fighter alongside Akira, Pai and Kage-Maru
• She's appeared as a guest character in Dead or Alive 5 alongside Akira, Pai and her brother Jacky
• She's surprisingly more central to the story of Virtua Fighter than Akira is with her being kidnapped by the villains and brainwashed
• Much like Ulala, she was in the first line up of Sega Gals Collection
• She and Akira are the only two characters to recieve Good Smile Figmas from Virtua Fighter
• Whilst not the be all and end all, Sarah is currently the only Virtua Fighter character to have a full dedicated Wikipedia entry. Not even Akira got that.

Whilst I don't believe any one thing in the above list makes her more eligible than any other VF character, I can't deny that she is seen by some as one of the most important faces of the franchise after Akira and she is often chosen as a second Virtua Fighter character option.