Smashboards Creates: Battle of AGES, a SEGA platform fighter

[Qwerty UIOP]

VF: Kage Maru

 

[Captain Shwampy]

Since Pai Chan already been submitted i'll go with Monkey girl, Eileen.

 

[YoshiandToad]

Late to the party due to being away so:

Ehhhh...I'm sorry to say, but honestly I'm not much of a fan of the first pass.

There's nothing wrong with it persay, but I know hand on heart this selection of fighters wouldn't excite me personally and they all feel more like reps than fighters in their own right.

• Metal Sonic honestly is probably one of the better outcomes for the Sonic series. No real complaints about the character inclusion.
  I'd probably still have chosen either him or Amy for the last Sonic selection regardless but viewing Metal with the rest of the pass does make it feel like we're filling what's missing in base with this pass, in his case a lack of villain fighters outside Eggman and (arguably) Selvaria Bles.
• Matoi is...fine. She's fine. Again though she feels like she was a scramble for a character to rectify a wrong we made in base by ignoring Phantasy Star Online despite it's influence on online games. Again, she's fine.
• Amigo is... Amigo. He's not my favourite Sega All-Star, but he does bring the best music and most colourful stages so he'd probably be the main reason I'd part with money for the pass if I was the end consumer. Again though, Amigo was the last 'missing All-Star' so he feels like us filling in what we missed.
• Zheng Jiang...a Total War character was always going to be a tough sell to me honestly.
  As much as I understand it's importance it's not a series IMO, that really lends itself really well to a singular fighter seeing as both the gameplay of the Total War games are about moving huge swarms of armies and it having no true face of the series. I wasn't really sold on Shogun in All-Stars Racing and it's the same deal here. I think Zheng Jiang's a decent enough choice given the options available, and at least feels less generic than All-Stars Racing's Shogun IMO.

As for the other stuff; The stages are all really nice additions, I like the Mr. Shakedown concept a lot, the items are pretty good and whilst I didn't vote, Jubileus seems like a fine boss character. I'm not much of a music guy, but I think the tracklists we got were all solid choices.

Going forward I'm also looking forward to a slightly wilder array of choices now we've covered the majority of the most obvious omissions from base.

Job #231: Wolf Hawkfield (Virtua Fighter)

A powerful wrestler hailing from Canada, Wolf is a rival of Akira Yuki's having been defeated by him in both the first two tournaments. He enjoys Karaoke, nature and at least according to the CG portrait series, horse riding and falconery.

A grappling and throwing expert, Wolf exerts power to make sure opponents who end up in his grasp will not escape as he punishes grabbed enemies with vicious assaults. He's extremely powerful, and amongst the hardest hitting fighters in the series.

One interesting aspect of Wolf is his ability to pick up downed opponents and keep his momentum going in Virtua Fighter meaning even being floored isn't going to let the poor opponent rest from the onslaught of this wolf.

 

[Deleted member]

Vanessa Lewis

A character introduced in Virtua Fighter 4. A soldier for J6. She first entered the tournament both as Sarah Bryant's bodyguard, and to find the person who killed her mentor. She uses the Vale Tudo fighting style, but also orignaly used the Mauy Thai style. I think her fighting style would be an interesting pull for a platform fighter.

 

[cashregister9]

Aoi Umenokoji

First appearing in VF3 Aoi is a childhood friend of Akira. She uses Aiki-jujutsu and has a lot of counters and reversals

 

[Flyboy]

Job 231: Lion Rafale

"I don't make it a habit to fight the elderly!"

Cocky, young, arrogant, and extremely disrespectful to his elders (as his constant winquote in Virtua Fighter 2 shows), Lion Rafale is a fighter added in the second game and son of one of the wealthiest families in France. Said family has a public face as an aircraft manufacturer when in reality they're illegal arms dealers. Shady stuff! Lion hates that his father has control over him and is resentful of his life as an heir, so he enters the tournament in order to sharpen his skills and take his father down in a fight using his Praying Mantis style. It's an unorthodox type of martial arts named as such because...well, look at him. It resembles what it's named after.

Throughout the course of the series Lion has learned the truth behind his father's sinister machinations and it looks like in the future he will be working to take it all down for the greater good. But will his brash attitude earn him the ire of those who could be his allies?!

I'll be honest, I just find Lion absolutely hilarious. He's such a goober and all his voicelines crack me up.

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright, voting time!

Here are our picks:

Jeffry McWild ( Tankman from Newgrounds )
Pai Chan ( osby )
Goh Hinogami ( tonygameman )
Kage-Maru ( Qwerty UIOP )
Eileen ( Captain Shwampy )
Wolf Hawkfield ( YoshiandToad )
Vanessa Lewis (@Darkonedagger)
Aoi Umenokoji ( cashregister9 )
Lion Rafale ( Flyboy )

Vote for your top 3 choices - you can self-vote, but only in third place.

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

1. Jeffry
2. Wolf
3. Aoi

 

[cashregister9]

1. Jeffry
2. Pai Chan
3. Lion

 

[Janx_uwu]

1. Vanessa
2. Wolf
3. Lion

 

[tonygameman]

1. Vanessa Lewis
2. Wolf Hawkfield
3. Goh Hinogami

 

[YoshiandToad]

1. Goh
2. Vanessa
3. Pai

 

[Captain Shwampy]

1. Pai Chan
2. Goh Hinogami
3. Eileen

 

[Speed Weed]

1. Pai
2. Eileen
3. Aoi

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

1. Pai Chan
2. Jeffry McWild
3. Kage - Maru

 

[Deleted member]

1. Pai
2. Goh
3. Venessa

 

[Speed Weed]

1. Pai Chan
2. Kage - Maru
3. Jeffry McWild

You can only self-vote in third place

 

[Flyboy]

1. Wolf Hawkfield - Wrestler characters are always my jam.

2. Vanessa Lewis - Her fighting style is fun and intense in the game itself and she's just neat, has some real grit to her.

3. Pai Chan - To some she may seem obvious since she was featured as a main character in the Virtua Fighter anime among others but hey, sometimes obvious isn't half bad.

I really liked the participation this round. Lots of fun choices.

 

[OrpheusTelos]

1. Eileen
2. Wolf
3. Vanessa

 

[Tankman from Newgrounds]

1. Aoi
2. Pai chan
3. Jeffry McWild

 

[osby]

1. Jeffry
2. Wolf
3. Pai-Chan

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright, results time:

Jeffry: 12 points
Pai: 19 points
Goh: 8 points
Kage: 1 points
Eileen: 6 points
Wolf: 13 points
Vanessa: 12 points
Aoi: 5 points
Lion: 2 points

And there we have it: our fourth and final VF rep, Pai Chan is kicking off Season 2!!

Moving onto our next jobs:

Job #232: Submit a moveset for Pai

You know how this goes, moveset prompts are more lax as of late, you can submit one at any time. Here's the sacred moveset formula as usual:

-General gameplay overview
-Notable normal attacks
-Specials and All-Star Move
-Misc./cosmetic info

Also, here's another job:

Job #233: Submit up to two secondary stages for a base game series

Each season will have one additional stage for a series that got characters in the base game. Last season, this slot was filled by a fourth Sonic stage, but this time, the pool is wide open. So you're free to suggest up to two stages from IP that got characters in base. As they've all already gotten additional stages, Sonic, Virtua Fighter, Persona and Phantasy Star are out of the running.

Taking those out, the list of eligible series' is as follows:

-Alex Kidd
-Yakuza
-Sakura Wars
-Space Channel 5
-Fantasy Zone
-Streets of Rage
-Skies of Arcadia
-NiGHTS
-Bayonetta
-Puyo Puyo
-Shin Megami Tensei
-Valkyria Chronicles
-Super Monkey Ball
-The House of the Dead
-Shenmue
-Jet Set Radio
-Wonder Boy
-Shining
-Golden Axe
-Shinobi
-Virtual-ON
-Panzer Dragoon
-Ninja Princess (technically here it'd be the first stage but whatev)

Try to focus on the bigger IP for now, and also consider how your stage pitch(es) distinguishes itself from the already-present stage from said properties, what it brings to the table in general...Anyway, have at it!

 

[Captain Shwampy]

Job #233 Puyo Puyo Land

Blue skies?! Passing Breeze of the ocean!? theme parks rides!? Billions of dollars down the drain!? Compile going bankrupt!?
ITS ALL HERE BABY!
Stage will tour you through many different environments referencing all history of Puyo Puyo, Even Puyo Puyo Gaiden!
Many cameos of multiple Puyo Puyo characters in the background included!

Job #233 Sunset Skyscraper Battle

Fight atop a Stealth air craft blasting through the city with high action spectacles. Missiles, ninjas, and even the Iron Shogun, Kurohagane will come on down as stage hazards. You can knock him out and parry the missiles back just like in Nighshade/Kunoichi.

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

Job 233a: Puyo Puyo
Try to fight quickly or else, because you're fighting on a Puyo Puyo Match
Job 233b: Yurian Fields(Resubmission)

Golden Axe Stage: Yurian Fields

This stage will be similar to Pac-Land in that it is a side scrolling stage with multiple areas from the original game(These areas are In the Woods,Turtle Village, To Eagle Island and The Battle with...?)

 

[Speed Weed]

Job 233a: Puyo Puyo
Try to fight quickly or else, because you're fighting on a Puyo Puyo Match
Job 233b: Death Mountain
A resubmission from way back when

Hey, so can you clarify this post a little? I'm not sure where this Death Mountain pitch comes from, we've never had that submitted before, I have no idea where it comes from - it's kinda hard for me to count this post if I know absolutely nothing about the stage being submitted

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

Hey, so can you clarify this post a little? I'm not sure where this Death Mountain pitch comes from, we've never had that submitted before, I have no idea where it comes from - it's kinda hard for me to count this post if I know absolutely nothing about the stage being submitted

Sorry I meant Yurian Fields. I'll change it.

 

[osby]

Job #232: Pai Chan Moveset:

General playstyle: Pai Chan is a lightweight fighter who has a low damage output through her entire moveset. Combined with her smash attacks which are tailored to punishing opponents swiftly rather than knocking them away, she struggles to finish stocks despite having a well-rounded kit.

Where she shines is how little ending lag most of her moves have, meaning that she’s not vulnerable often and can end matches by tricking the opponent into leaving themselves open and delivering death from a thousand cuts. Pai is an okay swimmer and a strong wall-jumper due to having experience in flash action sequences in her movie roles.


Notable normals: Pai fights with Mízōngquán, or “Labyrinthine Boxing”, a martial art that’s based on deception and mobility. She fights with tricky kicks that bait opponents and hand attacks with misleading hitboxes. Her throws are weak, yet are good for combos.

Her fast jab Chuken, her standing double palm hit forward tilt Soansho and her sweep kick down tilt Sensaitai are staples of her ground game, while her down smash Rikensuit hits all around her in a warrior-pose-esque stance. Her signature forward throw Raishin Nyurin allows her to flip above her opponents’ heads and throw them over her shoulder once she’s behind them.


Specials moves:

Neutral Special: Soukaisui. Similar to Sarah’s neutral special, Pai performs an attack that can then be canceled into other moves as long as she stops charging it midway.

Normally, Pai ducks and strikes low with her hand. This attack goes under some projectiles and has a surprisingly long range. If she turns back before the attack, she’ll automatically dodge any attack that comes her way during the recovery animation, as long as the next attack input is entered in the following frames.

If the player pressed down, she adds two more jabs to her initial hit. If they hit forward, Pai rises with a punch and performs an ax kick. If they hit up, she sends the opponent up with two consecutive uppercuts.

Side Special: Tenshin Oushoushou. Pai’s gap-closing move. She charges forward while keeping herself close to the ground and performs a lunging palm strike. If hits, the opponent will briefly crumple to the ground.

Up Special: Haitenkyaku. An unusual dragon punch move. Pai does a flip backward while kicking the opponent in front of her as she does so, hitting twice. The start of the move has invisibility frames, allowing her to get out of the pressure easily… unless her lengthy landing animation doesn’t get punished.

Down Special: Senpu Soukyaku. A reversal that makes the backbone of Pai’s defensive play. This move acts as a hit grab and a counter at the same time. Pai does a bracing pose and if she gets hit by a physical attack, she counters by pulling them to herself and dealing a powerful straight kick after a spin.

All-Star Move: Renkan Enshi Rantsui. A cutscene All-Star Move that depends on Pai hitting the opponent more than twice while the screen gains an old-school movie filter and all the other fighters slow down. Pai may say “Think I’m just showing off?” during the start-up.

If she manages to catch someone, the screen will fade to white before fading back out and both Pai and her opponent find themselves in Grasslands, her home stage from her games. The opponent automatically performs a simple hit but Pai dodges and deals a devastating combo:

A strong palm thrust where Pai twists her body, followed by a high kick that sends the opponent up, and finally, a sweep kick that knocks them away when they’re about to hit the ground. She stops for a moment and then finishes the attack with a flip kick just when they’re about to get up, saying “These are true Kung-Fu skills!”


Other:

Aesthetics: Pai’s looks are taken from Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown with a slightly more stylized face. Her palette swaps are taken from her various palette swaps and costumes from the series, such as her VF2 attire. She is voiced by Minami Takayama in all regions and therefore speaks Japanese.

Entrance animation: Pai jumps, kicks in front of herself, lands with another jump, and then takes her fighting stance, asking “Are you ready?”

Taunts:

Taunt 1: Pai opens her arms and legs, lowering her center of gravity close to the ground, and says “Here I come!”

Taunt 2: Pai twists herself to look at the opponent over her shoulder, saying “Don’t blame me if you get hurt!”

Taunt 3: Pai takes out a plush panda, studies it a little, then puts it away after giggling to herself.


Victory Theme: Victory (Virtua Fighter)

Victory Animations:

Victory 1: Pai shows off some of her moves, ends with a flip kick, and says “Your Kung Fu was not enough.”

Victory 2: Pai leans back and down a few times as if dodging invisible attacks and then makes a crane pose, saying

Victory 3: Pai dusts herself, puts on her sunglasses, and waves to the camera, saying “You're welcome to fight me again anytime!”

 

[YoshiandToad]

Job #233 Bailu Village (Shenmue)

The gorgeous, pictureesque chinese village of Shenhua Ling, and a location that's vital to Ryo's quest, since it is home to the stone masons who sculpted both the Dragon, and Phoenix Mirrors, the items the Chi You Men and Lan Di seek.

This stage has a day and night cycle, and the villagers of Bailu Village will go about their daily business as you battle across the flower field and stone bridge.

You may even see some familiar faces such as Shenhua Ling waving to you in the early morning, or Zixong Su training the local children in the background, Zhen Wei training with her master Chengxu Feng or even Yanlang and the Blue Spiders gang members (Anyan Li and Gao) roaming around causing trouble for the locals.

Hitting the opponent hard enough to the right hand side of the stage will cause the screen to change to inside the Stone Pit, with an animation of the launched opponent smashing through the stone cave wall and into an area with two gigantic stone replicas of the Dragon and Phoenix Mirrors, lit dimly. Of course, you can launch back into Bailu Village by smashing an opponent hard enough to the left hand side of the stage.

 

[osby]

Job #233: Chinatown (Streets of Rage)

A sidescrolling stage that's mainly inspired by SoR4. This stage is mostly straightforward but there are a large amount of variety in the architecture, such as breakable objects, falling crates and cars that fighters need to jump over. When the stage scrolls to Shiva's Dojo, it stays there until the end of the match, giving all players a boost in launching power.

 

[Captain Shwampy]

New Capsule Toys:

Butterfly
Series: Mansion of Hidden Souls
System debut: Sega CD
First Appearance: Mansion of Hidden Souls
Description: Early FMV point-and-click adventure game. Enter a mysteries Mansion and you find yourself talking to butterflies, these butterflies carry the souls of human beings once who let go of their human forms to become free like butterflies, however some were forced to turn into them by The Hunter making the mansion much more sinister then it seems...

Fred
Series: Torico
System debut: Saturn
First Appearance: Torico
Description: A traveler of mystery, he awakens one day in a jail cell wondering why he's there in the first place. After the help of weird man obsessed with butterflies, Fred discovers the myth of the "City of Moons". The name of the city seems to resonate with him and he decides to gather all information he can on how to get there to get his memory back. Torico is a gaiden series to Mansion of Hidden Souls and carries on the FMV point-and-click adventure gameplay.

Clay Shaw
Series: Cyber Speedway
System debut: Saturn
First Appearance: Cyber Speedway
Description: Early 3D racer by team behind Crusader of Centy, Play as Clay Shaw who wishes to bring universal peace by winning the the Cyber Speedway race. Games racer designs was done by famous Blade Runner artist Syd Mead.

Ellinor Waizen
Series: Aleste/MUSHA
System debut: MSX/Mega Drive
First Appearance: Aleste 2
Description: Daughter of the famous Raymond Waizen, the protagonist of the first Aleste game. There are many alternate takes on this character but, we'll go with her character from MUSHA as Sega shockingly owns the full rights to it, while M2 owns the Aleste series. Aleste in the end is a very SEGA centric series in the same way Thunder Force and Puyo Puyo were.

Princess Gradriel
Series: Princess Crown
System debut: Saturn
First Appearance: Princess Crown
Description: Heir to the Valendia throne, Gradiel sneaks out the castle and goes on a journey after hearing problems across the nation in hunt of demons. A saturn joint between Atlus and SEGA years before the purchase, This game not only hinted at the future but also made a lasting legacy with the creation of Vanillaware succeeding it and being the basis for other Vanillware titles. A character with the same name made a cameo in Etrian Odyssey 2.

Princess Iris
Series: Crystal Warriors
System debut: Game Gear
First Appearance: Crystal Warriors
Description: The underworld Jyn empire have overrun the kingdom of Arliel. Princess Iris of Arliel, a sorceress, remains in possession of the last crystal, the Earth Crystal. She takes it with her on her quest through the lands of Arliel to defeat the Jyn. Is a prequel Royal Stone, some of the more well regarded GG games.

 

[Deleted member]

Tokyo Station
From SMT5. We could use some content from a non spin off SMT game. Takes place on the station, with varoius levels to use as platforms. Demons wreck havok in the background, giving us plenty of cameos. The station will become more destroyed by demons . Players can use the big red things as platforms.

 

[YoshiandToad]

Job 233: Diamond (Super Monkey Ball)

Diamond is the second beginner level of Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe. It's a two platform stage above a gigantic abyss set in the Monkey's jungles.

The largest stage platform floats atop and is nice and wide but has a large diamond(see that's the name) hole in the middle of it that players will need to jump over seperating it's two sides and making it act more like three platforms. This simple hole can cause absolute chaos as being spiked or knocked through it will give you only a slight chance at recovery.

Should you slip or roll off you'll want to try and leap onto the smaller lower platform to save yourself and make your way back to the top. Naturally you can launch your opponents from the bottom stage INTO the above stage causing all kinds of fun richochet KOs and damage.

The banana item will also naturally spawn here if you leave hazards on, which will allow fighters to heal themselves AND set up nasty banana peel traps to watch their foes slip and slide clean off the stage! These tasty treats could potentially allow players to have incredibly long matches if they want...providing nobody ends up falling into the abyss.

Oh...and if anyone does get unlucky in that department, the announcer will of course call "FALL OUT" alongside the words popping up over the stage.

 

[Deleted member]

Nightmare

The realm of nightmares from Nights into Dreams. This stage has a transforming gimmick. The stage shifts network four forms, based on boss levels from the orignal Nights into Dreams. Players start out in a strange looking room like the one above before it shifts.

Gillwing's Lair

Players fight in a garden with plants that can be used as platforms. There are mushrooms which can be bocuned on. Gillwing flies past in the background.

Puffy's Castle
Players fight inside a castle's room, based on the first area of this world. There's a bed and shelfs that can be used as platforms.

Jackie's Room
Players fight inside a twisted room themes around games and tricks, full of stuffed toys. Platforms will fall away. Toy blocks can be used to throw at your foe.

Reala's Realm
The final area. This is the most standard. Players fight inside an arena like the one above. Reala will fly past and land on his throne.

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright it's finally time to vote!

Here are our picks:

Captain Shwampy : Puyo Puyo Land, Sunset Skycraper Battle
Qwerty UIOP : Puyo Puyo, Yurian Fields
YoshiandToad : Bailu Village, Diamond
osby : Chinatown
@Darkonedagger: Tokyo Station, Nightmare Realm

Vote for your top 3 picks - you can self-vote, but only in third place.

 

[Tankman from Newgrounds]

1. Tokyo station
2. Puyo Puyo
3. Diamond

 

[Deleted member]

1. Chinatown
2. Bailu Village
3. Sunset Skyscraper Battle

 

[tonygameman]

1. Bailu Village
2. Nightmare Realm
3. Sunset Skyscraper Battle

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

1. Nightmare Realm
2. Sunset Skyscraper
3. Puyo Puyo

 

[osby]

1. Puyo Puyo Land
2. Diamond
3. Bailu Village

 

[YoshiandToad]

1. Nightmare Realm
2. Puyo Puyo Land
3. Chinatown