Smashboards Creates: Battle of AGES, a SEGA platform fighter

[Captain Shwampy]

1.Roly Poly
2.Olympia

1. Rocket
2. Peanut Pedestal
3. SECA

 

[Speed Weed]

Sorry for the wait, but there's a reason which I'll get to in a bit - here are the results....

Tanuki: 10 points
Landsknecht: 4 points
Olympia: 8 points
Beast: 2 points

Shop: 6 points
Rocket: 5 points
Birds: 7 points
Spray: 0 points
Spirit: 5 points
SECA: 5 points
Gear: 0 points
Peanut: 9 points
Chain: 11 points

The Roly-Poly Tanuki will be our EO assist, and the Chain Chronicle and Peanut Pedestal will be our final two items!!!!!

Now then, onto our next job, and this is a bit of a complicated one. You see, this next character job is one that I feel requires more dedication, effort and research than usual. You see, it's more or less because this time, the criteria revolves more around what the character does rather than who the character is. I'll keep it direct:

Our next job will revolve around a SEGA character whose moveset pulls from other, related SEGA games.

So, this could mean.....a lot of things. So yes, essentially, we are including a SEGA character who has references to other SEGA games (that are somehow connected to the "base" property) in their moveset. We've spent so long making this crossover that we're now adding a character who is the crossover. Again, this is a more abstract concept than what we usually do, so walk with me for a moment.

• There are multiple ways to go about this. What the original submitter had in mind essentially used Duck Hunt as a reference - Duck Hunt pulls out stuff from fellow Zapper titles Wild Gunman and Hogan's Alley for their Smash moveset and that was more or less what was proposed: a character who acts as a "face" for a particular strand of SEGA's library, and directly references these other games that are also part of that in their moveset. As an example, I'm using his Masami submission from way back when:

• This is quite the difficult prompt. There's loads of characters who quite frankly would be great to see and lots of one off titles I'd want to see.
  
  There's a lot I want to put forward including the excellent Treasure masterpiece run and gun game Gunstar Heroes and the rarely talked about Master System game Psycho Fox who I think would make for a great stance type fighter swapping between his different animal forms...but still, this is a game about celebrating Sega's history after all, so I feel like I need to at least submit this once:
  
  Job #63: Masami (Games No Kanzume)
  View attachment 328348
  
  So okay, who the hell is Masami? She's certainly not very well known, so it might be best to start with a brief history lesson:
  
  Masami is the female 'host' of a series of games collections known as Game no Kanzume (or Games Can), named after the unique game case they came in:
  

  Spoiler: The 'can'

  View attachment 328349

  
  These 'Games Can' titles were a physical collection of Sega Meganet games found normally for download on SEGA Channel, a streaming service that was far ahead of it's time, releasing in 1994, most likely before streaming services were really all that viable.
  
  Masami, as the 'host' of these titles could work in a few different ways:
  

  • Throwing out the 'cans' to summon a small selection of assist characters to aid her as part of her moveset.
  • 'Downloading' the game data allowing her to temporarily take on the form of one of her hosted games protagonists.

  [*]I'm envisioning her as a Mr. Game and Watch or Duck Hunt style character with lots of references to the titles within her collection. For those not in the know, Masami's hosted games are as follows:
  

  • Flicky: A game in which you control the titular Flicky, rescuing baby birds known as 'Chirps' from cats known as 'Tiger', with Flicky being able to throw hammers, pots and the like at the cats to temporarily stun them as the birds make their way to safety.
  • Doki Doki Penguin Land: A game in which you play as Overbite, a father penguin attempting to get an egg down a series of obstacles to his wife without breaking it. Along the way he'll need to drop boulders on polarbears or trapping them to prevent them attacking his egg.
  • Teddy Boy Blues: A game in which you play as the titular Teddy Boy, a child armed with a machine gun which when fired will shrink the opponent, capturing them. Think a bit like a Pokemon Trainer capturing a Pokemon with a pokeball...only using a gun to turn them into a ball.
  • 16t: A game in which you play as Apple Gaikichi. Apple is an escaped convict, whose only means of defence is throwing 16 ton weight atop his enemies crushing them in a bloody mess. We'd probably want to tone the gore levels down on this one.
  • Paddle Fighter: A bizarre air hockey title in which the player characters involved have the ability to use superpowers and steal the opponents power like they're Kirby. The main character of this title is Binbowie, whose starting power is the 'Suction Paddle Shot', drawing the puck to them and shooting it forward with great force.
  • Hyper Marbles: A marble game in which the player attempts to eliminate the opponents marbles by knocking them into electrical fences whilst avoiding getting eliminated themselves. There's no main character for this title, so Masami would simply summon or 'download' into a giant marble and run the opponent down.
  • Aworg: Hero in the Sky: A game in which you play the titular Aworg, a sort of sentai hero who resembles Samus Aran. They fly through the use of a pair of fans that they rapidly flap. Aworg is capable of attacking with sparkly wind currents, but the blast comes from behind them, making players have to turn to deal decent damage.
  • Fatal Labyrinth: A rogue-like/mystery dungeon style RPG title featuring a main character known as Trykaar. He is armed with a sword and shield.
  • Robot Battler: An action game that has the player create and customise a robot and battle it out with others of it's kind. The robot in question can fire missiles, bullets and launch devastating punches.
  • Pyramid Magic: A platform-puzzle game in which players play as a young explore searching through a maze like pyramid, picking up and shattering stone blocks with their kicks, collecting keys and destroying mummies.
  • Putter Golf: A...well, it's a golf game. Masami could either pull a Peach and whip out the golf clubs or turn herself into a golf ball and fire herself at the opponent.
  • Medal City: A table game consisting of Poker, Blackjack, and Slots in which the goal is to collect 100,000 medals. Honestly this one might not be appropriate, but I'm adding it here in case anyone has some cunning ideas with this one.
  • Phantasy Star II: Text Adventures: Interestingly(and possibly controversially), these adventure titles contain the backstories of all the party members of Phantasy Star II. We see the history of Rolf, Nei, Rudo, Hugh, Anna, Amy, Kain and Shir in the events that lead to them banding together. Each character had their own stand alone adventure.

  [*]
  
  [*]Phew, with that out the way there's a lot of titles to draw from for moveset inspiration, and theoretically everyone here could pick a few of these titles and submit completely different movesets for her as a result.
  
  Masami isn't completely forgotten by Sega themselves either as she also appears in Nintendo Switch's Sega Ages line as one of the scorecard girls and also appears as an unlockable scorecard girl in 'Sega Ages: Columns II' in the jewel case:
  View attachment 328360

• What he does here is he takes Masami - from the Game no Kanzume series' of collections of downloadable Mega Drive titles - and has her pull out a bunch of stuff from the games that were featured in these collections. You could do this sort of thing with pretty much anything that can be "categorized" - whether it be consoles or peripherals or arcade boards or time periods or dev teams, and there's certainly more good examples out there of stuff you could do. Just, a particular pocket of SEGA's history that's represented by this catch-all character. However, I'm also allowing for an alternate approach: if you so desire, you can have a character take more subtle inspiration from other games. I'm using another example here: if you scroll back a few pages, you can find a submission someone made for Zachs, from the Shining Soul games. What the submitter did was suggest that the character take attacks and inspiration from Altered Beast. It makes sense, because Altered Beast has you play as were-animals, so it'd be a fun and fitting nod to have the werewolf character nab some moves and characteristics from that. The "amalgamation" is weaved into their moveset in a more natural and seamless way at risk of being farther from what was originally suggested for this - it's your call to make. For this approach, I think instead of meta connections, more thematic connections are advised - like, say, for example, instead of a character pulling from another game because they were released on the same arcade board, you could have, like......I dunno, a robot character taking from another robot-themed game or a robot character in another game. Stuff like that. Even then, it doesn't have to be strictly one or the other - if you can pull off a more general thematic connection with the Duck Hunt approach, go right on ahead! (and vice versa!) I think the first "Duck Hunt" approach fits best with what was originally suggested and as such I'd recommend it, but I wanted to widen the pool of possibilities.
• It also must be emphasized that yes, there must be some kind of connection between the "base" property and the adjacent ones. You could submit Toru from Last Bronx and have his moveset reference Illbleed and Doki Doki Penguin Land, and that would be kind of funny, but it also makes no sense. There has to be a reason for these properties to be tied together, and possible approaches are already listed above.
• Also, the amalgamation has to be at least a relatively notable part of the character's concept. I'm not looking for characters who have like, one f-tilt that references another game and that's it. Keep in mind that we're submitting characters with this aspect as a major part of the case behind them, and as such I feel it should be at the very least major enough that it can be effectively be used to sell the idea of the character. This doesn't mean every single move has to be a reference either, moreso I mean it should be a prominent part of the character pitch.

And lastly, here's the big reveal.....the job technically isn't open yet. I think just dropping this out of nowhere wouldn't be a very good move, so instead what I'll be doing is putting in place a buffer period for preparations. Essentially, we'll be taking some time off to get ready for this prompt. The main part of this that I would like to encourage the most is research. By all means, do your research, keep an open mind, you don't have to just stick to what you're already familiar with, you can take some time to learn about new stuff. Research is uber-important for this job. I'd also like to encourage discussion! People here are free to brainstorm, or share finds or ideas, or bounce ideas off of each other, we're all in this together and I think discussing things with each other is an overall positive. This thread can be a good place for that, but we do also have a Discord server if you happen to be interested.

This buffer period is set to have a time limit of one week. So by all means, get ready. I hope we can get some good stuff out of this one.

 

[YoshiandToad]

We've done a bit of discussion on the Discord, but since the prompt hasn't started yet I thought I'd put some bits here:

I've currently got a few different ideas for this prompt:

1. Retro historic character that links into a particular Sega peripheral as the basis due to a connection. Summoner style.

2. Modern IP that dips into various characters based on a game mechanic from their own game that ties it all neatly together. Transformation character.

3. Genre character that pulls from various Sega titles under their title. Summoner style.

4. An amalgamated character based around a video game theme rather than a genre. Summoner style.

5. A gag character from the Dreamcast era that uses a mechanic from their game. Transformation style character.

I think I may go with idea #2 having discussed with some on the Discord, but I had a further thought I'd like to spitball:

As this is an amalgamation fighter, with the concept I'm planning to propose I think it'd be pretty fun to have some of the amalgamation elements decided by everyone in the thread as part of an additional round.

Like an amalgamation of ideas from everyone rather than a single person picking all the abilities. Would anyone enjoy that?

Hopefully this'll become more obvious what I mean after I submit my proposed character. Might be hard to visualise at this point without it!

Speed Weed feel free to veto this concept if you think it's a bad idea, I'm just spitballing.

 

[Speed Weed]

We've done a bit of discussion on the Discord, but since the prompt hasn't started yet I thought I'd put some bits here:

I've currently got a few different ideas for this prompt:

1. Retro historic character that links into a particular Sega peripheral as the basis due to a connection. Summoner style.

2. Modern IP that dips into various characters based on a game mechanic from their own game that ties it all neatly together. Transformation character.

3. Genre character that pulls from various Sega titles under their title. Summoner style.

4. An amalgamated character based around a video game theme rather than a genre. Summoner style.

5. A gag character from the Dreamcast era that uses a mechanic from their game. Transformation style character.

I think I may go with idea #2 having discussed with some on the Discord, but I had a further thought I'd like to spitball:

As this is an amalgamation fighter, with the concept I'm planning to propose I think it'd be pretty fun to have some of the amalgamation elements decided by everyone in the thread as part of an additional round.

Like an amalgamation of ideas from everyone rather than a single person picking all the abilities. Would anyone enjoy that?

Hopefully this'll become more obvious what I mean after I submit my proposed character. Might be hard to visualise at this point without it!

Speed Weed feel free to veto this concept if you think it's a bad idea, I'm just spitballing.

Ah sorry, I've been meaning to start the job, just never really found the right time to do so

Do you mean like, we get to decide on what series' exactly are included in the amalgamation? That does sound interesting, but I guess it does depend on what the submission looks like. I suppose keep the idea in the back of your head, and we'll get there soon enough.

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright, let's do this:

Job #282: Submit a SEGA character whose moveset pulls from other SEGA games

I'll just ask you to read the big post I made above, it already explains a lot of what we want here. I hope you guys cooked up some good stuff, and, well, have fun submitting!

 

[tonygameman]

Alright, here we go then.

Job #282: Amalgamation Character - Pengo

Pengo is a funky little penguin and the titular protagonist of an eponymous maze puzzle video game developed by Coreland (currently Banpresto), published by SEGA and released for the arcades on September 26th, 1982, in which his home in the Antarctic was invaded by the Sno-Bees, a strange yet deadly race of blob-like monsters with cone-like noses, attempting to defend it by pushing ice blocks as they slide towards the Sno-Bees and squash them right into walls, all while going around multiple mazes consisting of them and a chiptune rendition of Gershon Kingsley's 1969 hit song "Popcorn" playing on the background (which was also included in SEGA's several compilation OSTs, even the 60th anniversary album).

As one of SEGA's first commercial successes back from the early 1980's, Pengo was notably the fourth highest-grossing arcade machine in Japan (on par with games like Galaga and Donkey Kong), even having a fair share of ports for various consoles such as Atari 2600, 5200, LCDs/VFDs, mobile (Sonic Cafe) & SEGA's very own Game Gear, dozens of copycat clones from other developers, and official sequels like Mega Drive's Pepenga Pengo (exclusively in Japan), which has a Bomberman-style structure with Pengo being able to create ice blocks to kick by himself, fight bosses and collect items in eight different worlds, and "Pengo!" which is basically a simultaneous eight-player widescreen competition (having been released on Xbox 360 and Nintendo Switch via "Ge-Sen Love: Plus Pengo!" in 2012 and 2019 respectively), alongside a licensed tie-in based on Kōji Kiriyama's manga/anime series, Ninku Gaiden: Hiroyuki Daikatsugeki.

Pengo himself and the game has also made cameos/references in various SEGA-developed games like Champion Boxing (where he holds up a "KO" sign if the player successfully knocks out their opponent), Teddy Boy Blues (appearing as one of the targets in a bonus stage alongside Flicky), Sega Saturn de Hakken!! Tamagotchi Park (being a virtual pet "Pengotchi"), Segagaga (which has a warehouse minigame where Taro Sega must load Dreamcasts into a truck by pushing them similarly to blocks of ice), a Badnik enemy in Sonic 3D Blast, a scrapped background role on Bark the Polar Bear's stage in Sonic the Fighters, and most recently, a playable character in SEGA & Yoko Taro's mobile collaboration 404 Game RE: SET -Error Game Reset.

In Battle of AGES, Pengo is a small, light-weight and swift-moving fighter, who utilizes natural penguin stuff like his wings to slap opponents, kicking, pecking, bashing with his head and belly-sliding on the ground by tripping. Pengo's signature ability and most prominent attack of method, that of pushing large ice blocks, can be implemented for his toolkit to give him an element of stage control, even making the floor a bit slippery when sliding in the form of a brief ice trail and setting up chain reactions to stun and damage opponents around. Perhaps his moveset may include him summoning Sno-Bees from their eggs as hazards (potential All-Star Move based on King Dedede's old Final Smash in Brawl?), tossing a diamond as an aerial projectile (based on diamond blocks; most likely a non-damaging taunt or victory pose instead) and make himself temporarily faster for a brief time (as shown in Pepenga Pengo). Maybe even give him various ice-based attacks similarly to how the Ice Climbers were handled in the Super Smash Bros. series to solidly represent himself and his home series well (by the original game's experience).

For the purpose of this job prompt, to represent the older era of SEGA's arcade classics outside Super Scaler titles (like Space Harrier, After Burner, Hang-On, OutRun and many others), Pengo will also make use of elements from those exact games as a sort of "catch-all" representative, similarly to Pac-Man (Namco arcades) and Duck Hunt (NES Zapper) in Super Smash Bros. by summoning 8-bit sprites of characters from various titles. For example:

• Champion Boxing: The boxer appears in-front of Pengo as he performs either a straight punch (forward), a downwards jab (down) or a powerful uppercut (up), depending on where the control stick is angled while charging the smash attack.
• Flicky: Small Chirps appear to assist Pengo in-battle and follow/jump right behind him, pecking each time he attacks akin to Gradius' Options. However, they have quite a small health before disappearing (a protagonist may potentially be the palette).
• Monaco GP, Head-On and Turbo: Pengo hops on a racing car as it rides forward, running over opponents and holding the button makes it boost faster.
• Tranquilizer Gun: The hunter fires a short-range tranquilizer dart forward with her rifle (she is female in an arcade flyer and PlayStation 2's version), stunning an opponent for a brief time.
• Teddy Boy Blues: Teddy Boy sprays bullets at a diagonally upwards angle with his machine gun.
• 005: For Pengo's spot dodge, he will use a wooden box to avoid an opponent's attack in-place by covering himself.
• Pulsar: A small white tank fires a quick-flying explosive projectile that blows up on-contact.
• Astro Blaster: While Pengo is in the air, a fighter ship appears above him and shoots a thin laser beam upwards. Alternatively, it would carry him into the air for a possible Up Special and shoot by pressing the button while hovering (who said penguins cannot fly?).
• Zaxxon: A player ship flies around Pengo above him, dropping missiles onto the ground at both sides. Alternatively, the Zaxxon Robot appears in-front of Pengo and shocks an opponent.
• Congo Bongo: Bongo either swings a torch in-front of him to burn opponents or drops bouncing coconuts.
• I'm Sorry: As Pengo grabs an opponent, a small caricature of Kakuei Tanaka smacks them with his rakugo fan as a pummel.

As an acceptable nod to SEGA's early roots when it comes to arcade/video gaming overall, and considering his series' position in the company's history, Pengo would honestly make a interesting wild-card pick for this project's roster, given it's modern obscurity and relevant importance.

 

[YoshiandToad]

Apologies about the delay; I caught COVID and have been horribly ill for the past few days whilst trying to post this. The irony considering who I chose;

Job #282: Amalgamation Character

"Trevor". Aka; Two Point Patient (Two Point Hospital)

Who is 'Trevor'?
Trevor is known as Two Point County's illest citizen having contracted every single bizarre and wacky illness the game has to offer from Lightheadedness to Cubism. Considering how many insane illnesses this county sees on a regular basis, that's impressive.

Technically, this could be ANY Two Point patient, but Trevor seems like a good 'base' pick due to his acknowledgement as being the patient who has contracted the most diseases. Also it's just easier to type than Two Point Patient. His alt costumes could easily be other various Two Point designs though regardless of race or gender.

Well unfortunately for Trevor he's now also contracted a rare condition called Sudden Enhanced Gaming Ailment. We'll come up with an acronym for that at some point, but it basically takes regular illnesses and gamerfies it, transforming the poor sap.

Why Two Point Hospital?
When looking at Modern Sega we've really put the effort in with Japan's offerings. Sonic, Yakuza, Persona and even Phantasy Star Online are now covered and in, but outside Football Manager and Total War we've barely scraped the surface of the European studios offerings.

Yes, I'm still likely going to be vying for some Endless representation in the final pick (Come on Horatio!) but I'd be remiss to overlook the other European title that really gripped me; Two Point Hospital.

Sure, we have the hospital itself as a stage, but I recall talking to Flyboy over on the Discord about a potential Two Point character way back in March 2022 and such a fun idea deserves a second look.

Where would this leave us for a potential stage? Well, there's always Two Point Campus...or maybe we could revisit Trauma Center as a tie in stage. Or maybe even an Amalgamation stage idea. Honestly, I think we've got some options. Heck, there's even prehistoric and futuristic versions of the Two Point Hospital we could delve into thanks to the 'Stitch in Time' DLC. But that's a problem for another day! Onto the actual fighter!

How would Trevor/Two Point Patient fight?
Many of the illnesses showcased in Two Point Hospital are visual. For example; Animal Magnetism will have the patient covered head to toe in tiny critters who have been magnetised to the sufferer. Likewise someone suffering from Jest Infection will be dressed as a clown.

For poor Trevor who has obtained this new condition, something like a simple Premature Mummification alters the disease somewhat:

On the left is a regular sufferer, and on the right is a sufferer with Sudden Enhanced Gaming Ailment.

The head now comes off and can also be thrown as a weapon. If that sounds unusual, it hardly is; the cure for Lightheadness for example is to remove the old one and replace it with a brand new 3D printed one in Two Point.

Anyway, in this particular case anyone hit by Trevor's head in this scenario will take damage with a chance of catching the infection themselves. Heads won't roll, but movement will be slowed down with the fighters walking like mummys themselves. Each illness lasts just a short time, but can be strung together.

The above is just an example, but where the fun comes in is coming up with these diseases and linking them to Sega characters.

Using a few of Two Points more iconic illnesses I feel would be good to fill in the gaps still for his moveset; for example a Lightheadedness head bulb flash to stun the enemy, using the pan from Pandemic as a regular attack, or attacking with the electrocution from Shock Horror, but even then we could SEGA-ify this one too.

Trevor overall will be a fighter who focuses on status effects primarily being his infections.

Illness suggestions!
I'm going to present two ways we could go with the illness concepts here. Two Points if you will.

Point 1: Two Point canonical diseases with a SEGA twist

Two Point has quite a few diseases that we could SEGA-ify already:

• Jester Infection - Could allow Trevor to transform into Reala, gaining the paraloop ability for recovery. Infected opponents float slightly off the ground.
• Mock Star - Could either transform Trevor into Ristar and grow elongated limbs or we could go the actual singer route, and pick the likes of one of the O.N.G.E.K.I. forcing the opponent to dance.
• Knightmares - Could make Trevor transform into Sir Pepper, riding atop Barobaro with a burst of speed. Infectees could move more erratically like they've been wound up.
• Cubism - Could be used to transform Trevor into one of the blocky Virtua Fighter cast members who currently don't have a role in Battle of Ages. Maybe Wolf, Jeffery or Kage-Maru? This could cause for slower attacks due to other fighters needing to adjust to being polygons.
• Lycanthropy - Bringing forth the Centurion Werewolf from Altered Beast as a possible option.
• Pudding Blood - Well, she's already an assist but you can tell who this will turn Trevor into.
• Sore Judgement - Transforms into Takayuki Yagami.
• Hero Complex - Could allow for him to transform into Rent-A-Hero's Taro Yamada.

And many more. These were just the first that came to my head. A full list can be found here: Two Point Illnesses

Point 2: We just...make some brand new Two Point style viruses up as part of the amalgamation of ideas concept!

Alternatively we could come up with some of our own to squeeze in some last minute personal faves that we'd like to see in that are unlikely to get in through other means, providing they can be attributed to an illness of course alongside. Two Point thrives off of puns after all.

For Jet Set Radio fans, why not allow Trevor to contract Gum Disease?
Perhaps he could catch Puyo Puyo Fever and transform into someone outside of Arle and Satan?
Big fan of Billy Hatcher? Chickenpox
Want more Super Monkey Ball? Monkeypox, Ballantidiasis or Banana-Riley-Ruvalcaball Syndrome could fit with name ideas.

Of course, Two Point doesn't even always have twists on actual disease names, such as Beach Wail or Blank Look being diseases in it's world. As long as it's a pun and can vaguely fit as an affliction, it could work.

Perhaps ol' Trevor could be suffering from the Teddy Boy Blues. Or Egle Eyes. Or Ringo Worm. Or he could be a Disease Harrier. Or Amyloidosis or Rose Tinted as an alternative. The potential is almost limitless.

If Trevor/Two Point Patient does manage to get picked, I'd recommend everyone create a disease each and we'll stitch together a full moveset using that. An amalgamation of ideas if you will!

Coincidentally Tony's excellent Pengo idea was incredibly close to number #4 in my concepts, it even used Pengo as the base character by sheer coincedence so I'm really glad to see he's in the running too!

 

[darkvortex]

Harrier
The star of the iconic Sega arcade game Space Harrier. He has many cameos in many other Sega games. He would fly around and use projectile attacks based on his home game and it's many sequels and spin offs. He could also use attacks taken from other Sega arcade games and AM2 developed games. Similar to Duck Hunt. Hang-On, Dynamite Düx, Arabian Fight, Sword of Vermilion Alien Syndrome and more. I could see him coming out of an arcade machine for his intro. I think this would be a retro character to finish us off, and would be fitting a tribute to Sega legend Yu Suzuki.

 

[Captain Shwampy]

Job #282: The Ocean Hunters

During the events of the first Ecco, The Atlantians developed Time Travel in which Ecco finds and uses to his advantage against the Vortex Alien race that harvest from marine life. Ecco however has a found a new mission after discovering a messenger of the gods mentioned by a biologist, Dr. Jean-Paul Gassé. A vulgar fish, Seaman, that speaks of Rahab, the chaotic god of the sea who not realizing, is using marine disasters as weapons against humanities ego which in turns hurts the marine life.

Ecco now equipped with a steampunk diving suit and a harpoon gun that eerily looks similar to the ones from Ocean Hunter found from abandon Atlantian lab, a device that allows him to time travel, deadly sonar, and a talking fish in a bowl must find Panthalassa, where Rahab resides. This diving suit allows ecco to access to the deepest depths of the ocean and land as well.

(Something like this)

How will this work?
Ecco now with the ability to walk on land will use a harpoon gun, sonar, and dolphin flips to fight. The diving suit can create large bubbles which can absorb opponents into it, Ecco can use these to do tricks and Sonar attacks. Sonar does more damage in water so this will be a defining trait you will have to remember.
Ecco will use time travel to evolve Seaman to diffrent forms of his evolution stages
Gillman(youve seen this one), Frogman, and Birdman.

Frogman assist Ecco on ground while Birdman helps with Aerial attacks and recovery. Gillman cannot do anything outside of insulting oppenents he can however callout Gabo, the caveman from Seaman 2 to rushdown on enemies.

 

[Flyboy]

Job #282: Jake Paterson (SEGA Race TV)

That's right! The man up there with those star-spangled shades? That's who I'm submitting to this prompt! I think everyone reading this thread has a basic idea as to what Sega Race TV is, but for those who don't, it's Yu Suzuki's last SEGA arcade racing game as well as his last SEGA game in general. It's notable for that reason but also for having a wild and fun sense of style in its presentation, a lot of slick races, and live commentary from the host Jake Paterson and his brother Mike. Any excuse I have to post the intro I'll take, so...

But yes! Characterized by loud, exuberant commentary, exaggerated racers, and high-speed boosts, Sega Race TV is a hell of a way for Yu Suzuki to go out. The thing is, Suzuki made many racing games for Sega over the years, and Sega in general has tons of great car games to pull from. Jake is a race announcer, so why not use him as a celebration for all of Sega's great racing history? The way I see it, he could run around with his moves "announcing" and summoning famous cars and drivers from Sega's racing history. For some examples..

Hang-On's motorcycle could be a great way to cross side distances!
Afterburner's plane as an up-special?
Hornet from Daytona USA could appear for some pummels?!
A taxi from Crazy Taxi could pick up or drop-off the Race TV girls, or one of the drivers could appear to menace the opponent with a grab to get their fare!
18 Wheeler as a heavy-damage summon?!
And surely there's room for Power Drift and Virtua Racer.

His All-Star move would see him teaming up with another Sega racing icon, OutRun's Flagman, transporting the opponent to the famous Outrun track just in time for the Ferrari Testarossa to come zooming through, catching the opponent and taking them the entire length of the track and launching them through the finish line, complete with Jake and Mike's trademark overexcited commentary.

Anyway, I really recommend watching this for a bit and getting a sense of how much fun personality-wise this could be! Yeah!

I want to thank YoshiAndToad for helping me workshop this idea and having the original "racing game mashup" concept!

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright! Here I am!

I considered a few different ideas, such as Taro Yamada "downloading" attacks from SEGA arcade games (too much overlap with the Harrier submission or might end up taking away from Taro's own potential), or Bruno Delinger pulling from fellow SEGA-owned Bruce Willis ripoff game VICE: Project Doom (didn't feel like a significant enough part of the concept), or even the Bonanza Bros. using all kinds of different SEGA items they stole in their ventures (not much against this one, just went for another pick instead), but in the end, I think this pick hews closer to what was originally intended for the job: a more "historical" rep, that serves as a celebration of one particular part of SEGA's history. As such......

Job #282: Papri from Girl's Garden

So I think you probably know what this is, but in case you don't: Girl's Garden was an arcade-style game released for the SG-1000, SEGA's first console - it stars Papri, a girl who lives with her boyfriend, Minto. Unfortunately for her, Minto is an asshole and will instantly drop her for another girlfriend if he is even a little bit slighted, so Papri must collect flowers to give to Minto to keep their relationship from falling apart. I'm not sure if the game did much on release, but it's come to be retrospectively regarded as one of the more notable SG-1000 titles, mainly for its developers' pedigree - it was the first project for luminaries such as programming wizard and central Sonic Team figure Yuji Naka, as well as 80s SEGA music legend Hiroshi Kawaguchi - and so it's come to be referenced in SEGA media, such as the SeHa Girls anime, the SEGA logo in the Sonic movies and the SEGA AGES Switch lineup.

So why her? Well, I'm essentially suggesting her as a representative for the SG-1000 itself. We do have Kurumi, but I personally consider her more of an arcade character, and SEGA's first console feels like just the kind of thing that would warrant a weird historical catch-all rep. So basically, as well as doing things related to her own game, Papri would summon out characters from various games on this console. Doki Doki Penguin Land fans, rejoice. Dragon Wang bros, your time is now. Hustle Chumy stans, where you at? (EDIT: As it turns out, the rights to Hustle Chumy are currently under D4. rip in peperonis)

I actually think we could take this even further and include the Master System as well, seeing as it was originally considered "Mark III" of the SG-1000 and SEGA has lumped 'em together in media before, so Papri could essentially act as a big ol celebration of SEGA's 8-bit output. Ashura? Woody Pop? Aztec Adventure? Ghost House? Congrats, you all get the nod. However, I'm not enforcing this last one, as I understand that some may want to keep it to just the SG-1000, but I wanted to give the option nonetheless.

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

I struggled with this prompt a little, but I think I have an interesting idea that could be a lot of fun - even though it does sort of require some creative liberties to function effectively, and might seem a little disjointed at first glance.

Character Name: Tarō Sega
Character Origin: Segagaga (2001, Dreamcast)

When it comes to considering things that combine elements of SEGA as a whole, where better to pull from than a game that was fundamentally designed to do literally that? Segagaga was a game released in the twilight months of the Dreamcast's lifespan, described by some as a "swan song" to both the console and SEGA as a brand before that - and honestly, it's an interesting curiosity even now to look back on, given the way it parodies SEGA and the industry as a whole with plenty of tongue-in-cheek references and the like.

My thought process for Tarō is that he has plenty of potential to work in a few different ways. Even so... my thought process is as follows: Tarō has a Market Share meter that can build from 0% to 100%, which increases as he deals damage to opponents, but decreases whenever he isn't either attacking opponents or at least approaching them. The higher his Market Share is, the faster his attacks come out and his movement is - as well as a buff to his Frames. Additionally, when Tarō reaches 100% Market Share, he dons a wrestling mask that significantly buffs his attack power for as long as Market Share is at 100%. (The wrestling mask is a deliberate reference to Tez Okano's efforts to market the game with a budget of $200, half of which he infamously spent on a wrestling mask.) However, if Tarō's Market Share is at 0%, he continually takes small amounts of damage and has a passive debuff to his attack power and defence.

Additionally, Tarō would have a mechanic called Frames. His smash attacks and specials can summon pixellated versions of different SEGA characters, called Frames (using cards, as a loose reference to his use of business cards in the game and the various card-based SEGA arcade titles), but they'll use a certain percentage of Market Share when summoned. Think of this a little like Hero's MP system in Smash - but with business cards, maybe featuring the game's logos on them! As for where he'd draw them from... it'd be neat to have them be from some sort of belt gadget that looks like either a Genesis cartridge or a Dreamcast VMU.

For example, his Side Smash would usually have him swing his arm downward, but if he has enough Market Share (let's say 15%), he'd summon a sprite of Alex Kidd who would perform a Janken move in rotation - Rock deals the most damage, Paper deals the most knockback, and Scissors stuns but lacks in both. Once again - you'll need to keep your Market Share high to keep using these, so be sure to keep yourself in the fray!

I think this kind of moveset would make Tarō a kind of weird, but very interesting character - who'd reflect Segagaga's focus on keeping a high market share and wrangling large groups of people under him really well, albeit in a unique way that loosely reflects elements from the original title (with some creative license.) Hey, why not, right? Side note, but I think it'd be really cool to reference Segagaga's propensity to toss in references and items using his alts - giving him different cosplays of SEGA characters seems like it'd be really funny, but also a really cool way to make him feel unique.

 

[Speed Weed]

Gamer dudes

Dudettes

It is time to vote

Here are our choices:

Pengo ( tonygameman )
Trevor ( YoshiandToad )
Harrier ( darkvortex )
The Ocean Hunters (Ecco and Seaman) ( Captain Shwampy )
Jake Paterson ( Flyboy )
Papri (myself)
Taro Sega ( KneeOfJustice99 )

Vote for your top 3 picks - you can self-vote, but only in third place. Once again, be very careful when thinking about who you vote for. This is the second-to-last SEGA character we're including, so now more than ever we need to really consider who we vote for.

Throwing in some picks myself:

1. The Ocean Hunters. I appreciate the sheer fanfic-level bat**** insanity of this one. I love how seamlessly the crossover aspect is incorporated here, with actual lore behind the concept that really takes advantage of that. Beyond that, we have quite a nice bingo card of things here to represent: one of the most iconic and successful Dreamcast properties, combined with a well-beloved character who also fills the niche of a SEGA America character - something that's been frequently brought up and requested but which I've often shot down because most of the notable options didn't really fit with the tone I wanted for this project - tied together by an interesting cult arcade property. It's a real nice balance that fits well together. Big fan of this one.
2. Pengo. The farther this project goes on, it feels weirder and weirder that we've kept holding off on giving any real "major" representation to Pengo. He's the character who I would personally consider the oldest true "SEGA icon", comes from one of SEGA's most iconic 80s arcade games, he shows up quite frequently in SEGA media as a sort of token "vintage" character, and yet he keeps getting passed over again and again, be it for a fighter or assist or whatever. As this project comes to a close, I feel it'd be real nice to finally give him something major.
3. Jake Paterson. I do wonder if SEGA Race TV is notable enough to give a full playable character, but regardless of that, SEGA's arcade racers are quite possibly the genre that defines them the most, and this would be a great and fun way of representing that, bringing in a character with tons of personality who acts as the ambassador for some of SEGA's most influential output. Also we've all seen that attract mode, we all know how epic Jake is

 

[Captain Shwampy]

1) Pengo
2) Harrier
3) Papri

 

[osby]

1. Taro Sega - While I'm not necessarily sold on the gameplan pitch, I like the general idea and I think it's cute to have him as an encompassing SEGA The Character due to Segagaga.
2. Harrier - I think he just fits the role as one of the faces of classic SEGA arcade games.
3. Pengo - He's a funny little penguin and keeps missing the boat. He'd be cool.

 

[tonygameman]

1. Trevor
2. Papri
3. Pengo

 

[YoshiandToad]

1. Pengo - A character I was considering myself for this particular prompt and a few of the attacks were even surprisingly similar. He's one of Sega's earliest stars, fits well as a retro character, is undeniably cute and as a big fan of Teddy Boy Blues, I can't deny the fact he's included also adds to Pengo's initial appeal for me.

2. Papri - I've always felt the SG-1000 and (to a lesser extent) the Master System were a bit under represented on the roster. She'd be a good pick to fix that. Not as well known as the other two of my picks, but still quite an important first step for Yuji Naka, and hey...if I can get Kotaro Hayashida's first game in Hustle Chumy represented too via the moveset it's a bonus. Oh, and Papri should absolutely ride one of the bears into battle as her intro. That'd be unexpectedly badass.

3. Harrier - Another classic retro character that I feel I wrote off too soon. Has that cool factor about him that would be appealing, would appeal to classic Sega fans and I could see him equally dipping into Super Scaler tech for his moveset as the AM2 titles. If this was a real DLC pack I think Harrier would be an easy sell with his design.

Might be a bit cliche, but shoutout to everyone for this round; no bad choices here at all. I'd be happy to see any of these on the roster. Appreciate you all putting your best feet forward for this prompt!
Lastly; I wanted to vote for Jake but having had a (slight) hand in the creation it felt a bit difficult to justify. Still an enjoyable pick though and Sega racing titles would be done right by Jake's hands!

 

[Flyboy]

1. Papri - An absolutely inspired choice. Girls Garden is a landmark title with great history, and all the things she could represent are a lot of fun. As mentioned, the SG-1000 and Master System should get some representation as well.

2. Harrier - My bias pick. Great design, great game, would be fun to have him represent a whole lot of arcade games, and he's an easy sell. I just think he's neat!

3. Trevor - A Two-Point Hospital character would indeed be fantastic with a ton of great ailments from his own games as well as from around the SEGA world to use. Lots of personality and very deep moveset potential not necessarily tied to a single era. A really creative choice.

Echoing what others have said - I think we really put our best foot forward for this prompt! It was a tricky one but I love all the submissions. We did well!

 

[Speed Weed]

Alllllright, let's see here......the results are in.

Pengo: 10 points
Trevor: 4 points
Harrier: 7 points
Ecco: 3 points
Jake: 1 points
Papri: 8 points
Taro: 3 points

And there we have it: our amalgam fighter and penultimate SEGA character is the one, the only, the classic SEGA arcade icon himself.....IT'S PENGO TIME, BABY!!!!!!

Moving on:

Job #283: Submit a moveset for Pengo

As usual, we're doing this. You know the usual formula I ask for, but this time it's important to meet the following requirement: Pengo's moveset has to feature references to other early SEGA arcade games. You can look to Tony's post for ideas on what to submit, I think the idea is generally pre-Hang-On stuff, and, well, have fun!

Also........

Job #284: Submit a stage from a "retro" SEGA game

I'm extending the criteria for stages and assists here a bit: since we already added a stage from Pengo's era in Season 1, I'm allowing for these jobs to also cover stuff from a bit later down the line as well. The criteria I'm setting here is: anything that came out before Sonic is eligible. This encapsulates all of SEGA's 80s arcade output plus some turn-of-the-decade stuff, as well as the SG-1000 and Master System, the first couple years of the Mega Drive, and anything else inbetween. It's worth noting that if you feel Pengo deserves his own stage, it's still perfectly allowed and acceptable to submit an actual Pengo stage. I just wanted to open up the potential a bit.

 

[Flyboy]

Job #264: Micro-Theater (Time Traveler)

Fun fact: I took this picture yesterday because a used game store I go to has one in working order! It still looks amazing in motion. This is just under the wire as it released I believe right before Sonic did, so hopefully it's still eligible.

Time Traveler is a FASCINATING Sega game that uses full motion graphics, Laserdiscs, and holograms! It was billed as the world's first 3D holographic game. It's a piece of technical wizardry that could make for a really unique-looking and fun stage as battles take place in that holographic field, The Micro-Theater, there. All the while, characters from Time Traveler appear such as the cowboy protagonist, knights and dragons, and characters from the future. Perhaps other FMV characters from Sega games could appear too as fun Easter eggs! It would be a really unique-looking stage, probably a walk-off, and it's such a cool part of Sega's history we don't really have represented yet.

There have been a few pitches for Time Traveler throughout the thread so I recommend checking them out. It's a really neat machine that would make for a really neat stage!

 

[Speed Weed]

I'm just going to put Gain Ground forward again, I think it's still a solid pitch I'm proud of

Alright, so I wanted to put some good thought into my pick this time. I thought to myself, what's a major SEGA release that would warrant representation, doesn't overlap with our other misc. stages and isn't already repped by assists or items or such? After thinking it over, my mind kept coming back to this. This game has been submitted before for a stage, but if you'll allow me, I'm putting my own spin on it.

Job #269: Project Gain Ground (Gain Ground)
View attachment 373896
Gain Ground is a SEGA top-down arcade action game released in 1988. It was one of the most popular SEGA arcade titles of their mid-to-late-80s "golden era", it got a lot of ports at the time and it's treated with quite a bit of reverence by the company, showing up in compilation albums, crossovers and collections such as the Mega Drive Mini 2 and Astro City Mini. The game tends to be seen as "compilation fodder" by less informed folk these days, but it's an important SEGA arcade game that's worthy of respect.

The game is set in the far future, where humanity has gone through a long period of peace. Concerned that society is becoming too weak-willed, the government sets into motion a project to reignite the population's fighting spirit. Dubbed "Gain Ground", this is a system that simulates various periods of war for people to wage. However, the supercomputer running this simulation went berserk and started holding citizens hostage. As such, a group of warriors is sent out to rescue the captive people and beat the deadly Gain Ground system. The game is notable for its wide cast of playable characters, which you unlock as you rescue people throughout the game.

The stage takes place inside the simulation, where our fighters battle each other in the middle of a war. The game's three starter characters cameo in the background, along with hostages and enemies. The stage features hazards in the form of various projectiles such as arrows, bombs, catapults, etc. Sometimes, the supercomputer generates different structures, hazards, etc to hinder the fighters. However, the big thing about this stage is that it cycles through the different eras showcased in the game itself. You start off in the most famous part, the starting area - the Dark Ages. However, things eventually fade into a wireframe field to represent the simulation (think most training stages in fighting games) before transitioning into the next era. It goes from the Dark Ages to the Middle Ages to Pre-Revolutionary China to the Future - the four eras featured in the original arcade game.

Anddddd that's it really

 

[tonygameman]

Job #284: Retro SEGA Stage - Space Fortress (Zaxxon)

Zaxxon is a isometric arcade scrolling shooter video game developed by SEGA and released in January 1982, in which the player pilots a fighter ship through heavily defended space fortresses while gunning down enemies and tanks to replenish it's fuel, and dodging obstacles such as forcefields and brick walls before finally facing the eponymous defense robot itself. For it's time, the game was revolutionary for being the first which employed axonometric projection which helped simulate three dimensions from a third-person viewpoint (thanks to the assistance of Ikegami Tsushinki, which is known for Nintendo's famous hit Donkey Kong) and the first arcade game to be advertised with Paramount Pictures' television commercial, thus becoming one of SEGA's earliest hits commercially and among 1982's top five highest-grossing arcade titles.

Throughout the years, Zaxxon has achieved a few ports for various home consoles, re-releases on compilations (including Mega Drive collections on PlayStation 2, PS3 and Xbox 360, and a recently-released Astro City Mini V cabinet), a board game adaptation by Milton Bradley and sequels like Super Zaxxon (which is a more difficult update that also includes a tunnel segment and the dragon boss), Zaxxon 3-D which made use of Master System's 3-D Glasses, Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 on SEGA 32X (perhaps we could borrow from both for a stage tracklist?) and Zaxxon Escape for mobile devices in 2012. It even inspired SEGA's other artistically similar arcade titles after it's release; 1983's Congo Bongo and 1984's Future Spy.

In Battle of AGES, the stage takes place in the halls of the Space Fortress itself, while keeping the now-HD translated blockiness and overwhelmingly blue color scheme for it's aesthetic, exactly like in the original 1982 arcade game. There's a electrical forcefield on one side of the stage which shocks any fighter who comes upon contact with it, and a brick wall on another side which they can jump over and stand on. A few fuel tanks are placed on the ground, which also act as platforms but can be blown up if hit by attacks from both fighters and assists or items. For stage hazards, grounded gun turrets or flying enemy ships will sometimes pop out and start firing at players close to them, doing this at any point during the match.

Occassionally, the Zaxxon Robot itself will show up and try to attack fighters by either swinging it's launcher arms when close to them or firing out red, fast-flying missiles that explode on-contact when far away, though it can be taken down by a few powerful attacks (slowly turning red when taking damage), thus acting as a stage mini-boss of sorts. In a rare case/opportunity, it will be replaced by Super Zaxxon's dragon which only changes aesthetically and moves a bit faster, scorching out flame ball projectiles from it's mouth instead of missiles and swiping it's claws as well.

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Job #283: I think there's a lot of interesting things you could do with Pengo's moveset - though I'm going to predominantly take inspiration from Tonygameman's basic concept of him as a small and lightweight but fast-moving character with the capacity to do some interesting stage control stuff, as well as having a lot of ice-based attacks that can freeze opponents at higher percents. That said, I really like Tonygameman's ideas for his kit - so I'll just suggest one move and the slight addition that, akin to the Ice Climbers, Pengo has a passive effect that makes him immune to slippery ice floors.

Pengo's neutral special would arguably be the cornerstone of his kit. When pressed, he "summons" a block of ice roughly twice his own height (and a similar height to maybe Temjin?) which, when summoned, remains stationary in front of him (and, being gravity affected, will drop if summoned in the air.) However, attacking the block of ice causes it to move forward, dealing damage to opponents that it hits - as well as leaving a trail of ice on the ground (kind of like some of Etalus's attacks in Rivals). That said, if opponents attack it, it can also deal damage to Pengo - though, given its size, it'll usually force opponents into the air if used on the ground, and can be used for vertical pressure from above when airborne (a little like Mr. Game & Watch's bomb forward air.)

Job #284:
Stage Name: Antarctica
Stage Origin: Pengo (1982)

A stage based on the earlier levels from Pepenga Pengo (the Genesis port of the game which massively overhauled the graphics of the original), Antarctica would be a stage characterised by its pretty blocky appearance, as well as things like igloos, other penguins, and a few other things in the background. (It could be pretty cool to have some cameos like the explorer from Congo Bongo or something, actually.) The stage itself has icey floors, though the platforms above are destructible and respawn after time (think like Melee's Green Greens). Otherwise though, it's intended to be fairly simple (and tournament legal) without too many gimmicks.

 

[YoshiandToad]

This took a lot of inspiration from Tony's submission, and Knee's suggestion for a neutral special. I was half way through writing this up when I saw we'd basically come up with the same thing. I may have used a few slightly later titles than initially proposed however such as Columns, but as it's pre-Sonic I assume it should be okay.

#283: Pengo

"In Battle of AGES, Pengo is a small, light-weight and swift-moving fighter, who utilizes natural penguin stuff like his wings to slap opponents, kicking, pecking, bashing with his head and belly-sliding on the ground by tripping. Pengo's signature ability and most prominent attack of method, that of pushing large ice blocks, can be implemented for his toolkit to give him an element of stage control, even making the floor a bit slippery when sliding in the form of a brief ice trail and setting up chain reactions to stun and damage opponents around." - tonygameman

Normals:

Basic jab combo: Performs a shove with his flippers, trips up smacking into the opponent and then unleashes the fury of his beak in a peck for a three jab combo. If the button is pressed rapidly after this basic combo, Pengo will perform a flurry of pecks.

Charged basic attack: If Pengo charges up his regular attack he'll perform a rotating punch wind up just like Bin from Dynamite Düx, unleashing a powerful uppercut when released. This attack is very powerful for such a small bird but is difficult to land due to the wind up. Best used in combination with limiting the opponents options for escape.

Dash Attack: Pengo will slide across the floor on his belly as penguins do and crash into the enemy. If done on a patch of ice, this will be the one time Pengo will be affected by ice and shoot forward faster.

Shield: Pengo blocks with a row of Columns.

Spot Dodge: For Pengo's spot dodge, he will use a wooden box to avoid an opponent's attack in-place by covering himself (005)

Aerial attacks:

Neutral aerial: Pengo will perform Steve from My Hero's flying kick attack. He's only got little legs but this kick can deflect projectiles.

Up aerial: Pengo will flip his KO sign up from Champion Boxing upwards. Getting hit by this in the sweet spot will launch the enemy skywards with a critical hit.

Forward aerial: Pengo flings a red bull fighter cape down from the game Bullfight. Much like Mario in Smash Bros, this cape will alter the opponents movement in the opposite direction if it hits. Deals no damage. Like the neutral it can reflect projectiles. Unlike the neutral it can reflect multiple projectiles at once.

Down aerial: Pulls a Column out and drills down directly with it dealing damage to anyone below him. This attack cannot be angled.

Throws:

Grab: Pengo simply grabs the opponent with his little flippers.

Pummel: As Pengo grabs an opponent, a small caricature of Kakuei Tanaka smacks them with his rakugo fan as a pummel.

Up Throw: The boxer from Champion Boxing delivers a mighty upper cut to the opponent Pengo is holding, sending him sky high. KOing with this will make Pengo perform his KO sign taunt.

Down Throw: Pengo rides atop a Super Locamotive atop the opponent(complete in cute little train hat!).

Forward Throw: Pengo encases the opponent in ice and pushes them forward making them slide across the floor. This can be escaped by mashing the button but acts as a less damaging Ice Block Neutral Special.

Back Throw: The Hero sheriff from Bank Panic fires several rapid fire shots at the opponent knocking them backwards with his gun.

Specials:

Neutral special: Ice Block (Pengo)
Spawns an ice block that when attacked slides across the floor. Any enemy hit by the ice will automatically be pushed away by it. If a player is crushed between the block and part of the stage they take huge damage.

The blocks once pushed will add an icy effect to the floor they slide across, lowering traction. Pengo, as a penguin, is unaffected by this.

Ice Block can be stacked atop one another(shaped like Columns pieces for the additional blocks) upto four times and pushed to create a much harder to dodge ice wall.
However this takes time and leaves Pengo open.
If an enemy attacks the ice block it'll push the lowest block in the direction the attack is kicked. Any additional blocks will shatter.

If used in the air the block will drop directly down making it useful for spiking or performing aerial assaults. It can be kicked in the air to redirect it in the air and will fall in an arch before making contact with the floor and sliding onwards as normal.

Lastly the pushed ice block can be rode atop of by Pengo and his opponents allowing for additional movement options providing the player is fast enough to capitilise on the block's movement.

Down special: Teddy Boy Blues
Drops a Pengo standee. This acts as a remote mine that when touched will cause Teddy Boy to appear with his tommy gun and shoot the standee and touchee. The final bullet of his gun will shrink the opponent player. Combine this with the ice wall to make escape impossible, or drop the standee off the stage ledge onto an opponent to make a recovery far more difficult!

Up Special: Flicky
Pengo, as a penguin, cannot fly. However he can call upon fellow avian early Sega star Flicky to save him from pit falls.

After the initial take off Pengo can cancel Flicky by performing other moves and Flicky will fly directly up, hitting anyone skywards as she travels at an increased speed.

The downside is Flicky will not deal any damage whilst Pengo is weighing her down.

Once released there's a cooldown on Flicky, meaning Pengo will only be able to summon a Chirp instead, and they tire far far easier than Flicky does due to their wings not being fully formed!

Side Special: Spatter
San, or Sanrin Sanchan as he's otherwise known, appears on his tricycle. Pengo will hop on the back as San mows down opponents with the power of his peddling little legs.
If you thought you could escape from this attack by jumping over it, think again! San is capable of hopping on his three wheeler and thus dealing damage to opponents who attempt to leap over San and Pengo. Pengo can disembark from the tricycle at any time, causing San to speed forwards at high speeds similar to Flicky but horizontally.

All Star Move: Insert Coin I'm open to different name suggestions for this
Pengo rides atop a giant sliding block of ice. If it hits, we're treated to a cutscene All Star move of Pengo on an even bigger, larger ice block. Bin from Dynamite Düx, Tom-Tom from Wonder Boy, Teddy Boy and Mister Viking join Pengo atop the ice block readying their weapons before unleashing it on the ice, sculpting it into the Zaxxon ship. Bongo from Congo Bongo appears and shunts the Zaxxon ice block forward as it smashes through numerous Sno-Bees. Cuts to the opponents as they're bombarded by Pengo's gangs projectile weapons(bazookas from Bin, stone hammers from Tom-Tom, bullets from Teddy Boy and arrows from Mister Viking) before the giant ice block slams into them, shattering the ice to pieces and sending the arcade characters flying.

Palettes:

Palette 1: Pengo Sprite
Palette 2: Pengo artwork
Palette 3: Pepenga Pengo
Palette 4: Doki Doki Penguin Land
Palette 5: Pecky the Penguin (Sonic)
Palette 6: Flicky (Flicky/Sonic)
Palette 7: Bin (Dynamite Dux)
Palette 8: Chuni Penguin (Chunithm) (MODERN SEGA ARCADE PENGUIN)

Taunts:
1. Pengo becomes 8-bit and performs a little dance.
2. Pengo holds up a sign saying "KO" as a boxing match bell rings.
3. Pengo sits with Steve (My Hero) as he points to the sky inspirationally.

Victory screens (I just like the idea of placement animations):
1st: Sno-Bees are on screen but knocked flying by an ice block as Pengo makes his way on screen followed by a parade of his classic Sega buddies.
2nd: The above but Pengo slides on his belly on and off screen without the Sega buddies.
3rd: The ice block misses and Pengo is chased by the Sno-Bees.
4th-5th: Pengo falls through the air but is caught by Flicky in a net fortunately.
6th-7th: My Hero's Steve comforts a bandaged crying Pengo as he points to the sky.
8th: Pengo becomes target practice for Teddy Boy and is shot at.

Stage coming soon!

 

[darkvortex]

Flicky's House
From the Sega classic Flicky. This game is very influential and important to Sega history. The titular blue bird is a symbol of Retro sega, and had went on to make several cameos over the years, including a big role in the sonic series . In the platformer, the player controls the titular blue bird and must gather small birds called Chirps and guide them safely to the exit. There are cat (Tigers) and lizard (Iggys) enemies which can disperse the Chirps and attempt to kill the player, but Flicky can use items on the playing field to protect herself and the Chirps from danger. I think it's an important game to include in our celebration of Sega history, but I don't think the little blue bird has much chance of making it into our roster with only one spot left, so I think this is a cool way of giving it some representation.

The stage of similar to stages like 75M from Smash, in that it's a eight bit styled recreation of the original game. Stand on the platforms as the stage scrolls. There are throwable items on the stage, including telephones, flower pots, cups, and bottles. This stage has a special gimmick, much like Pac-Maze or Golden Plains from Smash, players can collect Chirps and guide them to the exit, doing so will grant the player an extra stock or life. Opponents can attack their for to disrupt the Chirps. Tigers and Iggys appear on the stage and may attack. Flicky herself will make a cameo flying around.

 

[darkvortex]

Felt like doing some of our base game content.

Spoiler: Trailer - Virtual Showdown

The trailer opens up in the Shrine stage from Virtua Fighter. We see Akira battling Yakuza's Kazuma Kiryu in a fierce battle. Akira seems to be holding his own against the Dragon of Dojima, but is out on the backfoot when he is attacked by Shenmue's Ryo Hazuki, so has come to prove himself against the two great fighters. The two marital artists put up a challenge for even a master like Akira, and he seems to be getting beaten back. Kiryu is about to deliver a final blow when suddenly a punch sends him flying, as a familiar theme begins to play. Jacky Bryant stands in front of Akira, smirking as he helps his old rival up. The two turn to face their opponents and charge.

We get some gameplay of Jacky, showing off his moveset and showing him fighting alongside Akira. We get more footage of Akira and the Shrine stage, along with the reveal of the You Arcade stage from Shenmue, and the Outrun Bay stage, where we see Jacky standing atop a speeding car as Sonic the Hedgehog speeds alongside, as a reference to his love for speed and role in All-Stars racing. We also get quick footage of the Lau Chan and Tom Johnson assists in action, as we see Tom offering a Jacky and Ryo a delicious hotdog, and Lau Chan battling Kiryu alongside Akira. Ryo rides through in his forklift before it's stolen by Jacky, revealing the Forklift item. We see gameplay footage of Jacky and Akria defeating Kiryu and Ryo, before cutting back to CGI.

The two marital artists look at each other in triumph as they stand over their defeated foes. But we see something scanning the fallen fighters. A figure steps out of the darkness, revealing Drual as a boss battle, who steps forward and attacks the fighters. She uses the fighting styles of various fighters to battle, where we get brief footage of Drual 's boss battle. Jacky and Akira lay defeated, as Dural steps foward, she is suddenly struck by a kick across her chest that sends her flying backwards. Sarah Bryant stands before her as her theme starts to play.

We get gameplay footage of Sarah. We see her fighting alongside her brother, posing with Ulala, Bayonetta and Sakura, and battling various fighters. We also get the reveal of the Arena stage. The trailer ends with Drual laying defeated om the floor. The three VF fighters pose together, somewhat recreating the VF1 cover. The three hear a voice, and then to see Axel, who's flexing his muscles, Knuckles, who's slamming his fits together, and Alex Kidd, who's making a large fist, who have arrived to challenge them. Jacky sighs, before the three smirk and the battle begins once more.

Reveals

• Fighter: Jacky Bryant (Virtua Fighter)
• Fighter: Sarah Bryant (Virtua Fighter)
• Stage: Arena (Virtua Fighter)
• Stage: You Aracde (Shenmue)
• Assist: Lau Chan (Virtua Fighter)
• Assist: Tom Johnson (Shenmue)
• Item: Forklift (Shenmue)
• Boss: Dural (Virtua Fighter)

Spoiler: Capsule Toys

Sonic
Trip the Sungazer
A mysterious girl who was hired by Dr. Eggman and Fang the Hunter to guide them through the Northstar Islands. She is a shy and empathetic person who used a suit of armror and large helmet to hide her face. She eventually turns on Eggman and Fang and joins Sonic and his friends, becoming the current guardian of the Northstar Islands.

Sage
An artificial being created by Dr. Eggman in order to harness the technology of the Ancients found on Starfall Islands. She takes the form of a young human girl. Her interactions with Sonic cause her to grow humanity, and she gives her life to save the wrold, much to the sadness of Dr. Eggman, who had grown to see her as his own child. However, Eggman has since been able to find her again.

Space Channel 5
Pine
Space Police Chief Pine is a cowgirl dedicated to maintaining order across space. She is aided by her assistants Sexy 1 and Sexy 2. She dislikes reporters, but is forced to team up with Ulala when President Peace is kidnapped by the Rhythm Rouges. She plays the drums.

Purge
The leader of the intergalactic group troope the Rhythm Rogues, consisting of himself, his robots, and his henchman Shadow. He wants on to make the galaxy happy through dance, no matter what it takes.

Shionbi
Nakahara
A mysterious masked ninja who is the mastermind behind the criminal organization known as Zeed. In a move to gain political power and return the Shinobi to great power, he kidnaps the children of world leaders. He then sends his top killers and mercenaries to kill Joe Musashi and prevent his interference. He is actually the former master of Joe, and taught him everything he knows.

Kurohagane
A robotic ninja that was created by the Nakatomi conglomerate and appointed to Jimushi's mercenary group in order to retrieve the shattered shards of the cursed blade Akujiki. He was designed to be able to wield the blade without risk of being corrupted. He secretly has his own sinister plans.

Ageha
A former childhood friend of Hotsuma and the lover of his brother. When Hotsuma was forced to kill his brother by the Oboro , she abandons the clan and goes rogue. She frees Hiruko, a powerful magic user who was seeking revenge on the clan, and joins forces with him, hoping to return her lover to life. She clashes with Hotsuma along the way.

R

 

[YoshiandToad]

Job #284: Retro Stage: Congo Bongo

I've noticed we haven't any jungle themed stages. Let's fix that!

From the same era as Pengo, Congo Bongo was Sega's answer to the super success of Donkey Kong and a somewhat notable early arcade success for the company, becoming the fifth most popular arcade title of the month of the game's release.

Stage features:

• Bongo, the titular gorilla, will occasionally throw coconuts at the fighters whilst her monkey entourage dance around her. She'll sometimes get tired after she's thrown enough coconuts, and will swap out with the explorer who will cheer the fighters on whilst occasionally dropping items onto the stage. He in turn will grow tired and rest in his tent, swapping out with Bongo once more. One side will hurt you, the other will help you.
  
  
• The hippo can be jumped upon and used as a platform to cross the waterfall. However landing on it whilst it's mouth is open will cause it to clamp down and deal high damage. Hippos are the most dangerous mammal in the world after all!
  
  
• That said, the hippo isn't always there, occasionally submerging for long lengths of time, meaning players can land in the waterfall and fall down it to the lower platforms, which can be good if you need some breathing room from your opponents for a moment before hopping up the platforms to the top of the mountain again to continue combat.
  
  
• The wooden bridge has... wooden bridge physics. A player landing on the bridge or performing a powerful stomping move down (for example Sonic's Down Special, Bounce) will cause the bridge physics to launch any other player on the bridge into the air!
  
  
• There's no direct below fall zone for this stage, although getting swept away by the waterfall on the side may launch your fighter off screen. Catch your opponent off guard and use that water way to your advantage!

 

[darkvortex]

Felt like doing another one

Spoiler: Trailer - Battle in the Skies

The trailer opens up on a shot of Doctor Eggman 's Egg fleet flying through the air. We see Sonic and Tails flying on the Tornado as they attempt to stop whatever the mad doctor's latest sceme is. Sonic lands on the main shop and we get a scene similar to the opening of Sonic Unleashed. It seems Sonic might be unable to stop the doctor this time. But suddenly the ship is struck by a cannonball. A battle theme that will be recognizable to fans of a certain cult classic RPG as a flying pirate sh ip comes into view. A figure lands next to Sonic as Skies of Arcaida 's Vyse smirks and gets ready for battle.

We cut to gameplay of Vyse. We see his gameplay, and also get the reveal of the Crescent Isle Stage. We see Vyse show off his fighting style, and have a show down with Joker as the two attempt to our thief each other. We also get the reveal of the Fina assist, as she heals Vyce, and also the Tieris asssit, who creates a black hole which sucks various fighters in. We cut to gameplay of Vyce and Sonic taking down Eggman, with Vyce using his All-Star move to send the Mad Doctor packing.

We then cut to CGI, where we see Sonic, Tails and Vyce standing on the destroyed egg fleet. The two look at each other and not when suddenly we see more ships appear. We see the Skywhale from Sakura Wars, Dr. Bad-Boon's ship from Monkey Ball, the Astrobeat, the Angels of Paradiso from Bayonetta and more. Vyse smirks and jumps back into his ship, as a great a sky race begins.

Reveals

• Fighter: Vyse (Skies of Arcaida)
• Stage: Crescent Isle (Skies of Arcaida)
• Assist : Fina (Skies of Arcaida)
• Assist: Tieris (Dragon Force)

 

[Speed Weed]

Gamers it's time to do a little thing I like to call voting

Here are our choices:

Time Traveler ( Flyboy )
Project Gain Ground (me)
Space Fortress ( tonygameman )
Antarctica ( KneeOfJustice99 )
Flicky's House ( darkvortex )
Congo Bongo ( YoshiandToad )

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

I find it interesting that even with the criteria stretching as late as 1991, people still mostly stuck to Pengo's era. I appreciate the dedication to theming!

 

[Janx_uwu]

1. Time Traveler
2. Gain Ground
3. Space Fortress

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

1. Congo Bongo
2. Space Fortress
3. Flicky's House

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

1. Gain Ground
2. Time Traveller
3. Space Fortress

Honestly though - honourable mentions to... all the other suggestions, this one was hard to vote on!

 

[osby]

1. Antarctica
2. Flicky's House
3. Time Traveler

 

[cashregister9]

1. Flicky's House
2. Gain Ground
3. Time Traveler

 

[tonygameman]

1. Gain Ground
2. Antarctica
3. Space Fortress

 

[darkvortex]

1. Congo Bongo
2. Gain Ground
3. Antarctica

 

[Flyboy]

1. Gain Ground
2. Flicky's House
3. Time Traveler

What a fun stage selection!

 

[YoshiandToad]

1. Flicky's House
2. Time Traveler
3. Gain Ground

 

[Speed Weed]

le vote.....is Over

Let's take a look:

Traveler: 10 points
Ground: 16 points
Antarctica: 6 points
Zaxxon: 5 points
Flicky: 11 points
Bongo: 6 points

I wasn't expecting this one, but our next stage is indeed going to be Gain Ground!!!!!

Moving on:

Job #285: Submit a "retro" SEGA assist

This one's basically the same thing as the stage job we just did, only with assists this time. You can submit any assist from a SEGA property that debuted before Sonic. Now HAVE AT IT

 

[darkvortex]

Bin
Bin is the main character in the 1988 Sega arcade game Dynamite Düx. When his owner Lucy is kidnapped by the evil Sorcerer Achacha, Bin and another Duck must go on an adventure to rescue her. The game is a beat em up filled with Tex Avery inspired cartoon chaos. It was actually developed by Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki. The game has had influence on later sega games, especially the Sonic series.

When summoned, Bin will all around the stage much as he does in his original game and punch fighters. He'll then start to throw Dynamite across the stage that explodes.