Smashboards Creates: Battle of AGES, a SEGA platform fighter

[YoshiandToad]

I've just realised my two submissions share a colourscheme of green and gold...curious.

Job #292a: Lan Di (Shenmue)

This is the last hoorah...and with that in mind, I'm thinking of match ups I'd still like to have seen.

There's few match ups I think Sega fans as a whole have wanted to see more than Ryo Hazuki vs. Lan Di. Unfortunately Shenmue 3's final boss fight against him was frankly extremely disappointing with Lan Di just blocking every single move Ryo attempts against him before switching to a cutscene where Lan Di completely and apathetically attempts to dispatch Ryo. Not really the showdown many fans wanted to see with Ryo still having made no progress in his quest to defeat Lan Di.

With Lan Di's mastery of lethal usage of the Tiger Swallow Style martial arts and status as Shenmue's main antagonist(at least at current), he fits as a dangerous boss well in my opinion, and would be a character Sega fans would love to finally face off against in a real battle.

The only real downside is we haven't seen a lot of Lan Di's skills through the course of Shenmue.

However, that can be solved surprisingly easily as Lau Chan from Virtua Fighter is also a practioner of Tiger Swallow Style (as well as being the basis for Lan Di) allowing some moves to be lifted from Lau's skillset.

------------------------------------------

Job #292b: HORATIO (Endless)

Of course.

I wasn't originally going to submit Horatio for this round, but I was a little convinced by both Fly and Tony over on Discord suggesting him, his evil plan to take over the universe and turn everyone into loyal clones of himself probably warrants him a boss status... and there's not really a more perfect ending for my personal final Sega based submission given the various times I've waxed lyrical about him.

I'll fight for Endless until the End...which is now admittedly as this really is the very last Sega first party submission for Battle of Ages.


The boss battle:

It'd take place inside Horatio's gorgeous golden palace and set up like an ancient roman colosseum(but in space) and be a mob battle.
Horatio himself would be sat on his throne in the background, overlooking the battle before him, most likely with a smug condescending smile on his face as he looks down on the arena below. Surrounding him are Horatio clones in the stands furiously cheering, pumping their fists and throughly enjoying the carnage of the boss battle as the playable fighters stand in the arena below.

The boss battle is a mob battle and consists of five rounds, with each round becoming progressively more difficult until the final confrontation with Horatio Prime himself.

• ROUND 1: HORATIO CLONES
  The battle starts against a group of five Horatio soldiers.
  They are armed with light guns giving them good reach, but are physically weak, fragile and slow and are not much of a threat. Once defeated, Horatio claps his hands elegantly which has a pair of Horatio appear with a Sherydyn knight from the United Empire. She is thrown to the ground and with an elegant snap of his fingers, Horatio summons a gene splicing tank which envelopes the knight. The liquids inside violently shake as they are spliced.
  
  
• ROUND 2: SHERYDEN HORATIO
  From the gene splice tank, five new Horatio soldiers appear.
  They are faster and stronger, now armed with spears giving them a long reach, but less range than round one. Once dispatched, Horatio once again claps his hands, and the Horatio soldiers bring a Hissho, a samurai avian species forth, throwing him to the ground. The Hissho strikes back, stabbing one of the guards with his blade. The other soldiers runs off scared, but Horatio once again clicks his fingers and summons another gene splice tank which violently shakes as he is spliced.
  
  
• ROUND 3: HISSHO HORATIO
  This time round three sword wielding Horatio appear. They are nimble and strike hard and fast, leaping around like ninjas and striking with speedy precision. They are still relatively fragile despite their increased strength and speed so take them out quickly!
  Upon doing so, once again Horatio will clap his hands, and this time a Craver, a monsterous insectoid with a ravenous appetitite will appear, brought in with chains by five very worried looking Horatio soldiers. The Craver yanks the chain loose with it's four arms, sending two of the Horatio flying across the screen. Now loose it grabs one of the Horatio and devours him whole. The other two Horatio run in terror as the crowd goes wild. The Craver makes a loud guttaral roar and launches itself towards Horatio on the throne, only for him to click his fingers again and the Craver is caught in the gene splice tank which once again violently shakes as the creature is spliced.
  
  
• ROUND 4: CRAVER HORATIO
  Two bulky and stronger looking Horatio emerge from the tank. They are more muscular, but Horatio is displeased as they are too individual now. The brutish Horatio will try to charge down the fighters, attacking with their bare fists, which now pack a wallop and can deal serious damage to the fighters.
  If the fighters manage to overcome these two, the crowd begins to grow silent, except for one Horatio who will hold up a sign of support for the fighter character. Horatio will shoot him a look, and clap once more as the crowd throws him from the stands into the area.
  Horatio will descend into the arena himself, floating on a sphere that mimics the solar system(fitting as he thinks himself the center of the universe). He snaps his fingers once more, and the previous gene tanks are put into an EVEN LARGER gene splicing tank, shaking violently.
  
  From the tank a singular smoothie appears, which Horatio snaps his fingers and the Sega fighter supporting fan panics and brings it to him. Horatio takes a sip of the gene smoothie, glowing as he becomes more powerful from the combined genetic enhancements, before promptly throwing the traitorous fan off screen with his new found strength, and firing several shots from his laser gun at him off screen.
  
  He turns to the player with that same smug superior smile. You are hideous to him and he is perfection. He will have your DNA spliced to improve his people's abilities. The crowd goes wild.
  
  
• ROUND 5: HORATIO PRIME
  Horatio is now stronger, faster and can take far more of a beating than his previous clones. He is armed with his personal laser firearm allowing for him to shoot from a distance, but he is also able to utilise the weaponry and strength of the previous Horatio clones you fought. Horatio acts like a fighter, and has access to his own psuedo 'All-Star Move' which summons a horde of stampeding Horatio to cross the stage. They aren't really a huge threat and can be either leapt over or punched and kicked away, but during this time Horatio will still be attacking.

Upon defeating Horatio Prime the crowd will roar with applause for the fighter, and many more personalised signs will pop up. Sometime during the ending cutscene, an audience member sneakily takes Horatio Prime's place on the throne, seeking a chance to become the planet's new emperor.

Some notes:

• I decided to go with a bit of fun personality on this one after playing Love Thyself: A Horatio Story and Endless Dungeon recently.
• The Horatio's replacing one another as ruler is actually canon to the story. The Horatio faction in Endless Space 2 explores this as the main storyline of their playthrough.
• Technically we never see how the gene splicers power up ready established Horatios rather than just new clones, so I felt the smoothie was an idea Amplitude Studios would probably be on board with given some of the silliness they injected into the Endless franchise of recent.

 

[Speed Weed]

Resubmitting Yatsurao, I've got something else in mind for my second pick

Job #230: Yatsurao from Shinobi (2002)
View attachment 363307
So, Shinobi is a big series with a lot of games to pull from. But you know something I've noticed? Our major Shinobi representation basically completely ignores a big part of the series' history. We basically made it all about the old-school stuff, Joe is our rep, our stage is from Revenge, our assist is from Shadow Dancer....and of course these games are great and deserving of representation in their own right, but there's another really cool sect of the series' history that's so far gone untouched: the PS2 reboot duology.

You probably know this, but SEGA made a couple Shinobi games on the PS2, that are rather revered in their own right and also notable for their difficulty. Those games also introduce a whole new vast world and cast to pull from, including a lot of really cool bosses. So after thinking over my options, I decided on Yatsurao, one of the major antagonists from the first of the two games, mainly because I think he'd make for a better platform fighter boss than a lot of the other options while still being a major villain.

Yatsurao is a giant demonic statue who's one of the last bosses you face in the original game. Here, you'll be fighting him in sort of a plane-based layout, where he stands in the background behind you and you attack him from the foreground. He'll attempt to swipe at or crush you with his hands, but he can also cast some spells, such as making pillars of energy appear below you. He can also summon out small Hellspawns for you to deal with. I just think the PS2 Shinobi games are really really cool and I'd like to get them repped somewhere

 

[TORNADO BUS DRIVER]

Trouble Bruin
From Dynamite Heddy. The recurring main side villain of the game. This fight will have multiple phases based on the fights from his home game. He starts out in his first form, a cat which dashes around the stage throwing balls of energy, before turning into his later forms including with a long arm that fires out smaller versions of himself. His next form is a body that fires energy balls and missiles. It is a giant tank-like body with wheels for transportation; His head is in the middle, moving up and down. After defeat he will run away.

Prototype Dragon
A main boss from Panzar Dragoon. An artificial Dragon created as a weapon. Players stand on a flying platform kinda like the Brawl Ridley fights and must battle the Dragon who will fly ahead of them and attack by swooping down, flying forward, flying from the background and shooting projectiles onto the stage. I think this series makes a lot of sense for a boss.

 

[Captain Shwampy]

Resubmitting Elize and Galm

Job 230: Elize and Galm (Shining the Holy Ark)

Two powerful beings that cannot be killed or age the Shining Force III saga. They are part of the Vandal race, a powerful god like ancient race that were masters of the world, known as the "Thousand years kingdom". The main villains in both Holy Ark and SFIII try to bring back that era but are ultimately stopped. Its argued that Vandals/Innovator aren't really race but more of a thing you can become like a "class" in way, in the beginning of Holy Ark our Main characters die and inherit the spirit that the spirit evolves in accordance with the bearer's actions, one can assume if they are good, they become an Innovator. If not, they become a Vandal. It can be genetically passed down but also be taken away. Honestly its very convoluted, along with some hacky translations, and we will never get a SFIV or a re-release of any of the saturn era SF to further explain this, and this brings us to these two. Elize and Galm are complete mysteries, We never saw them fully fight, we don't know there backstories, Their motives are a mystery too. Unlike the other vandals Galm and Elize do not want to bring back the kingdom. From what we understand Galm was the one behind the entire events of SFIII and killed Juliens father as way to get him to kill Bulzome to retain his title as strongest Vandal. One wonders what Camelot was plotting if Sega relations with them didn't go down the drain.

Despite the mystery with these characters we do know Galm can use Bolt, the most powerful elemental magic in the Camelot era Shining games. We also know Panzer (main villain and final boss of Holy Ark) is Galm son, so one can assume there's similar abilities involved so Chaotic Blizzard (launches a blizzard of demonic beings that does heavy damage) and Scorching Air (shoots out acid out of his body), One can also assume both can use Desoul (instant kill attack used by all power antagonist) and Demon Blaze (powerful attack that summons demonic beings like missiles used by majority of antagonist). The first time you meet Elize she kills a dog by summoning a Dark Bat , can teleport, and she seems to have rose visual present in her attacks.

So how do we do this fight? Well this mostly a tough endurance fight, There are no innovators in the rosters and we dont have the staff of Besem to remove their spirits so we cant fully defeat them. You first start off fighting Elize, she can summon enemies like Dark Bats to annoy, use Blast to blow you away, uses powerful bolt and Freeze magic, most importantly she can use Desoul to kill you instantly so you want to avoid this at all cost. After Elize is Down its Galm turn, he can use equipment of final bosses in SF can offer. Watch out for Desoul as much as possible and you need to be precise dodging chaotic blizzard. Its a tough battle but rewarding finally getting able to flesh out and fight two guys who are complete mysteries outside how powerful they are. Battle will be on Castle of the Ancients (Shining), id prefer it to literally be on the Holy Ark but thats not on here.

While were at it lets get some Holy Ark music on here

 

[darkvortex]

Maximilian
The main antagonist of Valkyria Chronicles. The Imperial General and Prince behind the invasion of Gallia. He wants to get his revenge on the Empire for the death of his mother. He appears in his tank, which players must damage as it drives through the stage and shoots at them. When fully damaged he will step out and activate his Valkyria form and attack physicaly.

Shadow
The secondary antagonist of the second Space Channel 5 game. The mysterious field captain for the gang known as the Rhythm Rogues. This boss battle takes place as a rhythm battle. He will appear in the background and use rhythm game styled arrows to attack which players must time their attacks to avoid and attack Shadow. He will summon Shadow Imposters onto the stage to battle for him.

 

[Flyboy]

Job 292a: Mr. X (Streets of Rage)

One thing I think our bosses need in order to stand out from each other is variety. It's why I love the Batomys fight pitched up there! I've always been really enamored with this fight idea ever since it was initially submitted - a classic beat-em-up survival test, where Mr. X lurks in the background sending goons after you and you have to survive while he takes aim at you with his tommy gun from the background. Eventually, after you've defeated enough henchmen and mooks, Mr. X will jump onto the field himself, using his fists and firepower to take you out unless you can get close enough to break through his defenses and, well, beat him up!

Job 292b: Guardian Dragon (Panzer Dragoon II Zwei)

A recurring and final boss of Panzer Dragoon II Zwei who also appears in Panzer Dragoon Saga. The way I envision this boss as a concept is a battle against a massive enemy, either one that you must scale and reach the central body of, or one with large, screen-filling attacks that are difficult to dodge and guard against, who has a lot of mobility due to, y'know, being a huge dragon. You must dodge and attack it in order to trick it into unfurling its many wings and exposing the tail, which is its weak point, but be careful - it's known to go Berserk.

 

[Captain Shwampy]

Sestren (Panzer Dragoon Saga)
The Final boss of Panzer Dragoon Saga

A hyper advanced AI created by the ancients that exist within time and space said to have the ability to hurl objects from the past and present from an infinite abyss. It rules over the towers that regulate the planet and rejuvenate the dying world. The Towers were programmed to reduce the human populations and oppress humankind, because if humankind itself was kept repressed then it would never be able to grow and become a threat to the planet again. In the case that someone will rebel against this, bio-engineered dragons were created to protect the towers, however this effort will eventually be the downfall of Sestren and the will of the ancients as a rebellious Solo-Wing Dragon has decided to rebel against the shadow the ancients cast upon the world. The towers ultimately did not save the planet and is now overrun with bio-engineered creatures that are a threat to humanity and thus Sestren must be destroyed. Setsren is able to summon enemies or events from the opponents memories and use it against them, it is also able to take on many different forms. perhaps depending on the character you pick you will have unique fights regarding that characters past.

 

[Speed Weed]

Tangram (Virtual-ON)

The final boss of the second Virtual-ON game, Oratorio Tangram. An advanced alien supercomputer with the incredibly powerful ability to alter reality and probability as we know it, which various forces are trying to get a hold of. It's up to you to put an end to this and stop the computer from destroying reality, though its intentions may be more complex than they seem....

I thought a Virtual-ON boss would be pretty cool to add, and I thought this would be the most interesting choice - just fighting this big orb with tentacles in the middle of cyberspace. Tangram's main mode of attack is through its arms, which it uses to shoot stuff like lasers and rockets. It'll fly around the stage and try to attack you, but you can only harm it when its eye is open, so knowing when to strike is imperative to winning the fight.

......SEGA has a lot of antagonistic AI/supercomputers, huh?

(Submissions closing soon!)

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright, I'm pretty satisfied with our lineup. How about we proceed with things?

Here are our candidates:

HyperSomari64 : Vectorman
Champion of Hyrule : Jo Amon
Qwerty UIOP : Zodick the Hellhog, Death Adder
YoshiandToad : Lan Di, Horatio
myself: Yatsurao, Tangram
TORNADO BUS DRIVER : Trouble Bruin, Prototype Dragon
Captain Shwampy : Elize and Galm, Sestren
D darkvortex : Maximillian, Shadow
Flyboy : Mr. X, Guardian Dragon

Vote for your top 3 choices - you can self-vote, but only in third place. As always, consider your choices carefully - this is the last chance.

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

1. Maxmillian
2. Shadow
3. Zonick

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

1. Lan Di
2. Guardian Dragon
3. Jo Amon

 

[HyperSomari64]

1. Zodick the Hellhog
2. Horatio
3. Mr. X

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

1. Mister X
2. Zodick the Hellhog
3. Horatio

 

[ninjahmos]

1. Mr. X
2. Lan Di
3. Jo Amon

 

[darkvortex]

1. Lan Di
2. Yatsurao
3. Mister X

 

[Flyboy]

1. Yatsurao
2. Horatio
3. Lan Di

 

[tonygameman]

1. Horatio
2. Yatsurao
3. Tangram

 

[osby]

1. Death Adder
2. Horatio
3. Tangram

 

[YoshiandToad]

1. Maximillian
2. Mr. X
3. Horatio

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright, voting's over! Let's see who we got:

Vectorman: 0 points
Amon: 2 points
Zodick: 5 points
Adder: 3 points
Lan Di: 9 points
Horatio: 11 points
Yatsurao: 7 points
Bruin: 0 points
Prototype: 0 points
Elize/Galm: 0 points
Maximillian: 6 points
Shadow: 2 points
X: 10 points
Guardian: 2 points
Sestren: 0 points
Tangram: 2 points

And as such, our last boss, and probably the last piece of SEGA content we're adding.....is Horatio.

And with that, we've entered the very very final stretch of this project. We only have one character and their respective content left to add. As I mentioned however, we're more or less done with SEGA content. So this final character and their content will be something that has been promised and speculated on since practically the beginning of this project. And here, it, is:

Job #293: Submit a guest character

After adding tons and tons of characters who are owned by SEGA, here comes our final test: including a character who isn't owned by SEGA. Gasp. Alright but being real here, this is a thing that's been thrown around for a long time, and despite me generally not being that amenable to guest characters showing up in projects like these, given the sheer amount of potential there is here I felt like it'd be nice to add just one - make it the big final event, a nice bonus at the end of the line. So that's what we're doing.

But of course, we're not adding anyone willy-nilly. There has to be some logic to who's being selected. The big, core criteria is as follows: The character has to have substantial SEGA connections. That is the big, necessary threshold that any submission here must cross......and it is also entirely subjective. Because frankly this could mean a lot of things - is it in terms of public association? Is it in terms of actual direct affiliation? Or is it something else? You might not even get what I'm getting at, but point is there are a lot of different angles to approach this from and I don't think there's any one single "right way" to go about this. This character can be from any media, not just games, though I'd maybe advise against doing real people - it's not a hard rule, I just don't know if that's the direction I want us to take. I also want to note that this job isn't for people to find tenuous fringe connections to get characters they like in - this is characters with actual substantial SEGA connections. I think at the end of the day, you should just ask yourself one question: would this character make sense appearing in a SEGA crossover? If we had to add a guest character while still keeping the "SEGA crossover" theme, who would be appropriate to add? That's what I want us to try answering. Have fun then

 

[Captain Shwampy]

nvm.......

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

It's now or never,i just waited for come this job

Job 293: Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid)

Hatsune Miku is a voicebank software developed by Crypton Future Media, she is a 16-years old girl with lond turquoise twintails and a idol used by virtual concerts,Miku is a iconic character who got popular on internet.

The motives of Hatsune Miku be guest character ob Battle of Ages is she have rhythm games as example Project DIVA, Colorful Stage and Project Mirai, announced as DLC on Space Channel 5 VR, announced as DLC character for Persona 4: Dancing All Night, her clothes are on Phantasy Star Portable 2 and Phantasy Star Online 2,and she almost became playable character on Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed,also Sega created the own Vocaloid who is called Project 575.

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

My submission will be Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star

The main character of the Fist of the North Star manga series, he probably doesn't need much of an introduction but his series was one of Shonen Jump's earlier series that was a massive influence on the medium and one of the best selling manga of all time, shaping much of the battle manga format and inspiring series like Dragon Ball and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It's a pretty popular series in Japan and some parts of Europe, and of course it's had plenty of video games.

The license to Fist of the North Star has been used by all kinds of video game companies like Enix, Koei Tecmo and Banpresto but the franchise's most iconic games were developed or published by Sega, and the series has had a role in shaping Sega. The 1986 Sega Mk. III game Hokuto no Ken, released as Black Belt in the west was one of the first games Yuji Naka worked on, and a pretty influential title in Sega's early console history. They also published several other Fist of the North Star branded games since then, including a 2005 fighting game made by Arc System Works (the developers of Guilty Gear) that's still played competitively today.

One of the other games that Sega developed was Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, an entry in the Yakuza series in the Fist of the North Star universe. It's a semi-adaptation/semi-original story where FotNS characters are played by the voice actors who portray Yakuza characters that have a similar role to them (ie Kiryu's voice actor plays the protagonist, Kenshiro). Or least in the Japanese dub they do, this was actually the first Yakuza game to get an English dub so that's cool! Yakuza is huge for Sega, being one of their core pillars as told by them in a recent press confrence and I think it's kind of crazy how we didn't add that many characters from it so this would be a way of doing that while also referencing Sega's classic history.

Kenshiro might not be the most heavily associated with Sega but he does have a profound history with them, and a complicated moveset that could be a ton of fun in a fighting game. He was in a Sega fighting game before after all. So there's my pitch, congrats battle of ages for being (almost) over now!

 

[HyperSomari64]

Neptune (Hyperdimension Neptunia series)

She's the ruler of the Planeptune region in Gamindustri and the main protagonist.

She's based on the cancelled Sega Neptune (a Genesis/32X combo), and the personification of Sega.

 

[cashregister9]

I have 2 very different ideas, and I am not sure which one I like more, so I am going to submit this one, but I may replace this submission later.

Grimgor Ironhide (Warhammer)

A legendary Ork and one of the most deadly Orks.

Grimgor Ironhide fears no battle and will charge headfirst into any battle and start any battle as well. Wielding the powerful Axe Gitsnik, Grimgor would be a very powerful fighter.

Sega publishes the Total War Warhammer series a staple of the RTS genre.

 

[HyperSomari64]

I have 2 very different ideas, and I am not sure which one I like more, so I am going to submit this one, but I may replace this submission later.

Grimgor Ironhide (Warhammer)

A legendary Ork and one of the most deadly Orks.

Grimgor Ironhide fears no battle and will charge headfirst into any battle and start any battle as well. Wielding the powerful Axe Gitsnik, Grimgor would be a very powerful fighter.

Sega publishes the Total War Warhammer series a staple of the RTS genre.

Who was in the other idea?

 

[darkvortex]

Xenomorph
One of the most iconic horror monsters of all time. Sega have held the Alien IP for some time, using them in various arcade games, and most notably the acclaimed horror game Alien Isolation. I think this makes a lot of sense from both an importance to Sega standpoint and a being known to general audiences, while still being an unexpected surprise pick. Jason in MVS shows that horror film characters in plat fighters can really work.

Moveset wise they would use their tail, claws, could shoot acid, and plant eggs that would spawn face huggers. They could also have a stance changing mechanic that swaps between standing up and crawling. Maybe we could even use some moves based on Predator, since Aliens can copy the abilities of others.

 

[tonygameman]

Well, looks like it's finally time to go for the greatest heist of ages (no pun half-intended), after long times of preparation. (proceeds to type-write a title, cue the jingle)

Job #293: Guest Character - Lupin III

The anti-hero of the eponymous franchise which got it's start from Futabasha's Weekly Manga Action magazine in August 10th, 1967, created by Kazuhiko Katō (more well-known under his pen name, Monkey Punch), Arsene Lupin III is the grandson of a famous French gentleman thief from Maurice Leblanc's books themselves, considered the world's greatest, yet flamboyant criminal while constantly under the pursuit by a goofy, yet determined inspector Koichi Zenigata, who works for Interpol. His loyal gang members (each of who have their own personality) include Daisuke Jigen, who is his best friend and a expert marksman, Fujiko Mine, a femme fatale who occasionally double-crosses and exploits Lupin's interest on her to steal the treasure all for herself, and Goemon Ishikawa XIII, a master samurai whose Zantetsuken sword can cut through nearly anything (including lightning bolts, clouds, tanks, buildings and shooting stars).

For nearly over 57 years, Lupin III has stolen himself a household name and status as one of the most iconic manga/anime characters of all time, still keeping going on popularity and relevance-wise, spawning about eight anime shows (the latest of which is a prequel series, Lupin Zero), forty-five movies (counting from both live-action to animated, OVAs and television specials), has made crossovers with Detective Conan twice and Cat's Eye (which was created by Tsukaja Hojo of City Hunter fame), musicals, music CDs and even several video games, with Taito's 1980 arcade title being a early example of both maze and stealth genres, by a mere month before Pac-Man and seven years until Metal Gear.

The franchise is also very influential with tons of legacy to cover up, having been referenced in multiple pop culture media (like Sonic X for reasons below) and inspired dozens of works such as Inspector Gadget (which actually started from TMS and DiC's failed spin-off pitch, Lupin VIII), Pixar's movies (with John Lasseter being a long-time close friend alongside Hayao Miyazaki, and Luigi from Cars being based on Lupin's iconic Fiat in Castle of Cagliostro), DreamWorks' The Bad Guys, Cowboy Bebop, Space Adventure Cobra, and what every SEGA/Atlus fan here may immediately recognize, Persona 5.

Regarding TMS Entertainment, an animation company which basically owns the IP (with Futabasha distributing the manga rights), it is a subsidiary of SEGA itself, in fact (having also adapted Virtua Fighter and Shenmue). It helps that Marza Animation Planet, the studio behind pre-rendered cutscenes in Sonic the Hedgehog games, actually worked on a CGI movie in 2019, Lupin III: The First (as pictured above). Some of the games were even released on their Saturn console like The Master File, Chronicle and The Sage of the Pyramid, besides a self-developed light gun shooter game for the NAOMI arcade system, Lupin III: The Shooting, that also has a typing version which acts similar to The House of the Dead's. Puyo Puyo Quest also got a collaboration event with all five characters there, Shakatto Tambourine! (a J-Pop twist of Samba de Amigo) having the theme song and to promote Part 6, appeared in a mobile game Mahjong MJ as well.

For his moveset, Lupin would be a quite agile fighter, who is skilled in martial arts, and can make use of his various devices and gadgets for flashy, yet stealthy attacks such as his signature Walther P38 pistol, explosives that vary from sticky bombs and dynamites to flashbangs that stun opponents, a grappling hook from his belt buckle (to differ from Joker's aesthetically), throwable knives, hang gliders and tranquilizer darts. Jigen and Goemon could even appear to help him out as well, with the Fiat 800 showing up in a potential finishing All-Star Move. His palettes may also borrow from a few differently colored jackets he wore throughout the franchise, such as red (The First's darker with black shirt and yellow tie being a default scheme), green, blue, pink, black and those referencing other characters.

When it comes to additional representation in Battle of AGES, the series itself has many memorable music tracks (courtesy of Yuji Ohno's jazz-oriented style) and locations to pick up for potential stages, including Parisian rooftops (credit to Knee for how it'll be done) and The Castle of Cagliostro (taking place on the outrcrop with it on a background), which kickstarted Hayao Miyazaki's career as a feature film director after his experience with the original 1971 anime.

For assist characters, there are a few choices to go by, such as Zenigata (judo-throwing fighters when getting close enough and quickly throwing out handcuffs like boomerangs to momentarily "stun" them), Fujiko (spraying out bullets with her machine gun, kicking players down and stealing nearby items, even from a summoner in reference to her double-crossing tendencies), Pycal (a self-proclaimed magician who can shoot flames from his fingers and float around), and a titular villain of the first film in 1978, Mamo himself (firing out a bunch of fast-moving lasers that burn players on-contact while doing powerful damage and causing a earthquake to drop debris from the sky to crush fighters while surveying in a background).

 

[Flyboy]

Job #293: Cotton

Cotton is the protagonist of the cute-em-up series of the same name, a series that started with Cotton: Magical Night Dreams which was published by Sega on Sega arcade hardware. She is a flying witch who fights ghosts alongside her fairy companion Silk, and she levels up throughout the game so her magic spells and bombs can grow more powerful.

The original game was ported to many platforms, and the Mega Drive got an exclusive Cotton game called Panorama Cotton, a Space Harrier-esque title. Future games Cotton 2 and Cotton Boomerang were published for the Arcade and Sega Saturn, and Rainbow Cotton was released for the Dreamcast. These would be the last mainline Cotton games released until a modern day reboot and pack of ports of the Saturn titles.

Cotton is a well-regarded series that is heavily-tied to Sega, and Cotton is a really fun character as a witch from a shmup. Her cult classic status as well as influence in creating a shmup subgenre plus Sega ties makes her a really fun pick for this kind of game. I just think she's neat!

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

Job #293: The Genie(Aladdin)

The reason I chose the Genie is because the Aladdin game is probably the most popular Disney game to come out on the SEGA Genesis. Though Aladdin is the playable character of that game, I chose the Genie because I feel like he would have a wider array of moveset ideas.
I was originally going to submit Honeydew from Yogscast due to there being a Yogscast character in a Sonic racing game, but scrapped that when I reread what Speed Weed said and realized that the connection with SEGA had to be bigger than "they guest-starred in one Sonic game."
Also, I would like to congratulate Horatio for finally getting in this game after the multiple times he's been submitted.​

 

[Mamboo07]

(First time submitting here)
Job 293: Rexy (Jurassic Park)

The mascot of Jurassic Park... A queen of the island... The one and only...

I went with her since there were Jurassic Park games on Sega consoles back then.

Moveset wise, she would be a pretty big tanky fighter using her powerful bulk/strength and strong jaws for grab attacks as well stomping alongside tail whips.

There's just something I love about fighters being straight up animals/creatures/monsters who attack with animalistic fury.

Edit: Oh, and the Jurassic World trilogy is getting a new film coming soon

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Firstly, I just wanna say that the submissions thus far have been a ton of fun, and it's really cool to see what people are suggesting! I've had a couple of my own ideas for this roster spot, and it's a little difficult to just settle for a single one. That said, here's my suggestion.

Spoiler: Guest Submission

Character Name: Mega Man
Character Origin: Mega Man (NES, 1987)
Third-Party Company: Capcom

Who?
Mega Man is the playable protagonist from the original platforming run-and-gun series of the same name, which is a long-running franchise that's existed since the late 1980s and is owned and produced by Capcom. His design in this case would be based on his "classic" appearance, specifically with inspiration from his appearance in Mega Man 8, as well as crossover media from the era such as the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise that took similar inspiration. Ideally, I think it'd be fun to take inspiration from those in his personality as well, giving him a lot more personality than in the Super Smash Bros. series.

What's their SEGA connections?
Depsite the origins of the Rockman series being on the Famicom, the franchise has actually bounced around a little in terms of where it's been playable - and SEGA has an indelible mark on the series' history, with Megaman: The Wily Wars being one of the first Capcom games released on SEGA hardware after the juggernaut that was Street Fighter II.

Going forward, the Mega Man series would have prominent appearances on the Saturn (with games like Mega Man 8, X3, X4 and Super Adventure Rockman), as well as appearing in the Marvel vs. Capcom series on the Dreamcast. In addition, Capcom's own relationship with SEGA was quite good during this time - plenty of ports of their arcade games would become pretty prominent pieces of the Saturn and Dreamcast libraries, including the Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter III series, as well as having exclusives like Power Stone.

Beyond just that, though, Sonic and Mega Man specifically have a few interesting connections. Beyond just being blue-themed platformer "mascots" who fight robotically-themed mad scientists and act as long-running icons of Japanese video game corporations (huh, neat), they've also shared comic adaptations in Archie's Worlds Collide and Worlds Unite storylines, as well as featuring prominently in the Super Smash Bros. series as third-party characters. This helps a lot when deciding how to present Mega Man's inclusion - him shaking hands with Sonic as a reference to some classic 90s art would feel pretty fun!

(Interestingly, SEGA also developed both Astro Boy: Omega Factor and Astro Boy (2004), the latter actually being developed by Sonic Team. While this seems unrelated, it's perhaps interesting to consider that the Mega Man series has pretty big inspirations from Tezuka's Astro Boy - just another neat little connection that exists!)

Conclusion
There's a lot of fun connections of varying sizes between SEGA and Mega Man, which come together to make the Blue Bomber a genuinely good candidate for inclusion. He might not have the outright star power of characters like Michael Jackson or a Xenomorph, but he's nonetheless an iconic cornerstone of the video game industry who I think has more than earned his place alongside SEGA's greats in a roster like this. Bringing with him a really unique and colourful world, plenty of personality and moveset potential, and the opportunity to continue the neat little connection his series shares with SEGA's flagship, I think this would work really well.

 

[Janx_uwu]

Job 293: Shinra (Ikaruga)

Shinra is a young, battle-worn, expert pilot fighting against the iron fist of the Horai empire. If you're wondering why he looks so beat-up in the above image, that's likely a result of being the last survivor of a huge fleet of resistance pilots. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, he poses a fighting chance thanks to his ship, the versatile and incredibly powerful Ikaruga, which has the ability to switch between Light and Dark polarities instantaneously, preventing damage and increasing attack power.

Ikaruga is a shoot-'em-up released in Japanese arcades in the late 90's, where it found great success with a tough but fair gimmick, swapping to the dark side of the ship to gain invulnerability against dark bullets, and swapping to the light side of the ship to gain invulnerability against light bullets. It was developed by Treasure, who have very close ties to Sega. Some of the most well-known Sega Genesis games, like Dynamite Headdy, McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure, and especially Gunstar Heroes, were developed by Treasure. Ikaruga is no stranger to this Sega connection, given the first port of the arcade game was on the Dreamcast.

Thing is, Ikaruga is one of the few classic Treasure games that Sega doesn't own the rights to. That's why Shinra is perfect for this guest fighter slot - Ikaruga may not be an iconic Sega franchise, but it is iconic to Sega fans, so undeniably it would fit in with the roster and market well to the game's core audience.

Shinra is cool, but he's obviously not the star of Ikaruga, that would be his titular ship. Which looks awesome by the way.

But how do you represent a vehicle in a fighting game? Surely you don't Figthers Megamix the whole thing and make Ikaruga punch with its wings like the Daytona car? Probably not - though that would be funny.

I think this guest fighter slot is a great opportunity to shed some light on an often overlooked part of Ikaruga, that being my character submission of Shinra. He would fight out of the cockpit, though be armed with weapons that resemble his ship. What this looks like is up to whoever makes the moveset, but I can imagine Shinra wielding a sword (like the golden thing at the front of the ship) and a blaster, not unlike how Smash's Fox or Captain Falcon incorporate gadgets of their respective vehicles into their kits. It could be more literal, like Shinra fights holding a ****ing gigantic blaster ripped straight off the ship (literally, like wires spilling out and stuff) twice or thrice his size, because anime character with comically large gun/sword is always badass. Or we could even do something wholly original, like fusing parts of the ship onto Shinra himself, like giving him an arm canon or jet-booster legs.

But undoubtedly, we should find some kind of gameplay way to represent the polarity-swapping mechanic of Ikaruga. Maybe his Down Special swaps his polarity, and having Light energy resists light attacks and eases escaping combos, but having Dark energy resists heavy attack damage and improves his odds of surviving high-% smash attacks.

That's not all.

Job 293 1/2: Kagari (Ikaruga)

Appearing as an alt costume, the second-player character Kagari joins the fight alongside Shinra. She used to fight for the Horai empire, but her ship was shot down by the resistance. Despite what she'd done, Shinra spared her life, and to show her gratitude, she fights alongside him in her own ship, the Ginkei, which also has Light and Dark polarity-swapping abilities. It looks, dare I say, even cooler than the Ikaruga.

In short, Ikaruga is a landmark almost-but-not-quite-Sega title that would fit in nicely with the rest of the roster. The moveset would be a really fun creative process for the thread, and having such an iconic series for Sega fans finally represented in the ultimate game for Sega fans would be just perfect. And it would be great for Treasure to get more money so they can finally make Wario World 2

 

[YoshiandToad]

Apologies, this is going to be a little long...but hopefully an interesting read.

Job 293: Hello Kitty (Sanrio)

Who is she?

You're kidding, right? It's Hello Kitty.

Believe it or not but you're currently looking at the face of the second biggest singular media franchise after Pokemon, with Hello Kitty overall revenue dwarfing even the mighty Mickey Mouse.

She's the queen of the crossover collaborations, rivalling even the mighty Street Fighter face of Ryu for being ubituitous with crossovers, and of course crossovers with Sega have been no exception at all.

• Hello Kitty appeared alongside her friends My Melody, Chococat and Badtz-Maru in Sonic Dash, and launched a series of crossover plushes with the four dressed as Sonic, Amy Rose, Tails and Knuckles respectively.
• She joined AiAi and his friends (and Beat, Kiryu, Sonic, Tails and Morgana) in Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania as one of the DLC crossover characters, alongside Monster Rancher's Suezo.
• She's appeared in Puyo Puyo Quest alongside her friends My Melody and Kuromi as playable guest characters.
• She's appeared in Phantasy Star Online 2 as part of a collaboration, with, naturally, Hello Kitty themed AC ticket merch.
• She met Hatsune Miku and the rest of the cast in Project Sekai: Colorful Stage feat. Hatsune Miku where she was paired up with Hatsune Miku herself whilst other Sanrio characters teamed up with the various other characters.

And outside of collaborations, Kitty has a lot of connections to Sega:

• Two limited edition Dreamcasts featuring Hello Kitty designs were released, one pink and one blue. These came with matching controller, VMU and a keyboard as well as two Hello Kitty Dreamcast games; Hello Kitty Dream Passport 2 and Hello Kitty Garden Panic.
• Hello Kitty has had a total of six Dreamcast games, eight Sega Pico games and one Advanced Beena game. With this she actually has a fair amount under her belt to be considered an unofficial rep for the Pico in Battle of Ages.

But perhaps the thing that made me want to submit her most, is to talk about the following:

Sega X Sanrio IPs: Obscure Sega history!

Whilst Hello Kitty herself is of course an absolute superstar, Sega, specifically SEGA FAVE(formerly SEGA TOYS), have collaborated with her creators at Sanrio on three seperate occasions to create partially owned SEGA media products.

We're using this time to talk a little bit of obscure SEGA History

Project 1: Jewelpet

In 2008, Sanrio and Sega Toys teamed up to create a brand new toy franchise aimed at young girls, creating Jewelpet.

Jewelpet are a collection of 42 cute animal characters who have magical jewel eyes that grant them special magical abilities. For example, Ruby, a white Japanese Hare and the series mascot is associated with luck, and her ability can enhance people's luck. In some of the many anime adaptions, this has a very low success rate ironically, and often causes explosions when it backfires.

Jewelpet never really made it west, allegedly partly due to bad blood between Sega of Japan and Sega of America, with Sanrio America not wanting to deal with the drama, and partly due to it's similarity in concept to the canadian created web toys known as Webkinz meaning potential lawsuits.

As a result Jewelpet's main trio of Ruby, Garnet and Sapphie(pictured above) first made their western debut via a Nintendo DS game known as 'Loving Life with Hello Kitty & Friends' with them appearing on the box art as their western debut.

Despite these teething issues though, the series was a success in it's native Japan, with Jewelpet reaching 7th place in the annual Sanrio Rankings in both 2010 and 2013, even beating out other popular characters such as Kuromi, Tuxedosam, Keroppi and Badtz-Maru, and the cast appearing in Sanrio Puroland as meetable mascots (although only Ruby makes semi regular appearances as of 2024).

Project 2: Rilu Rilu Fairilu

As a result of the success of Jewelpet, Sanrio and Sega Toys teamed up once more in 2016 to create their second media franchise for young girls known as Rilu Rilu Fairilu about fairies that represent flowers, insects, mermaids, fruit, fungi, stars, vegetables, etc that are born with a key. Each Fairilu must find the door to their key, and upon doing so will become a full-fledged fairy that is capable of going to the human world.

From what I can tell, Rilu Rilu Fairilu was a decent success, albeit not quite reaching Jewelpet's heights as whilst Ruby is still around in Puroland, the main character of the series, Lip(pictured above), is removed from the theme park's website, and does consistently worse in the annual Sanrio rankings having reached 20th place as the best placement(albeit ranking high enough each time to warrant inclusion every year to this day). However the series must have been enough to encourage Sanrio and Sega Toys to team up once more as they looked to create their third collaboration together;


Project 3: BEATCATS

Their third collaboration project took a slightly different approach. Whilst Jewelpet and Rilu Rilu Fairilu were focused on pushing toys, clothing, anime, video games and stationary, 2020's Beatcats, were a virtual J-pop idol band featuring five adorable cats with unique personalities.

Oh, and it also turned out they were also vampires who fed off the feelings of their fans. Except for Rico the yellow Beatcat. Who is both a vampire AND a zombie.

The vampire reveal was not originally shown to fans until their fifth song, Mew Mew Vampire, and they started refering to their fanbase as “MEALS”. Afterwards their backstory started being fleshed out revealing they'd actually been around for centuries living with their vampire master.

So what's the plan here? Why talk about this?

Well whilst Hello Kitty has enough merit on her own to be considered for a guest character, I'd quite like to use her as a vehicle to bring more attention to some of these Sega X Sanrio IPs.

Whilst Kitty herself would be the main fighter as the series is often referred to as 'Hello Kitty and friends' we could use her to bring in the above characters in her movset alongside some of the more traditional Sanrio cast such as your KeroKeroKeroppi(who also has two Sega Pico titles to his name, beating Kitty to the punch even), the ever popular Cinnamoroll(who had an Advanced Beena game all to himself and who's character designer created Jewelpet's character designs), the more aggressive Kuromi and Badtz-Maru whom would probably be more up for a fight than Kitty and many more...so many more. Good lord there's so many.

Hello Kitty? In a fighting game?

I know, I know...Hello Kitty doesn't exactly scream 'badass obvious fighter', but she's appeared in violent things before.

She's crossed over with everything from Animal Crossing to Mario Maker to Doraemon to Yu-Gi-Oh to Monster Hunter to Gundam to Jujutsu Kaisen to Godzilla to the horror anime Higurashi Naku Koro ni, which I've been cursed with the knowledge of and now so have you. Look that one up at your own peril.

In Hello Kitty X Gundam manned mobile suits get blown up. Whilst the crossover OVA doesn't draw attention to it, people died there. Side note, it ends with Kitty menacing the enemies by forcibly transforming them into marketable chibi almost plushie versions of themselves.

As for movesets...

We can go the Isabelle in Smash Bros. route and have Kitty accidentally hurting her opponents and we could have her summon the aforementioned friends(including Jewelpet, Rilu Rilu Fairilu and Beatcats).

As an alternative option, we could even lean fully into the collaboration side of Hello Kitty and have her utilise un(der)repped SEGA IPs as costumes to dictate some of her attacks.

There's a surprising amount of options for such a well established franchise mascot with strong ties to SEGA.

 

[Speed Weed]

There are a lot of good candidates left to choose from still, but ultimately, this one felt the most right to me:

Job #293: Evangelion Unit-01 from Neon Genesis Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion needs no introduction - it's one of the most influential anime of all time. Enjoying truly massive amounts of critical and commercial success both in Japan and abroad, this series took influences from all kinds of media that director Hideaki Anno was a fan of and coalesced them into a backdrop for a story about broken people and the necessity of reaching out to others, resonating with a massive audience and causing huge shifts in the industry, from a production, storytelling and fandom standpoint. It's a big deal. So, you might be wondering, what connections does this iconic series have with SEGA?

Well, quite a lot, actually! You see, SEGA had quite a big part in the original series - they had a controlling stake in the production and were one of the main sponsors, to the point that there are a couple cameos from the Saturn in the series. For some time, they also had the toy rights, releasing figures of it in a line with SEGA properties Virtual-ON and Sakura Wars as well as other iconic 90s anime shows Utena and Nadesico. A big connection, however, is that due to this relationship, SEGA themselves developed a duology of Eva games on the Saturn, with the second one in particular having been one of the highest selling Saturn games in Japan. Since then, this relationship has persisted to the modern day, as Eva has kept getting collaborations with several SEGA titles, most prominently Puyo Puyo Quest and Phantasy Star Online 2. It's a series that has had a long history and association with the company and I think it'd be a really nice addition - I see it in a similar category as, say, Fist of the North Star or the TMS catalogue, in terms of being a classic Japanese franchise that's valued and promoted as a "partner"/"affiliate" brand to SEGA, and is always ready to be trotted out whenever they need collabs and the like.

In the end, I decided to go with the main mech itself, Unit-01. There's quite a bit of potential here, as not only does it obviously fight hand-to-hand, but it also uses giant rifles and knives, and can famously go "berserk" as well. It'd obviously have to be shrunk down, but I still envision it as being one of the biggest characters on this roster - this imposing, visceral presence I feel would be very interesting to have, and would bring a whole nother flavor of mecha fighter compared to Temjin's more Gundam-esque stylings. You could also probably include some cut-ins from Shinji piloting the mech for supers and the like.....although that does propose the idea that he'd just be tiny inside the mech but uhhhhhh you know what, don't worry about it. Yeah. It'd be cool.

 

[Captain Shwampy]

Job #293: Justin (Grandia)

Grandia is one of the highest rated 3rd party games on the Saturn and It sold nearly a million copies, and alongside Virtua Fighter 2, is one of the system's best selling titles. Alongside that it was developed by GameArts who also produced the Lunar games, Silpheed, and Alisia Dragoon which were also associated heavily with SEGA for the longest time. Grandia holds a very special place for me, its very vibrant designs and world focused on going on adventures is dripping in charm, those who enjoyed Skies of Arcadia will love Grandia.

Grandia story begins with a boy named Justin who dreams of wanting to go on a adventure like his father did. After gaining a pass from the adventurer's society Justin and Sue explore the ancient ruins near his town and discover the existence of an ancient civilization past a giant wall thats referred to as the "End of the World" from a Icarian woman called Liete due to the fact that Justin had a Spirit Stone that has his father passed down to him. Meanwhile the Garlyle Forces, a army in search of this ancient civilization catches on and runs after Justin and thus starts the Adventure of Grandia. Justin later on meets a female adventurer called Feena and slowly a romance starts to bloom between the two.

Justin can use Swords, Maces, and Axes. He can later on use magic elements such as wind, fire, ice, and earth. You gain new abilities and special attacks the more you use a certain weapon or specific magic element in battle. Justin will learn a powerful attack called Dragons Cut which is taught to him by a temporary party member later in the game but requires a combination of a high level in sword and earth/fire magic. It later upgrades to a more powerful attack called Heaven and Earth Cut.

By the way Grandia was directed and had its character designs done by Toshiaki Hontani, an animator who's done work for Akira, Royal Space Wings, Golden Boy, Orguss, Cream Lemon. Music by Noriyuki Iwadare who also did work for Lunar, Kid Icarus Uprising, Langrisser, Ace Attorney, etc

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

Job 293: Shinra (Ikaruga)

Shinra is a young, battle-worn, expert pilot fighting against the iron fist of the Horai empire. If you're wondering why he looks so beat-up in the above image, that's likely a result of being the last survivor of a huge fleet of resistance pilots. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, he poses a fighting chance thanks to his ship, the versatile and incredibly powerful Ikaruga, which has the ability to switch between Light and Dark polarities instantaneously, preventing damage and increasing attack power.

Ikaruga is a shoot-'em-up released in Japanese arcades in the late 90's, where it found great success with a tough but fair gimmick, swapping to the dark side of the ship to gain invulnerability against dark bullets, and swapping to the light side of the ship to gain invulnerability against light bullets. It was developed by Treasure, who have very close ties to Sega. Some of the most well-known Sega Genesis games, like Dynamite Headdy, McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure, and especially Gunstar Heroes, were developed by Treasure. Ikaruga is no stranger to this Sega connection, given the first port of the arcade game was on the Dreamcast.

Thing is, Ikaruga is one of the few classic Treasure games that Sega doesn't own the rights to. That's why Shinra is perfect for this guest fighter slot - Ikaruga may not be an iconic Sega franchise, but it is iconic to Sega fans, so undeniably it would fit in with the roster and market well to the game's core audience.

Shinra is cool, but he's obviously not the star of Ikaruga, that would be his titular ship. Which looks awesome by the way.

But how do you represent a vehicle in a fighting game? Surely you don't Figthers Megamix the whole thing and make Ikaruga punch with its wings like the Daytona car? Probably not - though that would be funny.

I think this guest fighter slot is a great opportunity to shed some light on an often overlooked part of Ikaruga, that being my character submission of Shinra. He would fight out of the cockpit, though be armed with weapons that resemble his ship. What this looks like is up to whoever makes the moveset, but I can imagine Shinra wielding a sword (like the golden thing at the front of the ship) and a blaster, not unlike how Smash's Fox or Captain Falcon incorporate gadgets of their respective vehicles into their kits. It could be more literal, like Shinra fights holding a ****ing gigantic blaster ripped straight off the ship (literally, like wires spilling out and stuff) twice or thrice his size, because anime character with comically large gun/sword is always badass. Or we could even do something wholly original, like fusing parts of the ship onto Shinra himself, like giving him an arm canon or jet-booster legs.

But undoubtedly, we should find some kind of gameplay way to represent the polarity-swapping mechanic of Ikaruga. Maybe his Down Special swaps his polarity, and having Light energy resists light attacks and eases escaping combos, but having Dark energy resists heavy attack damage and improves his odds of surviving high-% smash attacks.

That's not all.

Job 293 1/2: Kagari (Ikaruga)

Appearing as an alt costume, the second-player character Kagari joins the fight alongside Shinra. She used to fight for the Horai empire, but her ship was shot down by the resistance. Despite what she'd done, Shinra spared her life, and to show her gratitude, she fights alongside him in her own ship, the Ginkei, which also has Light and Dark polarity-swapping abilities. It looks, dare I say, even cooler than the Ikaruga.

In short, Ikaruga is a landmark almost-but-not-quite-Sega title that would fit in nicely with the rest of the roster. The moveset would be a really fun creative process for the thread, and having such an iconic series for Sega fans finally represented in the ultimate game for Sega fans would be just perfect. And it would be great for Treasure to get more money so they can finally make Wario World 2

I didn’t know Ikaruga had characters in it but somehow they’re ten times cooler than I would have expected.

they came a long way from the character designs in Radiant Silvergun

Spoiler

 

[Captain Shwampy]

The Radiant Silvergun designs are better

 

[PuyoWitch]

If we're doing a third-party pick for SEGA, I would love to see a character from Midway be 'the pick'.

My reasoning is simple - the best-selling SEGA console beyond a shadow of a doubt is the Genesis/Mega Drive, and Midway is the only company besides SEGA themselves who have had numerous games on the Genesis that have sold over a million. In fact, out of the seventeen games that sold over a million for the Genesis, there's only one that is not a SEGA or Midway game, and it's the Genesis port of Street Fighter II.

There's one snag, however, and that's that its biggest franchise for the console has never been published in Japan after its second entry.

I thought about Sub-Zero, but realistically, it made sense to go with option B

Job #293: Charles Barkley (NBA Jam)

Charles Barkley: NBA Legend, and arguably the most famous basketball player to be in NBA Jam. He is also (I believe) the only NBA Jam character to get his own game outside of Jam. They even kept Jam in the title.

Jordan and Shaq got their own games, too (and infamous ones, at that), but Midway couldn't get their licenses, so Barkley is our guy. He will always be dribbling his ball, and can use it as a weapon. You can focus his moveset around dodging and sports-based basketball attacks to mirror the real-life sport, and instead of giving him his own voice clips, I would also suggest that his big moves are given color commentary by Tim Kitzrow, whose lines he recorded for the original NBA Jam were so iconic, they put him in every Midway sports game afterward (plus a cameo in the game 'Rage 2')

 

[HyperSomari64]

If we're doing a third-party pick for SEGA, I would love to see a character from Midway be 'the pick'.

View attachment 391949

My reasoning is simple - the best-selling SEGA console beyond a shadow of a doubt is the Genesis/Mega Drive, and Midway is the only company besides SEGA themselves who have had numerous games on the Genesis that have sold over a million. In fact, out of the seventeen games that sold over a million for the Genesis, there's only one that is not a SEGA or Midway game, and it's the Genesis port of Street Fighter II.

There's one snag, however, and that's that its biggest franchise for the console has never been published in Japan after its second entry.

I thought about Sub-Zero, but realistically, it made sense to go with option B

Job #293: Charles Barkley (NBA Jam)
View attachment 391951
Charles Barkley: NBA Legend, and arguably the most famous basketball player to be in NBA Jam. He is also (I believe) the only NBA Jam character to get his own game outside of Jam. They even kept Jam in the title.

View attachment 391953
Jordan and Shaq got their own games, too (and infamous ones, at that), but Midway couldn't get their licenses, so Barkley is our guy. He will always be dribbling his ball, and can use it as a weapon. You can focus his moveset around dodging and sports-based basketball attacks to mirror the real-life sport, and instead of giving him his own voice clips, I would also suggest that his big moves are given color commentary by Tim Kitzrow, whose lines he recorded for the original NBA Jam were so iconic, they put him in every Midway sports game afterward (plus a cameo in the game 'Rage 2')

EDIT: It's an advice, the "no real people" "rule" doesn't exist and is not set in stone, sorry for misunderstanding it lol. (And that means MJ's chances are still up)