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Mascot Fighter
aka: Mascot Racer
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A particular form of Fighting Game.
The Mascot Fighter is rarely a series in and of itself, and is usually based off another game or anime series, or is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover.
Mascot Fighters are usually characterized by 2-D gameplay, even though the characters and graphics may be in 3-D. They are almost always four-player, and usually have multi-level playing fields. The action of a Mascot Fighter is usually fast-paced, and often chaotic. With up to four players, usually every man for himself, attacks can often come out of nowhere, so long Combos are usually discouraged, if even possible. Battles can be to the * ahem* "death", but more often than not, you can also win by knocking the enemy off the stage entirely. Items and Weapons that appear at random intervals and locations are also a big part of gameplay, and can often turn the tide of a battle. Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny will nearly always apply.
Note: Just because it's a crossover fighting game does not necessarily mean it's a Mascot Fighter. The distinction is in the gameplay. (For an example, compare the mechanics of Super Smash Bros to the Capcom Vs. series).
Games of this genre include:
- The entire genre was pretty much popularized by Super Smash Bros. However, contrary to popular belief, it is NOT the first game of its kind.
- There are also various fanmade Smash Bros. clones, the most notable example being the Super Smash Flash series for its inclusion of more third-party characters and anime characters. The second game fits the Mascot Fighter genre more closely than the first due to exactly replicating Smash Bros.' gameplay and physics.
- Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble
- Jump Super Stars, based on several manga series found in Shonen Jump, from Dragon Ball and One Piece to Yu-Gi-Oh! and Naruto.
- Battle Stadium D.O.N. is quite similar, albeit with a character selection limited to DragonBall, One Piece and Naruto
- Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers
- Onimusha Blade Warriors
- Dream Mix TV World Fighters, which focused on characters from Konami, Hudson Soft, and Takara, from Solid Snake and Simon Belmont to Bomberman and Optimus Prime.
- Castlevania Judgment does this with just Castlevania characters, including the aforementioned Simon Belmont.
- Dissidia: Final Fantasy
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Battle Orchestra obviously enough does this with the Evangelion mechas, Jet Alone, The Cameo from Gunbuster and various Angels.
- Tales Of Versus for the Tales Series
- Digimon Rumble Arena, Digimon Battle Spirit and their sequels are this for the anime instalments of the Digimon franchise.
- Capcom's Power Stone series is one of the rare examples of an original franchise of this genre.
- The Naruto Ultimate Ninja series of games play like Mascot fighters.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up. It's even helmed by one of the multiple developers of Super Smash Bros. Brawl to boot.
- Before that, there was TMNT: Mutant Melee.
- Shrek Super Slam.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Dream Carnival plays like one of these.
- Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee and its sequels/related games do this for the Toho Kaiju.
- The Newgrounds Rumble (Seen here
 ), which does this for the site Newgrounds, including characters such as Pico and Nene, the P-Bot, Salad Fingers, Hank from Madness Combat, the Tankman, the Alien Hominid and other characters who were featured on the site.
- Two Tom And Jerry games: Fists of Furry and War of the Whiskers.
- There was this doujin game based on Haruhi Suzumiya called Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekitou. It even had Konata Izumi and Akira Kogami as Guest Fighters.
- Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion, was released in North America to home systems on November 15th, 2011 - a Nintendo 3DS version was released earlier on June 2nd, 2011.
- The Gundam Vs Series was originally a Mecha Game, but the action got more fast-paced as time went on to the point where the crossover games (Gundam Vs. Gundam, its Updated Rerelease Gundam Vs. Gundam Next Plus, and sequel Gundam Extreme Vs.) are effectively a hybrid Mecha Game/Mascot Fighter.
- Nekketsu Kakutō Densetsu, predating Super Smash Bros, offered two-on-two battles in story mode and a four-player free-for-all battle mode environmental hazards, with the Kunio Kun cast. The mechanics were loosely similar to River City Ransom—no insane Jump Physics, but there were stage hazards to spice the fighting up.
- A Sony mascot fighter titled Play Station All Stars Battle Royale has been released, including Nathan Drake, Sackboy,Kratos, and more.
- Rag Doll Kung Fu Fists Of Plastic is another rare example of an original franchise with this type of gameplay.
- The Outfoxies, an obscure Arcade Game by Namco. Like Super Smash Bros (which it predates), it's a 2D fighter where opponents are pitted against each other in environments full of stage hazards and weapons scattered about. It's even rumored that the team that worked on this game also did work on Smash Bros itself.
- Several One Piece games, such as the One Piece: Grand Battle series and the One Piece: Gigant Battle series, all made by Ganbarion, the same guys who made Jump Super Stars and its sequel.
- Poy Poy and its sequel has gameplay similar to Power Stone, except that attacking consists entirely of throwing stuff at your opponents.
- The X Box Live game Small Arms is a cross between a Mascot Fighter and a Shooting Game.
- Indie Brawl
- Mahou Sensei Negima!!? Neo Pactio Fight!!
- Cap Com All Stars! a Japan-only social fighter featuring characters from many capcom series, from Street Fighter to Darkstalkers and Monster Hunter to Asura's Wrath.
- Sonic Battle is a Mascot Fighter for the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
- The The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy video game.
- Super Smash Ponies, a fangame based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
- YuYu Hakusho Makyo Touitsusen, a game developed by Treasure way back on the Sega Mega Drive, has elements of this type of gameplay. The game lacks both stage hazards and items and special moves are performed by using traditional fighter inputs, but it features frantic four-player battles, and character movement is more similar to that of a Mascot Fighter (ex: turning left or right turns your character around, double-jumping, etc.)
- Treasure later reused this same gameplay style in Bleach: The Blade of Fate and its sequel.
- Sugoi Hebereke, a Super Famicom Mascot Fighter based on the Ufouria series.
- Keriotosse, a Japan-only Sega Saturn game.
- Ehrgeiz, which features gameplay similar to that of Power Stone's. Several Final Fantasy VII characters appear as Guest Fighters.
- Project: Axis is a planned fan-made game that is, essentially, Super Smash Bros. VS. Playstation All Stars Battle Royale.
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