Yes, you are not seeing things. Truly, this indeed is a most ambitious crossover.
Sega's own Massive Multiplayer Intercontinuity Crossover, originally developed by Sega's AM2 development team as a Crossover mostly between Virtua Fighter 2 and the first Fighting Vipers, with a bunch of other miscellaneous video games thrown in for good measure.
The characters roster is the following:
- Virtua Fighter: Akira, Lau, Pai, Wolf, Kage-Maru, Jeffery, Sarah, Jacky, Shun, Lion, Dural, Kid Akira and Kid Sarah.
- Fighting Vipers: Bahn, Grace, Sanman, Honey, Jane. Raxel, Tokio, Sanman, Picky, Mahler, B. M. and Kumachan.
- From other games: Janet, Rent A Hero, Bean and Bark and Hornet.
- Introduced in this game: URA Bahn, Siba, Deku, Mr. Meat and Palm Tree.
All the stages and characters from both games were included as well. Some of the changes included the Virtua Fighter 2 stages no longer being rings, the Virtua Fighter 2 characters's movesets updated with moves from Virtua Fighter 3, the Dodge mechanic introduced in that game being implemented for all characters, and the Fighting Vipers characters given new moves (even if their armor can still be broken). The game uses two gameplay modes, one resembling the more realistic physics of Virtua Fighter and the more over-the-top physics of Fighting Vipers.
As crazy as this game and its roster was, it was great because it was 100% grade A guilty pleasure.
See also Sega Superstars, a later Sega crossover series. Compare with DreamMix TV World Fighters, another over-looked 3D fighting game with wacky characters. Also compare with The King of Fighters, Super Smash Bros., and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, other crossover fighting games.
This game provide examples of:
- All There in the Manual: Not in the manual itself, but the Fighters Megamix Official Guide has profiles (listing things like height, weight, fighting style, etc.) and movelists for each fighter, including newcomers like Rent A Hero and Hornet.
- Anime Hair: Akira and Jacky.
- Arab Oil Sheikh: Siba (according to the Fighters Megamix Official Guide), is one of these. He uses his immense wealth to start his own fighting tournament after failing to qualify for the previous competitions in the last Virtua Fighter games (presumably making the game said tournament he is hosting).
- Ass Kicks You: Honey and Sanman.
- Bowdlerise: The Japanese version features unlockable Fanservice art that was replaced with new art in other regions.
- A pinup of Honey/Candy wearing none of her armor and skirt, titled "A Taste of Honey", was removed from the U.S. version but retained in the PAL version.
- A picture of Tokio posing with his chest exposed was removed as well.
- A hidden minigame rewarded players with three images of Janet, wearing less armor and clothes each time. She's clearly not wearing a bra. The entire minigame was removed outside Japan.
- The Bus Came Back: Siba, who was removed from the final version of the original Virtua Fighter but was still featured on the arcade cabinet, returns as a playable character.
- Canon Foreigner: Deku, Mr. Meat and URA Bahn.
- Car Fu: Hornet, literally! Its default throw move is to rub a spinning tire against an opponent's face, and another move has it get on all fours and run you over.
- Chef of Iron: Lau.
- Chrome Champion: Dural, naturally.
- Clothing Damage: Breakable armor on the Vipers, Deku, Hornet, Janet, Rent A Hero, and Mr. Meat.
- Combat Pragmatist: Siba elects to fight with a saber on account of him being rather weak at martial arts.
- Combos
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard
- Crossover: Aside from being a crossover of Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers various other characters from AM2's other arcade games make an appearance, and features music from other games whose characters don't make an appearance.
- Ditto Fighter: Dural, who, like in previous Virtua Fighter games, possesses moves from each Virtua Fighter character.
- Drunken Master: Shun, overlapping with Drunken Boxing as well.
- Facial Markings: Wolf.
- Final Boss: Siba, the last opponent of Course H (Bosses). Fittingly, as stated above, he's implied to be the one who hosted the tournament in the game.
- True Final Boss: Hornet, the last opponent of Course I (Secrets).
- Guide Dang It!: The movesets of unlockable characters are not given in the pause menu, forcing you to figure them out on your own. Kids Akira and Kids Sarah are simple enough to figure out, given their adult versions' presence; Bean and Bark come from an existing fighting game; and Rent-a-Hero, Siba, and Janet play functionally with some practice, but good luck understanding Hornet or Deku without a FAQ. Also, playing as Mr. Meat and the Palm Tree isn't readily obvious.
- Hot-Blooded: Akira.
- Joke Character: Subverted with the Hornet. At first, it seems that the only thing it has going for it is that it's armored like the Vipers. That is, until you remove its armor and unlock its remaining moveset. That being said, with its armor removed, it is far more vulnerable to damage.
- Leitmotif: Rent-A-Hero receives a vocal version of his theme song, titled "Can You Become a Rent-a-Hero for Mankind's Sake?", sung by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi. It plays whenever he's fought against in the VF2 Chicago stage. The US and European versions got an instrumental version instead.
- Lethal Joke Character: Deku, Hornet, Bean and Kumachan.
- Mighty Glacier: Wolf, Jeffery and Sanman.
- Moveset Clone: And how. Most of the new characters have their moves taken from the Vipers. Siba and Hornet use Bahn's moveset (the latter when its "armor" is removed), Rent-A-Hero has Tokio's moveset when powered up, while Deku, Mr. Meat, the AM2 Palm Tree, and Kumachan have Sanman's moveset. As mentioned below, Janet also carries Aoi's moveset from VF3.
- Ninja: Kage-Maru.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Sarah.
- Old Master: Lau and Shun.
- Sidelined Protagonist Crossover: Regarding characters from Sonic the Fighters, Bean the Dynamite and Bark the Polar Bear manage to get in over Sonic himself.
- Stripperiffic: Grace and Honey wear next to nothing when their armor breaks off.
- Super-Deformed: Kid Akira and Kid Sarah, based on their appearances in Virtua Fighter Kids. Some of the Vipers also get this treatment in the art galleries that feature them alongside some of the other Virtua Fighter Kids characters.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Janet, who has many moves from Virtua Fighter 3's Aoi Umenokouji.
- Victory Pose: Each character does this at the end of each won match, often accompanied by a quip from them.
- The Voiceless: Dural.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Wolf.
- You Don't Look Like You: Unlike his appearance in Fighting Vipers, Mahler gets completely redesigned to differentiate himself from Big Mahler.
