YMMV / Sonic the Fighters

• Anti-Climax Boss: After the grueling Metal Sonic battle, you're treated to a 15-second fight with Dr. Robotnik in his Powered Armor, who can almost effortlessly be taken down, as he can only do a PPP combo and a throw. Combine this with the fact that you start with a perma-Hyper Mode to encourage you to really let loose on him or the Death Egg II will self-destruct with you in it if you have less HP than Robotnik when time runs out. It's likely that this fight is intended more as a moment of catharsis for the player. What's odd is that Robotnik does have a full (and quite deadly) moveset, as playing as him reveals, he just doesn't use it because it would be unfair considering the time constraints.
• Awesome Music: As to be expected, of course.
  • The theme of the Death Egg's Eye stage (which is also referred to as Metal Sonic's theme), "Never Let It Go" really sets up a "final battle" tone, and the piano that plays later in the song is amazing. It's a good thing that the song is so good, too — seeing that it plays during the fight with Metal Sonic, odds are you'll be listening to it quite a bit.
  • While it ultimately ends up being a case of Long Song, Short Scene, the theme that plays when you transform into Super Sonic, simply titled "Everything", is incredibly good, keeping an energetic and fast-paced beat while invoking the feeling that shit is about to get down, and rightfully so.
  • Should Sonic and Knuckles fight each other, a special theme will play. It's perfect for a battle between rivals, and the fact that plays during the final bout with Robotnik certainly doesn't hurt.
• Breather Boss: Stage 6 of arcade mode pits you against Fang, who doesn't put up quite as much of a fight as Tails and Bean before and after him. His regular popgun shots can be outright deflected and punished by certain attacks, or simply ducked under.
• Character Tiers: Surprisingly, every character in Sonic the Fighters is considered competitively viable, though some require more work than others to use effectively. Consensus is generally that Sonic and Knuckles are top tier, while Amy and Bark are bottom tier — they are still powerful in the right hands, so they are considered "demanding" rather than purely bad. Metal Sonic is typically banned for being Purposefully Overpowered, while Eggman was banned for many years and sees very little representation today (he's only allowed if both players agree to it).
• Common Knowledge: Bark and Bean are villains and Fang's partners... except they're not. Japanese-only info makes it clear that they're both benevolent and that they're actually friends of Sonic's. Due to this info being obscure, the Archie comics wrote them as villains affiliated with Fang, and the English-speaking fanbase rolled with this interpretation. This can even be considered a Ret-Canon in modern Sonic media (Sonic Generations, Sonic Mania, and TailsTube), which depict them on "Wanted" posters and group them together with Fang.
• Cult Classic: While it took some time for fans to warm up to it (and it's more or less a Dolled-Up Installment of Fighting Vipers with Sonic characters), it does have a cult following for being an obscure Sonic the Hedgehog fighting game. There are small but significantly active competitive and speedrunning scenes for the game.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Bean and Bark after they were reintroduced in Archie's Sonic The Hedgehog comics and were written as hilarious, bounty hunting Heterosexual Life-Partners.
  • When it was discovered that an incomplete version of Honey from Fighting Vipers in the form of a cat was hidden within the game's files, she became one of the most popular characters within the Sonic fandom, arguably more than her original human counterpart, an established Ensemble Dark Horse in her own Cult Classic series and one of Sega's most popular sex symbols. Despite being a Guest Fighter, many fans have expressed wanting to see cat Honey appear in the main Sonic canon. Perhaps acknowledging her popularity, upon the announcement of the Model2 Collection Updated Re-release, Honey was shown to be completed as a hidden playable character. She was also heavily requested by fans to appear in the Archie comics, and finally appeared in that comic's adaptation of the game, retaining her human counterpart's role as a fashion designer who joins a fighting tournament to promote her line.
• Game-Breaker: Sonic's spin-dash move, which deals heavy damage and is fast-hitting, can easily carry you through arcade mode due to the AI's difficulty in responding to it. Tails and Knuckles also both have this move, but rarely use it as AI. In competitive matches, it tears through barriers like hot butter, but it can easily be avoided simply by jumping or sidestepping, which makes it useful but not quite as devastating as it is in arcade mode.
• Goddamned Boss: As Tails can fly, he's hard to reach in arcade mode, and it gives him more opportunities to grab and slam your character on the ground.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The game saw a limited release in American arcades because Sega of America's executives found the cartoonish slapstick "too violent" and that it would tarnish Sonic's image. Nine years later, Shadow got his own spin-off game, and it was far more violent and intense than Fighters; another less cartoonish fighting game with the characters, Sonic Battle, was also released, and yet Sega of America heavily promoted both games. Other games like Sonic Riders also featured cartoonish slapstick similar to this game.
  • Fang was originally going to use a sniper rifle, but Sega wouldn't allow realistic firearms in the series, so it was replaced with a popgun. Shadow the Hedgehog would later feature the title character wielding realistic firearms.
  • Due to "Blind Idiot" Translation, the English version dubs Eggman/Robotnik "Dr. Robotonic". That's exactly what the doctor was called in the Russian dubs of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Underground.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: The most common complaint against the game is that it's very easy compared to most fighting games; some even claim that you can win by holding down one button. This is largely due to the arcade mode's simplistic AI, as well as the existence of the "catchup" mechanic. In actual competitive matches, the game's skill ceiling rises significantly. Regardless, this may be the reason behind the inclusion of harder difficulties for arcade mode in the 2012 re-release.
• Memetic Mutation: The Death Egg's Eye's/Metal Sonic's theme being titled "Never Let It Go" has caused more than a few jokes related to the theme of a certain princess with ice-themed powers.
• Older Than They Think: This was officially the first game to give Amy her iconic Piko-Piko Hammer. While intended as a gag, it stuck, and became her main weapon and she's rarely seen without it. Fans unfamiliar with the game generally assume Adventure did it first.
• Parody Displacement: When Honey the Cat was created, she was only meant to be a Funny Animal version of Honey from Fighting Vipers, and served as a Development Gag (Honey the Cat was included as a joke, as the same character designer was messing around and put her in without anyone else knowing) However, due to the popularity of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise in general being far larger than that of Fighting Vipers, Honey the Cat would end up far more memorable than her original counterpart, which was only bolstered by her appearance in the comic adaptations, using the same traits from the original Honey at that.
• Polished Port:
  • While the Sonic Gems Collection has some faults, like the three Dummied Out characters (Honey, Metal Sonic and Dr. Robotnik) being removed (making any attempt to hack the game to play as them resulting into a game crash) and desyncing in some cutscenes, it also adds an options menu and offers the simple convenience of being able to play the game at home.
  • The Model2 Collection's Updated Re-release on PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE Arcade, as it has the Dummied Out characters added (though only a few, not all of them), online multiplayer, and a Sound Test function by using the trigger buttons on the controller. This version of the game would be playable in both Lost Judgment and Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.
• Popular with Furries: Despite being Dummied Out for the longest time, Honey the Cat was incredibly popular with fans due to her cute, unique design. She only became more popular when she was added into the re-releases and made a character in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics).
• That One Attack: Not only does Tails' (and by extension, Metal Sonic's) "Airplane Drop" move deal a decent chunk of damage, but the animation for it and your recovery afterwards eats about four precious seconds of your generally 30-second long match. Both A.I.s are notoriously fond of spamming it.
• That One Boss:
  • Bean (the seventh opponent you face, before Sonic and Metal Sonic) is usually seen as a major difficulty spike compared to the opponents you face before him, as he throws an unlimited bomb arsenal at you, including raining ones when he's stuck on the ground.
  • Metal Sonic is fast as Sonic, hits hard as Bark, he can take as much as he can dish out, and has Tails' annoying throwing move. And if you try to cheat your way past him by breaking all of his barriers, he Turns Red and uses a powerful (and unblockable) corkscrew attack over and over until you die.
• Vindicated by History: On its release, it was one of the most critically reviled spin-offs of the franchise due to its unbalanced cast, overly simple gameplay, and due to it being perceived as a poor Follow the Leader attempt to cash-in on the popular fighting game trend at the time. Even when it was re-released as part of Sonic Gems Collection, it was largely written off as a dated relic of the era that wasn't worth revisiting. As time has gone by, nostalgia for the game has greatly lessened its initially poor reception, and it is now considered a fun spin-off with unique characters and gameplay. While the game long struggled with a reputation for being a mindless button-masher, the Model2 Collection port's online lobbies would plant the seeds for a serious competitive scene, with a small grassroots community pushing the game to greater heights in The New '20s.

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