Fighting Vipers 2 BETA Review

Release dates:
North America: Unreleased
Europe: 2001
Japan: January 18, 2001

Game details:
1-2 Players
Standard controller
VMU compatible
Jump Pack compatible
VGA Box
Arcade stick

Fighting games that include characters with bikes and skateboards are rare nowadays.
But Fighting Vipers 2 included those wacky characters. This is a review on the BETA of the game, which means that it isn't the final game. The differences are minor. There is no online mode in the BETA version, which doesn't matter today since the official servers are offline. The intro seems to be different in the BETA version. Other than that, I didn't find any critical changes in the final version.

Gameplay
This game must have been very...weird. The original was an arcade game and was later ported to the Dreamcast. That probably means that it was popular. Which I think I can understand because it was very creative and new with regards to the characters and the special attacks. It's really fun too!
There are a lot of moves but I always find myself using the kick moves. They reach very long and take a lot of damage. I love when you K.O the opponent by punching or kicking him/her out of the stage.

There are a lot of game modes to choose from. There are the regular modes that you find in a fighting game, such as training mode, VS mode and arcade mode. But the mode that I thought was a lot of fun was the survival mode. It is what it sound like. Survive as long as you can by fighting new opponents every round. It's very challenging too, that will make you keep playing and try to beat your record. There aren't a lot of characters to choose from but the characters compensate with humor and creativity.
One little thing that bothered me was the time limit in the character select screen. It takes a couple of seconds to load the preview of the characters too.

Storyline
This is an arcade game from the beginning which means that there's no real storyline. You can find some background information on the characters though.

Graphics
The graphics are impressive, but Fighting Vipers 2 can't really compete with SoulCalibur graphically. The other fighting games on the Dreamcast such as Dead or Alive 2 and Street Fighter, couldn't compete either. But Fighting Vipers 2 can compete with it due to its creativity.

The characters look great! The armor is shiny and the animations are fluid. The backgrounds of the stages disappoint me though. The fire and the walls look very cut out, which is sad because the other stuff looks great!

Sound
The music is nothing to mention here. You won't focus on it while playing anyway. I don't think I even remember if there was any music in it..

Conclusion
It's a creative fighting game like nothing I've seen before. It has pretty good graphics and funny characters. Although, there are better fighting games in the Dreamcast's library. I wonder what they were smoking when they made this though...It's an okay fighting game and will entertain you for a while at least.

6.5/10