page_title: Sonic the Fighters
section_title: Development and release
hierarchical_section_title: Sonic the Fighters / Development and release
caption_attribution_description: English: Yu Suzuki at the Game Developers Conference in 2011 (third day), at the session "Yu Suzuki's Gameworks: A Career Retrospective". Français&#160;: Yu Suzuki à la Game Developers Conference en 2011 (troisième jour).
context_page_description: Sonic the Fighters, also known as Sonic Championship on arcade versions outside Japan, is a fighting video game developed by Sega AM2. First released in 1996 in arcades on Sega's Model 2 arcade system, Sonic the Fighters pits players in one-on-one battles with a roster of characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The game was built on top of the 3D fighting engine for Fighting Vipers, an earlier fighting game by Sega AM2, and it serves as the debut 3D game in the Sonic series. The idea for a Sonic the Hedgehog fighting game was hatched when a Sega AM2 programmer was dabbling with a Sonic the Hedgehog 3D model in Fighting Vipers. The smoothness of the character animations convinced Sonic Team to approve of the project and supervise over it.
  A home console port for the Sega Saturn was canceled, so the game never reached home consoles until 2005 on the Sonic Gems Collection compilation for GameCube and PlayStation 2. The game was re-released again in 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, featuring new playable characters and an online versus mode. Across all these releases, critics held mixed opinions of Sonic the Fighters.
context_section_description: Sonic the Fighters was developed by Sega AM2, Sega's arcade game development team behind the Virtua Fighter series. The idea for a Sonic the Hedgehog fighting game was conceived by AM2 lead developer Yu Suzuki who saw one of his programmers dabbling with a Sonic the Hedgehog model in AM2's Fighting Vipers. Suzuki pitched the idea for a Sonic fighting game to Hiroshi Kataoka, another one of the heads of AM2. Since Sonic Team was in charge of licensing the Sonic characters, Kataoka had to present the idea to the head of Sonic Team, Yuji Naka. Kataoka was worried Naka would not like the concept of Sonic characters fighting each other, but Naka was receptive. At first Naka was concerned that Sonic would be unable to fight considering his large head and short arms, but he was delighted after seeing the smooth animation accomplished by Suzuki's team. Original Sonic character designer Naoto Ohshima was also pleased with Sonic's animations. Sega AM2 began development with Sonic Team supervising over the implementation of the characters and setting. They developed for the Sega Model 2 arcade board using the Fighting Vipers engine as a foundation to build from.
  Since this was the first time Sonic was being rendered with 3D graphics, Naka gave Kataoka a Sonic figurine to help his team model the character. Suzuki focused his team on modeling the characters' faces correctly so they were instantly recognizable on arcade floors. The development team added in the barrier mechanism because the characters' arms were too small for traditional blocking to look distinct. They also added rings that drop when a player is hit to make it easier for beginners to judge how much damage they were taking instead of referring to the health bar. AM2 explored whether dropped rings could be picked up to restore health or the barrier's power, but ultimately did not include this feature. They made the controls simple to help beginners to the genre.
  In early prototypes demonstrated for the press, only Sonic and Tails were shown fighting on an early stage based on Green Hill Zone. Other characters were added later, and Naka personally asked AM2 to create new characters for the Sonic universe. Suzuki jokingly said that anyone who attempted a Sonic game had the duty to create new characters. They conceived two new characters, Bean the Dynamite and Bark the Polar Bear. Bean's design was inspired by the lead character in the Sega arcade game Dynamite Düx (1989). In later years, hackers found Honey from Fighting Vipers was hidden in Sonic the Fighters as a playable character, and modeled as an anthropomorphic cat. Kataoka believes Honey's character designer slipped her in there purposely.
  Sonic the Fighters was first released in Japanese arcades in June 1996 followed by a limited release in North America in July. With its simplified controls, the game was marketed towards beginners, including women and children. In August 2005, it received its first home console release through Sonic Gems Collection, a Sonic games compilation for the GameCube and PlayStation 2. The collection also included Sonic CD, Sonic R, and several Sonic Game Gear titles. In November 2012, Sonic the Fighters was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 via each consoles' respective online marketplace. This version added Metal Sonic, Doctor Robotnik, and Honey the Cat as playable characters and featured new online versus modes.
  Kataoka stated in 2006 that Sonic the Fighters was the game he was most proud of. Naka also approved of the final product.
caption: Sonic the Fighters was conceived by producer Yu Suzuki.
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