Fighting Champions II

Fighting Champions II is a 2D fighting game developed and published by ACS. It is the sequel to Fighting Champions. Released in 1993 for Arcades (ACS Supra System), Sharp X68000, FM Towns, TurboGrafx-CD, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Sega CD and 3DO.

The game later received an update in 1994 in the form of Fighting Champions II Excellent, which added new characters and stages. Released for Arcade (ACS Supra³² System), PlayStation and Sega Saturn.

Gameplay
Gameplay remains the same from the first game, with a few new gameplay mechanics. The game introduces the “Chain Combo”, which allows the player to chain together various normal attacks of ascending strength from Light to Heavy Attack to create a combo. Chain Combos would later go on to become a primary mechanic in other 2D fighting games in the future, most notably the Darkstalkers, Marvel vs. Capcom and Guilty Gear series.

The previous game did not allow mirror matches between the same character. The sequel fixes this issue by introducing an alternate color pallette for each character that can be selected by pressing the Start button while selecting a character. The Maximum update expands on this even further by adding two more alternate colors and mapping them to each of the individual attack buttons.

As far as gameplay is concerned, the gameplay itself saw a significant increase in speed compared to the previous title's slower pace. As a result, matches were fought quicker than in the previous game and, along with the aforementioned inclusion of Chain Combos, these two elements would eventually help cement the series' evolution into becoming a faster, more combo-oriented game.

Each game of Fighting Champions II is composed of 13 stages. 10 fights against the regular fighters (save for the one chosen by the player), 2 fights against sub-bosses Basham and Lucio, and the final fight against Kabuto. The Maximum update, with the inclusion of two new characters, also increases the amount of stages to 15, but removes both of the Bonus Stages from the first game.

Story
In the previous year's World of Fighting tournament, Ryuga squared off against the champion Kabuto in the final round. The two fought a hard, gruelling battle, which eventually ended with Ryuga defeating Kabuto and knocking his helmet off of his head. However, what Ryuga saw beneath the helm was a sight that he did not expect to witness.

Beneath the helmet of Kabuto, was Ryuga's long-lost older brother Torao, who, like Ryuga, was a disciple of their family's own "Shinken-ryu" style of karate. However, being constantly left behind Ryuga's shadow caused him to run away at the age of 13, eventually finding himself serving for the Yakuza, using the teachings of Shinken-ryu for brutal violence rather than self-discipline.

Torao's defeat at the hands of Ryuga continued to add fuel to the fire that is his immense hatred of him and his family. Ryuga, however, is filled with strong feelings of disgust towards him, and thus, instead of finishing him off, he decided to simply walk away and forfeit the match, unable to bear witness to the man that his brother had become.

Alonst a year after the last tournament, another World of Fighting tournament has been announced. Hosted by the Yakuza, and marking the return of Kabuto as the champion. This time around, the stakes have been raised with a grand prize of $1,000,000,000, luring in more and more fighters from all over the world with its promises of prestige.

However, to Ryuga, none of it matters to him, as the only thing that's in his mind right now is to fight his estranged brother and take him down once and for all, so as to make him realize the error of his ways. Thus, Ryuga sets off to the tournament, with a burning heart and a mind full of determination.

Returning

 * Ryuga

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan


 * Kevin Chrysler

Birthplace: 🇺🇸 USA


 * Ling Fang-Ming

Birthplace: 🇨🇳 China


 * Baron von Braun

Birthplace: 🇩🇪 Germany


 * Zuba

Birthplace:  Congo


 * Andrei Maximov

Birthplace:  Russia


 * Chongrak Sintawichai

Birthplace: 🇹🇭 Thailand


 * Sasuke

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan


 * Chin-Tao

Birthplace: 🇨🇳 China


 * Rick Basham

Birthplace: 🇦🇺 Australia


 * Lucio Coltello

Birthplace: 🇮🇹 Italy


 * Kabuto

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

New

 * Leon Fernandez

Birthplace: 🇲🇽 Mexico

A priest masquerading as a masked luchador from Mexico. He joins the World of Fighting tournament to save his church and orphanage from bankruptcy.


 * Mysti

Birthplace: 🇪🇬 Egypt

A mysterious yet beautiful fortune teller from Egypt. She joins the World of Fighting tournament for mysterious reasons that only she truly knows.

Excellent additions

 * Silver Hound

Birthplace: 🇺🇸 USA

A brave native chief from the USA. He joins the World of Fighting tournament to find a way to save his tribe and homeland from imminent danger.


 * Yu Taeyon

Birthplace: 🇰🇷 Korea

A teen-aged taekwondo apprentice from Korea. She joins the World of Fighting tournament to win the prize money and pay for her mother's hospital bills.

Sequel
A sequel to the game, Fighting Champions III, was released in 1995 for Arcades (ACS Supra³² System) and the Sega Saturn as an exclusive title. It featured new characters as well as new gameplay mechanics and stages.

Trivia

 * The SNES version of Fighting Champions II was heavily censored in accordance to Nintendo's strict censorship policies around the time. Some of these changes include:
 * Certain attacks, such as Lucio's knife attacks and Mysti's Shining Scimitar special, no longer draw blood upon hit.
 * The character's defeat portraits are edited to remove the blood on their faces.
 * Winquotes that included references to blood and death were also altered.
 * All three CD-based ports of Fighting Champions II (PC-Engine CD, Sega CD, 3DO) included an arranged soundtrack.
 * The PlayStation and Saturn ports of Excellent take it a step further by adding the option to choose between the arranged and original soundtrack, sampled directly from the arcade version.
 * A Sega 32X port of Fighting Champions II Excellent was developed and almost completed, but never released. Some prototype ROMs of it can be found online.
 * The design of Yu Taeyon, one of two new fighters introduced in the Maximum update, was rumored to be based on the daughter of the CEO of ACS' Korean subsidiary. However, this rumor is yet to be confirmed or denied.