Fighting Champions

Fighting Champions is a 2D fighting game developed and published by ACS. Released in 1992 for Arcades (ACS Mega¹⁶ System), Sharp X68000, FM Towns, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, NEC TurboGrafx-CD, Game Boy and Game Gear. It is ACS’ second fighting game following Kumite (1987).

Fighting Champions was published by ACS as the company's answer to Capcom's Street Fighter II, which was hugely popular in arcades at the time of the game's release.

Gameplay
Fighting Champions uses a button system consisting of three buttons: Punch, Kick, and Throw. The strength of the attack is determined by the player's button press, so a light tap of the Punch button would result in a Light Punch, while a more deliberate press on the same button would result in a Heavy Punch. The same applies for the Kick buttons. Throwing is done by getting close to the opponent and pressing Throw. The player can perform a back throw by moving to the direction opposite the opponent and pressing Throw.

The game mostly plays similar to Street Fighter II, including its emphasis on special moves and combos. Each player has a set of special moves that can be performed by performing specific button combinations. The gameplay of Fighting Champions is noted to be slightly faster than its contemporaries. Fighting Champions is also one of the first fighting games to feature “air specials” which are special moves that can only be performed while in mid-air.

Each game of Fighting Champions is composed of 11 stages. 8 fights against the regular fighters (save for the player's character), 2 fights against sub-bosses Bash and Lucio, and the final fight against Kabuto.

Story
The World of Fighting tournament. The biggest and most prestigious fighting tournament in the world. Every year, many fighters from all over the world, each with their own reasons of participating, gather around to see who is the strongest of them all.

Hosted by the notorious Irakawa syndicate and its leader, the crime lord known simply as “Kabuto”, the winner of this year's tournament will be given $1,000,000 as a prize, if they can beat Kabuto and his henchemen first.

This year, nine fighters battle it out to see who is the strongest fighter of them all. The question remains: Who will come out victorious?

Playables

 * Ryuga

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

A cocky, loudmouthed karate fighter from Japan. He joins the World of Fighting tournament to prove that he is the strongest fighter of them all.


 * Kevin Rage

Birthplace: 🇺🇸 USA

A rowdy street brawler from the USA. He joins the World of Fighting tournament for the fame, the fortune and the chicks.


 * Ling Fang-Ming

Birthplace: 🇨🇳 China

A waitress and kung-fu apprentice from China. She joins the World of Fighting tournament to free her grandfather from the Irakawas' captivity.

Birthplace: 🇩🇪 Germany
 * Baron von Braun

A big, burly professional wrestler from Germany. He joins the World of Fighting tournament just for the thrill of breaking his opponent's bones.

Birthplace:  Congo
 * Zuba

A warrior prince coming from an indigenous tribe from Congo. He joins the World of Fighting tournament to protect their homeland.

Birthplace:  Russia
 * Andrei Maximovich

A former military general turned cyborg from Russia. He joins the World of Fighting Tournament to test his newfound cyborg abilities.

Birthplace: 🇹🇭 Thailand
 * Chongrak Sintawichai

A Muay Thai kicboxer from Thailand. He joins the World of Fighting tournament to avenge his family's death at the hands of Kabuto and the Irakawa.

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan
 * Sasuke

A descendant coming from a clan of ninja assassins from Japan. He joins the World of Fighting tournament to assassinate Kabuto.

Birthplace: 🇨🇳 China
 * Chin Tao

An obese tai-chi master and restaurant owner from China. He joins the World of Fighting Tournament to win the prize money and expand his business.

Bosses

 * Bash Dillinger

Birthplace: 🇦🇺 Australia

A disgraced boxer from Australia. He was banned from pro boxing after killing his opponent, and now serves as one of Kabuto's henchemen.


 * Lucio Coltello

Birthplace: 🇮🇹 Italy

A mentally unstable assassin from Italy. He has an obsession with knives and the pain of his opponents, and now serves as one of Kabuto's henchmen.


 * Kabuto

Birthplace:  Unknown

A notorious and incredibly powerful crime lord whose face is hidden by a large helmet. He is the current leader of the Irakawa syndicate and the host of the World of Fighting tournament.

Trivia

 * The SNES version of Fighting Champions was censored in accordance to Nintendo's strict censoring policies. Some of the changes include:
 * Certain attacks, like Lucio's knife attacks, no longer draw blood.
 * The character's defeat portraits are edited in order to remove the blood and cuts on their faces.
 * Also, several winquotes that included references to blood and death were altered as well.
 * The TurboGrafx-CD port of Fighting Champions (which was only released in Japan), took advantage of the console's CD capabilities and included an arranged soundtrack.
 * This is the only Fighting Champions game to utilize the 3-button, punch-kick-throw button setup. Later games in the series would utilize the SNK-style four-button setup.
 * The Muay Thai fighter Chongrak Sintawichai was named after a Thai-born staff member of ACS, who worked on the game, as well as various other ACS titles around that time.
 * Found within the arcade version's ROM was an unused title screen for the game that bore the title “Fist of Fighter”, possibly an early title for the game.