Fighting Champions: Maximum Rave

Fighting Champions: Maximum Rave (known in Japan as Fighting Champions DX) is a 3D fighting game developed by Racdym (now Racjin) and published by ACS. It is a spin-off of the Fighting Champions series. Released in 1997 for Arcades (ACS TGX Modeller System) and the PlayStation as an exclusive title.

Fighting Champions: Maximum Rave combines the 2D gameplay of Fighting Champions with polygonal 3D graphics and third axis movement. Story-wise, it is an alternate retelling of the first game’s events, with some characters from the later titles in the series, as well as a couple of entirely new characters.

Gameplay
The gameplay of Fighting Champions: Maximum Rave is primarily based on the previous mainline title in the series, Fighting Champions III, while also borrowing several elements from 3D fighting games around the time such as Virtua Fighter and Tekken.

The game includes new gameplay mechanics, such as the Rave Combo, which allows players to cancel normal, special and Super Power attacks together to create a combo of their own. Rave Combo mode can be activated by pressing all three attack buttons during Power mode, and drains the Power meter rapidly.

The game takes advantage of the third axis by including a Sidestep feature. By pressing the newly added Step button, the player can move toward the foreground or background and dodge enemy attacks. Unlike the sidestep maneuver in Sentoki: The Strongest Warrior, the sidestep in Maximum Rave is far more limited, owing to the game's 2D nature.

Each game of Fighting Champions: Maximum Rave is conposed of 10 stages. 8 fights against the regular fighters, 1 fight against a “rival”, and the final battle with Kabuto.

Story
As an alternate retelling of the original Fighting Champions' plot, the story is roughly the same as with the original. As such, the game itself is not canon with the series' main timeline.

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 for participating, gather around in order to prove who is the strongest fighter of them all.

Hosted by the Japanese Yakuza in secret, this year, the winner of the World of Fighting tournament will be given a sum of $1,000,000 as the main prize, provided that they are able to defeat the current champion, the fearsome masked fighter known as "Kabuto", first.

This year, nine fighters enter the World of Fighting tournament, each seeking to prove their own strength against one another and become the strongest fighter. The question remains: Who will come out victorious?

From Fighting Champions (1992)

 * Ryuga

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Voice Actor: Akira Kamiya


 * Kevin Chrysler

Birthplace: 🇺🇸 USA

Voice Actor: Ryotaro Okiayu


 * Ling Fang-Ming

Birthplace: 🇨🇳 China

Voice Actress: Yuri Amano


 * Baron von Braun

Birthplace: 🇩🇪 Germany

Voice Actor: Banjo Ginga


 * Zuba

Birthplace:  Congo

Voice Actor: Wataru Takagi


 * Rick Basham

Birthplace: 🇦🇺 Australia

Voice Actor: Nobuo Tobita


 * Kabuto

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Voice Actor: Hirotaka Suzuoki

From Fighting Champions II (1993)

 * Mysti

Birthplace: 🇪🇬 Egypt

Voice Actress: Maria Kawamura

From Fighting Champions III (1995)

 * Claude LaRue

Birthplace: 🇫🇷 France

Voice Actor: Kaneto Shiozawa

New

 * Go Yoshimura

Birthplace: 🇯🇵 Japan

Voice Actor: Hideyuki Umezu

A formerly retired judo master from Japan. He joins the World of Fighting tournament to reclaim his dojo from the Yakuza's grasp.


 * Farrah Rosenthal

Birthplace: 🇬🇧 England

Voice Actress: Yuriko Fuchizaki

A mysterious yet elegant assassin from England. She joins the World of Fighting tournament to assassinate Ryuga.


 * Max Storm

Birthplace: 🇺🇸 USA

Voice Actor: Takeshi Kusao

A street brawler from the USA. He is a guest character from the Urban Warriors series of beat-em-ups and serves as a secret boss.

Trivia

 * As ACS' core development team was then busy with the development of Sentoki: The Strongest Warrior, which would eventually be released that same year, Fighting Champions: Maximum Rave was instead developed by Racdym, who had previously developed the 3D fighting game Heaven's Gate, which featured similar mechanics.
 * For a while, rumors of a Nintendo 64 port of Fighting Champions: Maximum Rave, known as "Fighting Champions 64", were floating around in various game magazines and news sites of the era. However, there have been no confirmations regarding whether or not such a port was actually in development.
 * Unused data in the arcade version suggests the possible inclusion of several other characters in the game. In particular Sasuke, Taeyon and Paula each have unused character select and in-game HUD portraits.