What if: Fighting Megamix 2?

[Mystic Monkey]

A "What if?" thread. As in nothing official, just proposal of an idea thats perhaps unlikely to happen.

Let's say that Sega wanted to compete with the Smash series but at the same time do not want to appear to rip them off. (kinda like what happened to Sonic Shuffle < Mario Party 3)
What if instead of a platform fighting game instead it's more of a Tekken/SoulCalibur-like fighting game instead? Thus the idea All-Stars Fighters Megamix 2.
Fighters Megamix was a Sega Saturn fighting game that was a crossover of fighters from Virtua Fighters 2 and Fighting Vipers. However fighters from other Sega games also debuted such as Bark and Bean from Sonic the Fighters, Janet Marshall from Virtua Cop 2, Taro Yamada from Rent-A-Hero and even Hornet, the fighting race car from Daytona USA (as well as a bunch of other crazy mascot characters like a mexican green bean, a palm tree  and japanese bone of meatas a fighter.
So in a sense, Fighters Megamix was the first Sega crossover game that predates both the Super Smash series and the Sega Superstars series.
So how would you feel if Sega made a sequal to Fighters Megamix as a sequal to the Sega All-Stars series of games? I can imagie brand new fighters for the game also:

• Almost everyone from Sonic the Fighters
      The eingine from Sonic the Fighters would be ideal for "small-but-quick" fighters. Sonic characters can properly debute but with their modern apperance.
• Alex Kidd
      Uses the same engine as Sonic the Fighters due to his small size.
• Gilius Thunderhead
      A standard fighter who uses the same fighting style as Gilius Rockhead from Golden Axe: The Duel.
• Chariot
      Using Fighting Vipers engine given he is an armoured fighter. Rerpesenting The House of the Dead franchise.

Or if Sega did wanted to compete with the Smash series without ripping them off, perhaps riding on Fighters Megamix older reputation would be considered a sleazy tactic? While Fighters Megamix is older than Super Smash Bros., there has only been the one Fighters Megamix game.

[OriginalName]

I've actually thought about this a lot over the years. I remember reading in an interview somewhere that Yu Suzuki wasn't that into the idea of crossover games or games that sacrificed balance for flash and roster size (the near-perfect balance of Virtua Fighter rosters vs. those of Tekken, Capcom "Vs.", Smash Bros., et cetera) and that Megamix was the brainchild of another AM2 employee. So, since the team head wasn't that terribly interested and Megamix probably had middling sales due to being on the Saturn, they didn't push for a sequel.

Smash Bros. becomes a big hit, especially in the west where people actually cared about the N64, and a huge opportunity is missed by not making a Fighters Megamix 2 on the Dreamcast. So many hands were tied with Shenmue, F355 Challenge, and Virtua Fighter 4 that I guess it just wasn't meant to be. It's a shame, because that was the perfect time to release a sequel. Smash Bros. was still new to the scene, and the "2" would put it in people's head immediately that this probably wasn't a rip-off series since the more popular series hadn't been out long enough for a studio to put out two whole games.

Also, unfair as it is considering that Sega put out arguably their strongest games in those brief 3rd party years before the Sammy buyout, Sega's brand value tanked after they left the hardware industry for most gamers. Still, in those early years on PlayStation 2 or Xbox there was potential for a sequel.

Now, I just think it's too late. I think that Megamix had potential to be a great series, but its time has simply passed. Obviously I'd buy a Megamix 2, you'd buy a Megamix 2, anyone reading this or this site in general would buy a Megamix 2, but I just don't think that the Sega brand name is strong enough to convince the ever-conservative board of directors at a AAA game studio these days, and gamers who've grown up without Sega as a huge brand aren't gonna give them the same benefit of the doubt as before.

It's a shame. Fighters Megamix, despite being totally unbalanced, is possibly my favorite 3D fighting game. The perfectly-implemented shoulder-button side-step is just a complete reptile-brain-tickling joy for me and the ridiculous character juxtapositions thrust it over the top. There was a five-to-six year period after its release where a Fighters Megamix 2 could've sparked something bigger, but I just don't think it's there anymore.

I'd LOVE to be proven wrong, though! Especially since Smash Bros. does very little for me.

[Trippled]

I don't think Fighters Megamix has to do with Sega as a whole, but rather AM2 of the 80's and 90's. In the 2000's and with VF4, the entire focus of AM2 changed anyway.

You might as well be asking for Fighting Vipers 3. The thing is however that for an April Fools Joke, Sega AM2 devs did play around in the Vf5 engine to make it "flashier":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5lsEVGgDMI

[Mystic Monkey]

As a 90s kid, of course I never grew out of the "Nintendon't" phase and wish Sega could trump Nintendo like they used to.
So it would be cool if Sega did something like make a Sonic or Superstar game and not be considered "ripping off" of one of Mario's games.
It is the reason why I am not that enthusiastic about the upcoming Team Sonic Racing game, because it reminds me too much of Mario Kart games. I mean, Sonic Riders stood out for utilizing airboards instead of karts, All-Star racing games stood out for including racers and courses other than Sonic, to me TSR just seems more of a rip-off of modern Mario Kart than ever. (Not including the Sonic Drift games.) I can just tell critics will pan the similarities with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

I like the idea that if Sega ever decided to make a crossover fighting game, instead of it being like PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale or Brawlout or other platform fighting games (Not saying Nintendo "founded" the platform-fighting genre, that honour goes to Jump N' Bump, a PC game a year before Super Smash Bros. Though perhaps Super Smash Bros. is the first platform-fighter crossover.) if they did make a fighting game then it should be like Virtua Fighters or Fighting Vipers, given Sega pretty much founded the modern 3D fighting genre. We wouldn't have Tekken or SoulCalibur series if it was not for Virtua Fighter.

It would be different and recognisable from Super Smash Bros and all it's rip-offs and whenever they put a big number 2 on it or not it would still be recognisable and regarded a sequal to a game older than Super Smash Bros.