Finally Revealed: How to Play as Ryo Hazuki on the Sega Saturn!

OK, so it ain't Saturn Shenmue but bear with us here. This is still really dang cool!

As many fans already know, AM2’s Fighters Megamix is an ambitious crossover 3D fighting game for the Sega Saturn, featuring a mashup of iconic Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers characters duking it out for...reasons. For those who are unfamiliar with the game, we have written about it here on the Saturn Junkyard. It even ranked just outside folks' top 10 all-time favorite Saturn titles in our community poll a while back.

Aside from being an all-around excellent video game, Fighters Megamix is particularly notable for its smattering of weird and obscure unlockable fighters, including Bark and Bean from Sonic the Fighters, Janet from Virtua Cop 2, Rent-A-Hero (in the Japanese version), original character Deku, the prototype VF1 character Siba (who was cut from the original game before release), and most notoriously, the Hornet stock car from Daytona USA. And, uh, meat. The game even lets players fight as the AM2 palm tree logo once they've logged in a whopping 84 hours!

But apparently, that isn't everybody…

In a recent Japanese interview as part of the GO SEGA 60th Anniversary series, former Sega arcade/AM2 executive and Fighters Megamix director Hiroshi Kataoka let it slip that, buried deep within the recesses of Fighter Megamix’s code, there is one more unlockable fighter that the community has yet to unearth. Further, it was strongly hinted that this character would go on to be a massive fan favorite in the Sega community, which is especially since you bought merchandise relevant given the recent hubub surrounding certain other infamous AM2 prototypes on the Sega Saturn.

The fact that he is apparently unlockable as an alternate Akira skin also lends some credence to our suspicions, and it was later confirmed that Shenmue's Ryo Hazuki -- or at least a very early prototypical iteration of him -- is indeed a hidden playable character in Fighters Megamix.

Ryo? In Fighters Megamix?! This is cool!

It can't be overstated how monumental this potentially is for the Sega fan community. The fabled Saturn prototype build of Shenmue (a.k.a. Project Guppy, a.k.a. Virtua Fighter RPG: Akira's Story, a.k.a. Project Berkley) has been a white whale for fans ever since AM2 revealed detailed footage from the prototype project alongside Shenmue II. Perhaps one day a former Sega or AM2 employee (who is also a supremely benevolent and all-around wonderful human being) will step forward and grace the world with a playable build of Saturn Shenmue and give us adoring fans a chance to experience it for ourselves in its full 32-bit glory. Unfortunately, this prototype build reportedly ran on an upgraded version of the Saturn (rather than stock hardware), which could pose its own practical challenges to our collective pipe dream. Nevertheless, it would be a remarkable glimpse into the unbridled ambition of a masterful Yu Suzuki-led AM2 team who dared to unravel the seams of the medium to engage players in new ways and immerse them fully in its living, breathing virtual world.

Until then, having the chance to play as Ryo in a 25 year-old fighting game could be the next best thing. However, there is a catch. Unlocking our (baby) boy Ryo in Fighters Megamix is apparently a very time-consuming ordeal and none of us at the Junkyard have had a chance to try it since learning this information a couple of days ago. For any patient and dedicated souls in the community with some extra time their hands, this is how it’s supposed to work:

Similar to other secret characters in the game, unlocking Ryo requires playing Fighters Megamix for a certain threshold of time before be becomes playable. Unfortunately, in Ryo's case, this is double the amount of time it takes to unlock the AM2 palm tree: 168 hours!

Worth it.

Done doing that? Good.

After logging a full 168 hours into Fighters Megamix, simply go into any mode and highlight Akira on the fighter select screen, hold *L+R+B+X+Z simultaneously before selecting the character with either A, C, or Y. 

* Note: we believe they meant L and R as in the shoulder buttons, not the D-pad inputs.

And after that…?

Let’s get sweaty.

That’s all we know so far. We will follow up with some updates once we’re able to play as Ryo for ourselves. In the meantime, if anyone in the community can unlock Ryo first and share their spoils with the Saturn Junkyard Facebook community, we will be forever grateful for your legendary exploits!

May Segata Sanshiro guide your path.

Super Stupid Fighting Game Crossovers

In honor of such puzzling partnerships as Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Capcom vs. Tatsunoko, and an upcoming Soul Calibur sequel starring a wrinkly Muppet, I'm proud to present Super Stupid Fighting Game Crossovers! This feature counts down eight of the worst cameo appearances in fighting games from the past, with everyone from plus-sized pugilist Karnov to Mega Man's kid sister Roll falling in my crosshairs.

Although this video is not strictly Saturn-related, there were so many fighting games on the system that it was impossible not to include several of them in the feature. I've included footage from Fighter's History Dynamite, Fighters Megamix, World Heroes Perfect, King of Fighters '96, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and a special Japanese version of Fighting Vipers starring... well, you'll just have to watch the video to find out!

PART 1



PART 2

Saturn Titles for The Next Gen...

There has been a BIG resurgence of interest in the Saturn since it was announced that a new NiGHTS title was coming to the Wii, and in EVERY gaming mag I've read since that announcement, the Saturn has been referenced in one way or another.

Take the June edition of the excellent Games TM magazine for example. Now admittedly, this outstanding journal has always flagged up fine examples of yesterday's games in its Retro Section... But it has recently surpassed itself in terms of Sega-Love, posting some brilliant retrospectives on Dreamcast and Saturn titles.

In this issue there was the following article. I'm taking the time to copy it out for you, 'cos I value its opinion, and for our Trans-Atlantic cousins who can't get hold of this missive, it deserves a read... So here goes...

"Right then, you've just picked up a second hand computerand are looking for some classic games to play on it. The only problem is, you're not too surewhat to buy. Hopefully we can help. This month, inspired by the news of NiGHTS 2, we take a look at the other Sega games we'd love to see a sequel for:

Burning Rangers, Estimated Price £20, Format: Saturn, Year Of Production: 1998.

Aside from NiGHTS, Burning Rangers is the one Yuji Naka creation that was most criminally overlooked. Taking the part of a team of futuristic firefighters, the players mission was to explore randomly generated space stations, put out fires and dodge deathtraps, using a jetpack.

Uniquely for the time, the player was given audible directions, in order to make their way through the burning stations. We'd love to see this on the Wii with the remote taking the place of game's laser hose.

Shining Force III, Estimated Price £30, Format: Saturn, Year Of Production: 1998.

Sega's Shining serieshas been going for ages with several excellent and varied entries, but Shining Force III is undoubtedly the best. Taking the series into 3D for the first time added a new element to the game, as did the innovative civil war story that allowed the player to experience the conflict from three different perspectives. There have been several follow ups since, but none were made by their original creator, Camelot. We'd love to see them at the helm of Shining Force IV some time.

Virtua Fighter Kids, Estimated Price: £15, Format: Saturn, Year Of Production: 1996.

Virtua Fighter Kids is just the sort of game that typifies Sega; a concept that feels like the stuff of Internet rumour , but actually turns out to be true and even plays quite well. Virtua Fighter Kids used a modified version of the Virtua Fighter 2 engine to pit childlike renditions of the classic beat 'em up characters against each other. With the recent success of Virtua Fighter 5 and Nintendo Wii's penchant for cute characters, this series is about due for a comeback right about now.

Fighters Megamix, Estimated Price £10, Format: Saturn, Year Of Production: 1997.

Even more of a fanboy project than VF Kids was Fighters Megamix, a 3D beat 'em up that teamed the characters from Virtua Fighter with those from Fighting Vipers, along with others from Sega's arcade history. With diverse charactersfrom Sonic The Fighters and even Daytona USA, as well as a move set partly taken from Virtua Fighter 3, this was a must have Saturn title. Now how about a PS3 version with characters from Shenmue and Yakuza in it?"

Wow! Great article wasn't it? I have two of the games mentioned above, Virtua Fighter Kids and Fighters Megamix. I first became aware of VF Kids through the capsule toys collected in Shenmue. It was months before I realised it was an actual game. My copy is an imported Japanese version, and to be honest, I've only played it a couple of times... Again, with Fighters Megamix, I've played it a few times without realising its potential. I aim to become more familiar with it this weekend...

This is FK for the SJY, wishing you a GW... (great weekend!) Peace out!