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The first character on the select screen is also one of the more normal-looking. Grace wanted to be an ice-skating champion but was betrayed and she's now a fashion model according to the manual, and so she fights in rollerblades. I'm sure these two facts are connected somehow. Anyway, something that should be obvious from the fact that she's even wearing rollerblades in the first place is that her trademark attacks all involve her feet- she possesses some absolute vicious kicking combos, with the most notable being her 5-hit sweep combo, but she's also got a load of other variations on the theme. Her attacks are also incredibly fast, but not really that strong, though. She's not terribly interesting otherwise.
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Despite not being listed first on the character select screen, Bahn is the Ryu of this game, the Akira, the Jago; whatever you want to call him, he's the typical wandering martial arts guy. Hilariously, the manual says that his self-given nickname is (wait for it) Genghis Bahn the 3rd. Ha ha ha! Anyway, being the token tough martial arts dude, he's strong with average speed, and he focuses on his punches. When used against the computer, he can also be a bit broken- holding forward and mashing P like no tomorrow will pretty much destroy the computer opponents on quite a few of the difficulty settings. Using it on a real-life opponent, however, is not advised, unless you want to take the violence out of the game and into the real world.
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Raxel is very obviously Axl Rose an extremely original character design which is clearly not inspired by anyone famous in the least, and in particular, he certainly isn't based on a rock 'n roll band front-man who was popular during the 90s. This is because he's clearly based on the hair-metal bands of the 80s. Clearly. Joining in the scuffle for fame and glory, Raxel fancies himself the protégé of Pete Townshend of The Who, as he uses his guitar as a weapon for many of his moves. Needless to say, it's quite powerful, although using it too much makes it start to flash- if your enemy hits you hard enough, it'll be smashed into pieces. That's all Raxel's got going for him, aside from a few nasty sweep kicks and a spinning piledriver that would make Mike Haggar jealous.
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Oh, wait, I'm sorry, did I call Grace the most normal-looking character in the game? I'm mistaken- that accolade goes to Tokio here, at least when it comes to character design. He's just a pretty boy with a kabuki actor for a dad who used to be in a gang called Black Thunder (ha ha ha are you serious) until he left, and that's literally all there is to him. He's here for the ladies, you see. Nice to see that AM2 made sure to include some eye-candy for the women too- he has a habit of taking his shirt off for the portrait pictures (he does it here and in Fighters Megamix) and, outside that, there's little to say. Oh, yeah, his speciality is his wide array of combos- starting with a single kick, he can do choose from a nice variety of fast-but-weak combo attacks. He's also one of the most popular characters, according to polls taken at the time. Odd.
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Enter Sanman! Who is this strange dude? No-one knows, and he ain't talking. All we know is that he's obsessed with motorbikes and the number 3 for some strange reason (it's a pun, 'san' is Japanese for three, ohohoho). To quote the manual, 'Sanman lets his fists do the rest of the talking for him' so let's leave it at that. He's the 'tank' of the game, as his moves are slow, but he packs a mean punch, and he's got a wide variety of throws which can do some heavy damage, although the nastier ones require precise timing to pull off. Some may say he's not worth bothering with because he attacks so slowly, but he's got enough strength to make up for it, and even his standard throw is pretty powerful. Tied with Honey for the character I play best with. Amusingly enough, he shares a few moves with Honey, specifically her butt attack... Ahahahahaha!
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Wh-wh-wh-what?! Heavens to Betsy, it's Private Vasquez from Aliens a female character in a fighting game that isn't of the fast-but-weak category, and isn't defined by her sex appeal! Could Fighting Vipers be a convention-breaking game in this regard? Well, not really, but Jane's still one of the more interesting characters of this colourful bunch, sporting some really heavy armour to fight in. She's joined the tournament because she was literally too tough for the navy, and she wants to prove her strength. Her immense power is proof enough, I would've thought... Obviously, she's in the slow-but-strong-attacks category, and as well as her vicious punch attacks, she's got a few multi-chain throws at her disposal, which usual centre around kicking her opponent in the goolies. Nice.
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Ah. The requisite knicker-flashing schoolgirl character, the manual says she's 'usually quiet and shy, but when she puts on the rubber dress she made herself - watch out!' Yeah, quiet and shy, sure thing, Sega. Anyway, she's apparently here to advertise her fashion line. She's blatantly in this game for the perverts in the audience. Known as Candy in the UK/US versions (I've kept it as Honey to be consistent) she is completely ridiculous. Her gaudy, over-the-top red plastic costume has bloody fairy wings on it and she seems to think she's a cat. Hence the 'cat punch' speciality. Her other attacks include distracting the enemy by tickling them (?!), lunging at them with her butt, and crawling between their legs. Naturally, her attacks are fast but weak, but that goes without saying. Incidentally, she's the other character I'm good with, mostly because she's good at juggling and keeping the enemy on their toes. I don't play as her for, uh, other reasons, I promise.
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The youngest Viper, Picky is also in the fast-but-weak camp, has an annoying voice, and is almost entirely insufferable. Unlike the rest of the cast who are genuinely charming (how can you not love Sanman?) he is the fist of crap 90s 'cool' punching you in square in the jaw repeatedly (unlike the other characters who are too cool for the 90s) and for some reason he just annoys me. Possibly because his AI is kinda vicious at times. Oh, sorry, I guess I should talk about him. Described as a 'skate rat' who only started skating to impress a girl called Kathryn, he's joined the tournament because it's cooler than skateboarding. Like the little cheater he is, he's brought a weapon with him- his skateboard. Using it too much makes it weak, just like Raxel's guitar, so the enemy can smash it. If you're smart, though, you won't use Picky- in my experience he's a difficult character to play as because he's so weak. Don't do it.
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