Fighting Champions is a 2D fighting game developed and published by ACS. Released in 1992 for Arcades (ACS Supra System), Sharp X68000, FM Towns, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, PC-Engine CD, Game Boy and Game Gear. It is ACS’ second fighting game following Kumite (1986).
Fighting Champions was published by ACS as the company's answer to Capcom's Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, which was hugely popular in arcades at the time of the game's release. Compared to other fighting games at the time, which feature separate buttons for punches and kicks, Fighting Champions uses a three-button system consisting of Light, Medium and Heavy attacks. Throws are done by moving to the direction towards the opponent and then pressing the Heavy Attack button, while back throws are done by moving to the direction away from the opponent and then pressing the Heavy Attack buton.
The game mostly plays similar to Street Fighter II and its contemporaries, 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 special moves” which are special moves that can only be performed while in mid-air during a jump.
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 Basham and Lucio, and the final fight against Kabuto. After every four fights, the player could enter one of two Bonus Stages which would either have the player destroying a large boulder, or fighting a bunch of wooden training dummies. The World of Fighting tournament. The biggest 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 Yakuza, 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 will enter the World of Fighting tournament, each seeking to prove their own strength against one another and become the strongest fighter in the universe. However, the question remains: Who will come out victorious?
