Pocket Fighter (Japan 970904) - MAME machine

Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Pocket Fighter © 1997 Capcom.

A superb, abstract and humorous fighting game featuring miniaturized renditions from several Capcom fighting games; including the legendary "Street Fighter" series, as well as "Darkstalkers" and the little-known "Red Earth".

During a bout, players will be able to release coloured gems from successful attacks against their opponent, as well as from wooden chests that regularly appear. Collecting these gems will 'power-up' the player's character, giving them more powerful attacks. There are two bars and three sub-bars in the interface. The two main bars are the life bar and the super bar; the first indicates the player's health and the second their ability to throw super combos. The Super Bar itself can be filled up to nine levels, allowing players to execute more super combos. Each super combo has a level assigned to it, and it uses Super Bars depending on it.

The 3 sub-bars show the level of 3 of each player's special moves. Each character has at least three special moves, as shown in the sub-bars, and each of these corresponds to a color. Some characters have one or two additional Special Moves that aren't affected by sub-bars. Each time a player shoots their opponent, gems pop out of him or her, and the attacker can take them to power up their own special moves according to the colors.

There are 4 buttons: PUNCH, KICK, SPECIAL, and TAUNT. The Special button is a chargeable move that cannot be blocked and upon impact drops gems in the opponent's possession. More gems will be dropped depending on how much the player charges the attack. Holding Down, Forward or no direction at all when using the Special button will cause a specific gem color to drop from the enemy. Holding Back along with the Special button allows for a defense that is specific against the unblockable Special attacks. Other kinds of attacks do no damage when blocked, and unlike most 2-D fighting games, this includes special and super moves.

Pocket Fighter also features Flash Combos in which a player can execute a combo by pressing the KICK or PUNCH button after they have hit their opponent using the PUNCH button for a total of 4 hits. Flash Combos will usually cause a player's fighter (except Ryu) to change into various costumes during the sequence, and perform a powerful attack in the end. This final hit is usually the hardest in the sequence to connect with. These costumes range from uniforms (such as traffic cops or schoolgirls), to swimsuits, and even cameos of other Capcom characters. For example, Chun-Li may turn into Jill Valentine from the Resident Evil series, while Felicia may turn into Mega Man or other Darkstalkers characters not playable in the game.

The commands are also very easy compared to the Street Fighter series, thanks to SPECIAL button. By doing a motion (for example: qcf or hcf) and pressing the Special Button the fighter will launch his or her super combo.

In addition to the usual punches, kicks and fireballs, each character has a couple of very abstract yet powerful 'special' attacks; which can range from the player producing a huge mallet (Ken), to standing on a podium and motioning a bicycle race through the opposing fighter (Chun Li).

TECHNICAL
Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 3 per player.

TRIVIA
Pocket Fighter was released in September 1997 in the Japanese arcades. It was known as the 25th video game released for the CPS-II hardware.

It was known outside Japan as Super Gem Fighter. Here is a list of known Export releases:
"Super Gem Fighter - Mini Mix [Blue Board]"
"Super Gem Fighter - Mini Mix [Grey Board]"
"Super Gem Fighter - Mini Mix [Orange Board]"

Many elements of the game come from "Super Puzzle Fighter 2 X" (basically gems and sounds).

When you talk about cameos in fighting games, this game is way packed in this category! Here are some famous ones:
Felicia: Can disguise herself as Megaman ("Mega Man - The Power Battle"), Rikuo / Sasquatch / Huitzil ("Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors"), Gamof & Rimgal ("Star Gladiator - Episode: I Final Crusade").
Ibuki: Among her costumes are Rolento (Street Fighter Zero) and Chaka ("Jojo's Bizarre Adventure").
Chun Li: She disguises herself as Jun May Williams ("Star Gladiator - Episode: I Final Crusade") & Jill Valentine ("Resident Evil").
Gouki: He disguises himself as Leo ("Warzard").
Also when performing his Shun Goku Satsu the old way (Punch, Punch, Towards, Kick, Special) he parodies Guy's Musou Renge Super Combo! ("Street Fighter Zero").
Lord Raptor's graveyard makes a cameo in Gouki's ending!
Ken: Some disguises are a soccer player ("Capcom Sports Club") and Hol Horse ("Jojo's Bizarre Adventure").
Tessa: In one of her costumes she disguises as Midler ("Jojo's Bizarre adventure").
Also when she is low on energy and she blocks an attack she summons Pao ("Warzard") and uses her as a living shield!.:(
Morrigan: When performing her 'Darkness Ilussion' she summons her kid sister Lillith ("Vampire Savior - The Lord Of Vampire").
Hauzer: The huge monster who appears on Ryu's ending is a boss character in "Warzard".
Zanglief: His Leaping Bite super combo actually happens to be a parody of Birdie's Murder Chain super combo (However Zangief modifies the second part of the move by biting the opponent instead of slamming them on the ground as Birdie does!).
The 'Capsy' soft drink (seen in Felicia's ending) is a parody of the Pepsi cola!.:)

Additionally you can find lots of famous Capcom characters on the game's backgrounds, some of these are:
Blanka, Dhalsim & his wife Sari, E. Honda, M. Bison, Cammy, Fei Long, Guile, Charlie, Vega, Dee Jay, Birdie, Gen, Sodom, Guy & Rolento (Street Fighter games).
Rikuo & Riki, Victor, Bishamon, Jon Talbain, Hsien Ko (disguised as Santa Claus!), Sasquatch, Demitri, Jedah (as a woman!), Donovan & Anita, Baby Bonnie Hood, Lin lin (in the game's logo!) & Huitzil (Darkstalkers/Vampire Savior games).
Chris Redfield (looking quite pale & angry!), the giant snake boss (that is trying to gobble up Rikuo!) & a few zombies! (Resident Evil games).
Helena ("Street Fighter III - New Generation").
Vampire Mistress in Red Dress (seen in Demitri's stage in "Vampire Savior - The Lord Of Vampire").
Demitri's girlfriends (seen in his own stage as well as in his ending in Darkstalkers & Nightwarriors games).
Jun May Williams & Rimgal ("Star Gladiator - Episode: I Final Crusade").
Don Tacos ("Pang! 3").
Pao & Leo ("Warzard").
Son Gokuu ("Son Son").

All of the death scenes that occur when a character is defeated are taken from famous old games, such as "Son Son"'s 'splash down the drain' or the famous "Final Fight" / "Double Dragon" 'blink-out'.

The long-nosed karate character bearing a halo that appears with Dan during certain moves is Dan's father who was killed by Sagat. The long-nosed karate fighter is a hilarious parody of Mr. Karate, aka Takuma Sakazaki of the AOF/KOF series, who wore a long-nosed Tengu mask in the original "Art of Fighting" when disguised as the final boss.

TIPS AND TRICKS

• Play as Gouki: at the character select screen, highlight Ryu and press Left.
• Play as Dan: at the character select screen, highlight Ken and press Right.
• Alternate ending: after beating the game, hold the 'Special' button before the credits appear to listen an alternate ending tune (Note: This trick works only in the Japanese version).

STAFF
Object designers: Ino, Nishimura Masaru, Yorio, Shigeyama, Ohsumi Tomohiko, Mayano, Kimikimo & Sema, Iwasaki, Ikusan Z, Kitasan, Rumichan, Tamura Chizuko
Scroll designers: Takako Nakamura, Hiroki Ohnishi, Ojiji, Hirokazu Yonezuka, Yoichi Tanoue, R.Uno
Character Designers: Edayan, I.Yamazaki, Jiwasaki, Sakomizu, Babatin, Uka-Bin
Music composers & Arrangement: Isao Abe, Yuki Iwai, Setsuo Yamamoto
Sound designers: Satoshi Ise, Ryoji, Hiroshi Ohno
Programmers: Knight Rider Giu, Senor, Pon, Ittetsu, Shinchan (as 'Hyper Shinchan'), Minomiya, Cham Cho Choy, Hard.Yas (- Enemy -), Team Dirty Beret
Game designers: Spp Iorya, Muraski Umagoyashi, Burns Fuji, Ohashi Mamoru, Team Sadogatake
Producer: Takashi Sado
General producer: Noritaka Funamizu
Executive producer: Yoshiki Okamoto

Voice Actors:
Ibuki: Amano Yuri
Felicia: Araki Kae
Tessa: Ishii Naoko
Ken Masters: Tetsuya Iwanaga
Sakura Kasugano: Sasamoto Yuko
Morrigan: Jinguji Yayoi
Zangief: Takagi Wataru
Akuma: Tomomichi Nishimura
Hsien-Ko: Neya Michiko
Ryu: Hoshi Souichiro
Dan Hibiki: Hosoi Osamu
Chun-Li: Miyamura Yuko

PORTS

• CONSOLES:

[JP] Sony PlayStation (june.11, 1998) [Model SLPS-01360]
[JP] Sony PlayStation (feb.24, 2000) "Pocket Fighter [PlayStation the Best] [Model SLPS-91191]"
[JP] Sega Saturn (jul.9, 1998) [Model T-1230G]
[JP] Bandai WonderSwan (apr.6, 2000) [Model SWJ-BAN00A]
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.25, 2006) "Street Fighter Zero Fighter's Generation [Model SLPM-66409]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (nov.15, 2007) "Street Fighter Zero Fighter's Generation [Best Price] [Model SLPM-66854]"
[JP] Sony PlayStation 3 [PSOne Classics] (apr.13, 2011)

CONTRIBUTE
Edit this entry: https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1994&o=2