DreamMix TV World Fighters

DreamMix TV World Fighters
"We have Smash Bros. at home."
ドリームミックスTV ワールドファイターズ
Developer	bitstep
Publisher	Hudson Soft
Platforms	Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2
Release date	December 18, 2003
Rating	CERO: A
Credits

DreamMix TV World Fighters is a Japan-exclusive crossover video game for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2 platforms. A joint production between Konami, Takara, and Hudson Soft, it is a four-player platform fighter featuring playable characters from all three companies.

The game includes 11 default fighters and six additional hidden characters, with two Transformers amongst the total 17.

Synopsis

DreamMix TV is a television station which broadcasts a weekly sports entertainment program called World Fighters. Unfortunately, the show has been struggling to receive good ratings, so host Mujoe decides to invite a variety of famous people from different worlds and walks of life in the hopes the fights between them will gain the audience's favor and appease their sponsors. Fortunately, several competitors agree to appear on the show.

At the start of the broadcast, Mujoe's introduction is interrupted by Haruna, his new co-host, who explains the show's rules by attacking him until his soul leaves his body.

During a break after the second fight, Mujoe's attempt to compliment the challenger is interrupted again by Haruna, who gets so excited by the previous matches that she makes a dramatic entrance with a flying spiral punch that knocks Mujoe to the floor. Oblivious to why her co-host is lying on the ground, she dismisses him before announcing that the challenger will be fighting two opponents at once in their next match.

Following the fourth battle, Mujoe celebrates both the challenger's success and the show's rising ratings, though Haruna is nowhere to be seen. Before he can wonder for long, Haruna descends from above on a giant disco ball, encouraging the challenger to do their best in the remaining two fights, which she confirms will be two-on-one and three-on-one. Suddenly, the rod on the disco ball breaks, sending both the ball and Haruna crashing down onto Mujoe. With swirly eyes and duckies floating around her head, the dizzied Haruna tells the audience to stay tuned before falling over backwards.

After the final match concludes, Mujoe paces back and forth, anxious that the sponsors might be upset that the competition ended so quickly. Worried about the possibility of her first TV gig being suddenly cancelled, Haruna breaks down crying. Mujoe tries to correct her that he never said anything about cancellation, but Haruna declares that there's still one more fight to be had—something that baffles Mujoe, who thinks her count is off. Haruna then reveals that the Hige Hige Gang has constructed a UFO, and declares that Mujoe will be the final opponent! Mujoe immediately protests, worried that this will hurt both his career and his body, but Haruna declares that everything is for the show and its ratings, and kicks Mujoe into the air, landing him upside-down in the pilot's seat of the UFO as the cockpit closes around him. As the final "stage" is constructed, Haruna challenges the champion to clear this final battle. The UFO takes off into the air, and Haruna wishes Mujoe good luck as he fruitlessly bangs on the glass trying to escape.

Despite Mujoe's best efforts, the challenger soundly defeats him, and he is left screaming that he shouldn't have taken the hosting job, swearing revenge as the UFO explodes. With the victor declared, Haruna gives them their final ranking before ending the broadcast.

Playable characters

But where are Beartank, the Choro-Q cars, and...whatever the guy from Dual Heroes was named?

* Hidden character

Stages

* Hidden stage

Gameplay

Happy feet?! WOMBO COMBO! That ain't Falco! OH! OOOH! OOOH! WHERE YOU AT?! WHERE YOU AT?!

DreamMix TV World Fighters is best categorized as a platform fighter similar to games such as Super Smash Bros. and Brawlhalla. Up to four characters are able to battle simultaneously in free-for-all or team-based battles. Set on a 2D movement plane, characters can freely move about the arena, running and jumping from platform to platform or hanging from overhead bars to approach or escape their opponents. At the beginning of each match, coins bearing hearts will be released around the battlefield, and players must grab as many as they can before they all disappear. The characters' health is determined by the number of coins they have in their possession, with a meter at the bottom of the screen indicating which player currently has the most coins and how many are left in play.

Damage is dealt via basic attacks, throws, or a character-specific special move (such as Optimus or Megatron transforming into their alternate modes), which will knock coins out of the target and deplete their life. Most of the time, these coins will disappear instantly, but speedy players can sometimes retrieve some of them before they do, increasing their character's life. Characters can perform a dodge in midair and guard against attacks while on the ground; guarding won't protect against throws, but guarding non-projectile attacks at the moment of impact will deflect the blow, creating an opening to counterattack. Special events will sometimes occur that disrupt the battle, such as a power outage shutting off all the lights, a character getting a temporary magnet effect that draws in coins and souls, or stage-specific enemies appearing to attack combatants. A "Zako Egg" will occasionally spawn, which can be thrown at opponents to slow their movement and prevent them from attacking or defending. If left alone, the egg will instead hatch and produce one of three different creatures, which can either inflict damage or release more coins. If a player is hit after losing all their coins, they are knocked to the ground and enter a Super Pinch state. When this occurs, their KyaraDama, or Character Soul, is ejected from their body, leaving them shrunken and unable to do damage. If the player manages to retrieve their Soul, they will be restored to normal, albeit still without any coins and vulnerable to attack. If another player grabs the Soul first, however, the Soulless player is eliminated from the match, though they can still move about the arena and cause interference. The last player standing after all others have been eliminated is the winner.

The game features three different gameplay modes. The first mode, World Fighters, is a single-player arcade/story mode, in which each character participates in six different battles against other fighters before a seventh match against Mujoe; the sequence of opponents and stages is predetermined based on which character the player selects. During World Fighters, the show's ratings start at 20% and will increase if the player uses combos and special attacks, and decrease if the player is is inactive. If the ratings reach 0%, the player immediately loses the match. Upon completion, the game awards a ranking from D to A based on the average ratings of all seven battles; obtaining 100% ratings in any match will automatically guarantee an A rank. The second mode, KyaraDama Survival, is a basic multiplayer versus mode in which one to four players can battle against each other or CPU-controlled opponents. The third mode, Caravan, consists of eight score-based single-player challenges, such as collecting multiple Souls or defusing bombs within a time limit; players are ranked based on their completion time or the points they have accrued at the end of the challenge. An additional Library mode allows players to view unlockable character and stage profiles and sample their associated music tracks.

DreamMix TV features multiple unlockables earned through World Fighters mode, including characters, stages, and profiles in the Library mode. When playing for the first time, six characters and five stages are inaccessible, consisting of two of each from each company (excluding Takara, which has only one locked stage). The unlock method is the same for each pair of characters: the first is unlocked after beating World Fighters with one character from that company, while the second is unlocked by beating the mode with all of that company's characters, including the first unlockable. In turn, beating World Fighters with each of these hidden characters (with the exception of Asuka) will unlock one of the hidden stages. New character profiles are unlocked after finishing that character's World Fighters campaign, while stage profiles are unlocked by finishing different characters' World Fighters campaigns with an A rank; the final stage profile, "Mujoe on Stage", requires earning an A rank with every character.

Notes

Transformers references

• Optimus and Megatron's player models are visibly modelled using their G1 toys as reference, and are proportioned to match said toys. As a result, there is great attention to detail in terms of the color schemes used for their alternate costumes, featuring some obscure deco choices.

It's a very exclusive club.

Optimus Prime:

• Regular (red, blue)
• Diaclone Powered Convoy/Ultra Magnus Movie Preview Version (blue, black)
• JAF-CON Black Convoy (black, black)
• Shining Ultra Magnus (light yellow, black with orange tint)

In spite of having two Ultra Magnus-inspired color schemes, he always calls up his regular trailer (colored accordingly) regardless.

Little does the crowd know they are cheering on their destroyer. Hah.

Megatron:

• Regular (silver chrome, red)
• Japanese first release/Megaplex (flat gray, blue)
• Gold (gold, gold)
• e-HOBBY Black Megatron (silver chrome, black)

Mmm. G2-y.

• Besides appearances by Optimus Prime and Megatron, Devastator is the focus of a stage, the battle taking place on scaffolding surrounding him. It's not explicitly stated, but the name of the background music, "Intrusion! Destron Secret Base" (侵入！デストロン秘密基地 Shin'nyū! Desutoron Himitsu Kichi), makes it clear that this is one of the Decepticons' hidden bases. While not very interesting on its own, Devastator is in his Generation 2 colors — a version of the toy that Japan did not get.
• For their profile pictures in the Library mode, Optimus, Megatron and Devastator all use their original Generation 1 package art, as well as photographs of their original toys.

Real-world references

• Caravan mode, which features multiple score-based challenges, is a reference to the "Hudson All-Japan Caravan Festival", a video game competition held annually by Hudson from 1985 to 2000 where players competed to achieve the best score in a given game within a time limit. Similar timed score attack modes had previously been implemented in other Hudson games for use in these competitions, most prominently in the Star Soldier series, though no such competition was ever held for DreamMix TV.

Trivia

• To offer some real-world context for this game's existence, at the time of its release, Konami owned over 20 million shares of Takara stock and was in the process of acquiring Hudson. Given this knowledge, it's likely that DreamMix TV World Fighters was created as a means of generating interest in all three companies' IPs, and thus, in companies in whom Konami had a financial investment. Konami ultimately sold their Takara shares to Index Holdings in April 2005 due to Takara's underperformance the previous year; Takara would announce their merger with Tomy only a month later.^[2]
• Upon release, DreamMix TV World Fighters received mixed critical reception, with particular criticism leveled at the character balance (we're looking at you, Licca-chan). However, the game sold well enough to be reprinted under Hudson's "The Best" line of budget releases on March 31, 2005.
• Both Tesshō Genda and Seizō Katō, the original Japanese voice actors for Optimus Prime and Megatron in Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers, reprise their respective roles. For Seizō Katō, it would be the final time he performed as Megatron, retiring from the role in 2007 and passing away in 2014.
• For unknown reasons, the arrangements of certain music tracks in the game differ slightly between the GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions of the game.
• To facilitate quick transformations between Optimus and Megatron's modes, parts of their robot and alternate mode models are stored inside one another, with a bright flash used to hide the movement of these pieces during the transformation sequence. For example, clipping through Optimus's robot model reveals the decals of his trailer hidden within his chest.^[2]
• As part of a launch promotion during its first two months of release, customers who purchased the game from Ito-Yokado, JUSCO/AEON, or Hello Mac stores received a World Fighters alarm clock, though these were allegedly of very poor quality and prone to breaking quickly, resulting in very few surviving to the modern day. During this period, players could also enter a sweepstakes by finding a secret code in the game's manual and writing it on a postcard from these stores; five grand prize winners received a Sharp Aquos LCD TV, while 100 runners up received their choice of Momotarō Dentetsu 12, Jikkyō Powerful Pro Yakyū 10, or The Transformers.

References

External links

• DreamMix TV World Fighters at Wikipedia