Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix
Encyclopedia
Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, released in Japan as , is a fighting game
released by Capcom
in September 1997
for the CPS II arcade system. It was ported
to the PlayStation (which retained the Pocket Fighter title for its American and European release), Sega Saturn
, and WonderSwan
, as well as PlayStation 2
as part of the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology
.
The game uses the same super deformed
character designs previously used in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
, a puzzle game by Capcom featuring their fighting game characters. The roster includes characters from Street Fighter Alpha, Darkstalkers, Street Fighter III
, and the CPS III arcade game Red Earth. It also features many cameos
from various Capcom games scattered in the background of the stages, such as Balrog
, Demitri, etc.
In addition to the standard fighting, there are various gems the player can collect during matches to power up their character (based on Red Earth), as well as elemental orbs which can be thrown to the opponent in a variety of angles (visually based on elemental hits in Darkstalkers), which may affect the opponent (turn into stone, freeze, etc.) Each character starts each match with one of these (Tessa, for example, always starts with the ice orb).
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 characters health and the second their ability to perform "Mighty Combos". The Mighty Combo gauge itself can be filled up to 9 stocks. Each Mighty Combo has a level assigned to it, which determines how many "Mighty Combo" gauges it will need.
The three sub-bars at the bottom corners of the screen displays the level of three of the characters 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 an attack connects to an opponent, gems pop out of him or her, and which can then be taken to power up the corresponding special moves.
There are four buttons: Punch, Kick, Special, and Taunt. The Special button performs 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 Special attack is charged. 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 2D fighting games, this includes special moves and Mighty Combos.
Gem Fighter also features "Flash Combos", or "Costume Combos", where the player can perform a combo by pressing the Kick or Punch button after striking their opponent with the Punch button for a total of four hits. Flash Combos will usually cause a character to change into various costumes during the sequence (except for Ryu), 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 cosplay
s of other Capcom characters. For example, Chun-Li
may turn into Jill Valentine
from Resident Evil
, 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 Special Button will make a fighter perform their Mighty Combo.
- An All-Around type character. He searches for Tessa who may know a new challenge for him. Tessa sends him to battle Hauzer as his next challenge. Ken
- He is an All-Around type character. Looking for a pretty girl to have tea with, Ken eventually finds Morrigan and has tea with her... until Eliza sees Ken with her and begins attacking him.
Zangief
- A Power type character. He seeks to convince Felicia to perform a concert in Russia. Chun-Li
- A Speed type character. She goes in search of a missing zoo animal and accidentally mistakes Felicia as the missing animal before apprehending her. At the end she learns of a missing entertainer (Felicia) and goes out in search of her. Sakura
- A Speed type character. Sakura finds her idol Ryu. Ryu agrees to train her if she can defeat him and ends up training her during the summer. Ibuki
- The only Street Fighter III Skill type character playable in this game, though several others make cameo appearances. Her character defeats Sakura in the end. Sakura reveals to Ibuki the location of the ice cream shop in Harajuku. While in Harajuku, Ibuki finds Guy and challenges him to a fight. Guy wins by treating her to a baked potato.
NOTE: Sakura does NOT appear during Ibuki's Ending
- A Skill type character. She tries to find Chun-Li to prove she is the most attractive. When she wins the battle she considers herself as the most attractive and powerful woman in the world. But soon afterwards, she discovers that Lilith is surrounded by many guys calling her "cute". She gets mad and returns to the castle in Makai promising revenge against Lilith.
NOTE: Chun-Li does NOT appear during Morrigan's Ending
Hsien-Ko (Lei-Lei in Japan) - She and her sister Mei-Ling (Lin Lin in this game) are searching for Zangief who is offering a part time job. She is a Speed type character. Felicia
- Felicia looks for Ken who has contacts in the movie industry. She is a Speed type character.
- An All-Around type character. Dan is looking for students to start a new school. He finds Sakura as his first student. She leaves him after three days and writes him a letter saying that she's already mastered everything he'd need to teach her and that his moves look idiotic in addition to being worthless in a fight. She ends the letter calling him a loser and Dan begins to cry.
Akuma
(Gouki in Japan) - A Power type character and "secret" boss character. Akuma is on the lookout for a new location to practice his skills after his island is turned into an amusement park. Hsien-Ko takes him to an abandoned graveyard in the middle of a forest, telling him that he can practice his skills on the zombies that come out at night.
Fighting game
Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...
released by Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
in September 1997
1997 in video gaming
-Events:*October 4 — Gunpei Yokoi dies after a double car accident.*November – Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association launched.*3rd annual E3...
for the CPS II arcade system. It was ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
to the PlayStation (which retained the Pocket Fighter title for its American and European release), Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
, and WonderSwan
WonderSwan
was a line of handheld game consoles produced in Japan by Bandai between 1999 and 2003. It was developed by the late Gunpei Yokoi's company Koto and Bandai...
, as well as PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
as part of the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, released in Japan as Street Fighter Zero: Fighters Generation, is a fighting game compilation that collects the Street Fighter Alpha series...
.
The game uses the same super deformed
Super deformed
Super deformed or SD is a specific style of Japanese caricature where characters are drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby, with stubby limbs and oversized heads, to make them resemble small children...
character designs previously used in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, released in Japan as and commonly referred to as Puzzle Fighter, is a one or two player puzzle game first released in the spring of 1996 by Capcom on the CPS II arcade system...
, a puzzle game by Capcom featuring their fighting game characters. The roster includes characters from Street Fighter Alpha, Darkstalkers, Street Fighter III
Street Fighter III
is a fighting game in Capcom's Street Fighter series, originally released as coin-operated arcade game in . Street Fighter III was produced for the CD-ROM-based CP System III hardware, which allowed for more elaborate 2D graphics than the CPS II-based Street Fighter Alpha games , while revamping...
, and the CPS III arcade game Red Earth. It also features many cameos
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
from various Capcom games scattered in the background of the stages, such as Balrog
Balrog (Street Fighter)
Balrog is a character from the Street Fighter fighting game series.Balrog is depicted as an African American boxer wearing blue trunks with white trim and a torn white shirt under a blue tank top. He wears red boxing gloves and boxing shoes...
, Demitri, etc.
Gameplay
There are two bars and three sub-bars in the interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
. The two main bars are the life bar and the super bar, the first indicates the characters health and the second their ability to perform "Mighty Combos". The Mighty Combo gauge itself can be filled up to 9 stocks. Each Mighty Combo has a level assigned to it, which determines how many "Mighty Combo" gauges it will need.
The three sub-bars at the bottom corners of the screen displays the level of three of the characters 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 an attack connects to an opponent, gems pop out of him or her, and which can then be taken to power up the corresponding special moves.
There are four buttons: Punch, Kick, Special, and Taunt. The Special button performs 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 Special attack is charged. 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 2D fighting games, this includes special moves and Mighty Combos.
Gem Fighter also features "Flash Combos", or "Costume Combos", where the player can perform a combo by pressing the Kick or Punch button after striking their opponent with the Punch button for a total of four hits. Flash Combos will usually cause a character to change into various costumes during the sequence (except for Ryu), 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 cosplay
Cosplay
, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction...
s of other Capcom characters. For example, Chun-Li
Chun-Li
is a video game character produced by Capcom. First introduced in Street Fighter II, she has since appeared as a player character in nearly all subsequent games....
may turn into Jill Valentine
Jill Valentine
is a fictional character in the Resident Evil survival horror series by Capcom.Jill is one of the two protagonists of the original Resident Evil game, where she was introduced as a member of the Raccoon Police Department's Special Tactics And Rescue Service , trapped in a secret research complex of...
from Resident Evil
Resident Evil (video game)
Resident Evil, known as in Japan, is a survival horror video game by Capcom. The first installment in the Resident Evil series, it was originally released in 1996 for the PlayStation and was subsequently ported to the Sega Saturn and PC. In 2002, a remake of the game was released for the Nintendo...
, while Felicia
Felicia (Darkstalkers)
is a fictional character in the Darkstalkers series of fighting game by Capcom She first appeared in the 1994 game Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors and its subsequent sequels, later appearing in other Capcom games outside of the Darkstalkers series and related media and merchandise.-Conception and...
may turn into Mega Man
Mega Man (character)
Mega Man, known as in Japan, is a cybernetic video game character, and the main protagonist of what has been referred to as the original Mega Man series developed by Capcom since 1987. The pixel art for the character was created by the designer of the original game in the series, credited under...
or other Darkstalkers characters not playable in the game.
The commands are also very easy compared to the Street Fighter
Street Fighter
, commonly abbreviated as SF, is a series of Fighting Games developed in Japan in which the players pit the video games' competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own unique fighting style, against one another...
series, thanks to Special button. By doing a motion (for example: qcf or hcf) and pressing Special Button will make a fighter perform their Mighty Combo.
Street Fighter characters
RyuRyu (Street Fighter)
is a video game player character created by Capcom, the main protagonist of the Street Fighter series. Having premiered in the first Street Fighter in 1987, Ryu appears as the lead character from the game along with his best friend Ken Masters participating in the Street Fighter tournament...
- An All-Around type character. He searches for Tessa who may know a new challenge for him. Tessa sends him to battle Hauzer as his next challenge. Ken
Ken Masters
, originally spelled in Japanese as , is a video game character created by Capcom. As a main character, he has appeared in all of the Street Fighter games along with his best friend and rival, Ryu...
- He is an All-Around type character. Looking for a pretty girl to have tea with, Ken eventually finds Morrigan and has tea with her... until Eliza sees Ken with her and begins attacking him.
ZangiefZangief
is a fictional character in the Street Fighter series of video games. Created by Akira Yasuda for Capcom, Zangief first appeared in Street Fighter II, later appearing in other games, media, and promotions related to the Street Fighter franchise...
- A Power type character. He seeks to convince Felicia to perform a concert in Russia. Chun-Li
Chun-Li
is a video game character produced by Capcom. First introduced in Street Fighter II, she has since appeared as a player character in nearly all subsequent games....
- A Speed type character. She goes in search of a missing zoo animal and accidentally mistakes Felicia as the missing animal before apprehending her. At the end she learns of a missing entertainer (Felicia) and goes out in search of her. Sakura
Sakura Kasugano
is a player character in the Street Fighter series of fighting games. Sakura is portrayed in the series as a young Japanese schoolgirl who idolizes Ryu, whom she wants to be trained by.-In video games:...
- A Speed type character. Sakura finds her idol Ryu. Ryu agrees to train her if she can defeat him and ends up training her during the summer. Ibuki
Ibuki (Street Fighter)
is a video game character from the Street Fighter fighting game series. She along with Elena were the lone female characters in the Street Fighter III series, until 3rd Strike, where they were joined by Makoto and Chun-Li...
- The only Street Fighter III Skill type character playable in this game, though several others make cameo appearances. Her character defeats Sakura in the end. Sakura reveals to Ibuki the location of the ice cream shop in Harajuku. While in Harajuku, Ibuki finds Guy and challenges him to a fight. Guy wins by treating her to a baked potato.
NOTE: Sakura does NOT appear during Ibuki's Ending
Darkstalkers characters
MorriganMorrigan Aensland
is a video game character from the Darkstalkers series of fighting games developed by Capcom. She is voiced by Yayoi Jinguji in many of her video game appearances, except in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds where she was voiced by Rie Tanaka....
- A Skill type character. She tries to find Chun-Li to prove she is the most attractive. When she wins the battle she considers herself as the most attractive and powerful woman in the world. But soon afterwards, she discovers that Lilith is surrounded by many guys calling her "cute". She gets mad and returns to the castle in Makai promising revenge against Lilith.
NOTE: Chun-Li does NOT appear during Morrigan's Ending
Hsien-Ko (Lei-Lei in Japan) - She and her sister Mei-Ling (Lin Lin in this game) are searching for Zangief who is offering a part time job. She is a Speed type character. Felicia
Felicia (Darkstalkers)
is a fictional character in the Darkstalkers series of fighting game by Capcom She first appeared in the 1994 game Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors and its subsequent sequels, later appearing in other Capcom games outside of the Darkstalkers series and related media and merchandise.-Conception and...
- Felicia looks for Ken who has contacts in the movie industry. She is a Speed type character.
Red Earth characters
Tessa (Tabasa in Japan) - Tessa goes in search of a magic wand that Hsien-Ko owns. However, when she gets the magical scepter, she discovers that it belongs to Anakaris' Trading Company, & has transformed her into a penguin. Like Ibuki, she is the only Red Earth Skill type character playable in the game, though there are a few cameos: Leo sitting in Tessa's chair at her den, Tessa can transform into a Hauzer-like dragon as one of her Supers, and she uses Mai-Ling as both a companion and human shield."Secret" characters
DanDan Hibiki
is a video game character from Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games. Introduced in Street Fighter Alpha, Dan is consistently portrayed as an arrogant, overconfident, yet utterly feeble character.-Concept and creation:...
- An All-Around type character. Dan is looking for students to start a new school. He finds Sakura as his first student. She leaves him after three days and writes him a letter saying that she's already mastered everything he'd need to teach her and that his moves look idiotic in addition to being worthless in a fight. She ends the letter calling him a loser and Dan begins to cry.
Akuma
Akuma (Street Fighter)
Akuma known in Japan as , is a video game character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games. Akuma made his debut in Super Street Fighter II Turbo as a secret character and hidden boss. In the storyline of the Street Fighter video games, he is the younger brother of Gouken, Ryu and Ken's...
(Gouki in Japan) - A Power type character and "secret" boss character. Akuma is on the lookout for a new location to practice his skills after his island is turned into an amusement park. Hsien-Ko takes him to an abandoned graveyard in the middle of a forest, telling him that he can practice his skills on the zombies that come out at night.