Survival Arts

Survival Arts (サバイバルアーツ, Sabaibaru Ātsu) is a 1993 fighting arcade game developed by Scarab and published by Sammy. It uses digitized images of real actors with blood and gore, similar to Midway's arcade hit Mortal Kombat.

North American arcade flyer of Survival Arts.
Developer(s)Scarab
Publisher(s)Sammy
Designer(s)Mutsuo Kaneko (director)[1]
Yoshio Asai (programmer)[1]
Nobuhiho Ikeuchi (photography)[1]
Composer(s)Shigeyuki Shinbo[1]
Platform(s)Arcade
ReleaseOctober 1993
Genre(s)Fighting game
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Ports for the Super NES and Sega Genesis were announced in early 1994, but quietly cancelled the following year.[2][3] The monks from Viper's stage later appeared in Dyna Gear, another arcade game developed by Scarab and published by Sammy.

Gameplay

Survival Arts is quite similar to Midway's Mortal Kombat franchise in terms of presentation, but with gameplay inspired by Capcom's Street Fighter II. The player's character fights against his or her opponent in best two-out-of-three matches in a single player tournament mode with the computer or against another human player. Players have a character roster of eight fighters to choose from the start, each with their own fighting style and special techniques. One unique feature is that players can pick up multiple weapons (from swords to guns) that are dropped on stage and use against the opponent. Depending on what move or weapon the player uses as the last hit against the opponent while it knocks him or her out, the defeated opponent will either be burned, disassembled, sliced in half in two different ways, decapitated or electrocuted, which is as simple as performing deaths in Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior. While combos can be performed in the game, they can end with a death, which makes it a precursor to the "Brutalities" in Mortal Kombat 3 and some of its successors.

Plot

The birthplace of the powerful physical martial arts called "Survival Arts" and how they were earned became mysterious for quite some time. However, eight warriors spreading over different countries have learned some of the most important skills of the Survival Arts, while they continue learning more about them. Each one qualified for the Survival Arts tournament to see which survivor will win and obtain all the secrets of the Arts.

Characters

There are nine characters in the game.

  • Viper (ヴァイパー, Vaipā) (actor: Jon Walter) - The protagonist of the game. A rich martial artist who enters the Survival Arts tournament to earn enough money to build his own dojo. He is always the eighth character the player faces in the game.
  • Gunner (ガンナー, Gannā) (actor: Brian Creech) - A former police officer who noticed that Dantel is not a human being. Gunner smuggles himself into the Survival Arts tournament to defeat and reveal the secret of Dantel. He is always the sixth character the player faces in the game.
  • Mongo (マンゴ, Mango) (actor: Kanda David) - A former military soldier who knows how to fight efficiently and considers fighting to be worth living with. He is always the first character the player faces in the game.
  • Tashia (ターシャ, Tāsha) (actress: Saskia) - A member of the ninja group "Cobra Faction", she enters the Survival Arts tournament to learn how to fight against a rival faction, "The Tigers". She is always the fifth character the player faces in the game.
  • Kane (ケイン, Kein) (actor: Hideaki Takahashi) - An extraterrestrial who feels that the Survival Arts tournament will earn him a place on planet Earth. Due to a life of suffering in the world of human beings, he tries to gain strength for his two children. He is always the second character the player faces in the game.
  • Santana (サンタナ, Santana) (actor: Hose Brand) - An evil professional wrestler who decides to enter the Survival Arts tournament to make himself stronger, although he feels he came up to his limit. He is always the third character the player faces in the game.
  • Hiryu (ヒリュウ, Hiryū) (actor: Takeaki Katoh) - Like Tashia, Hiryu is part of the "Cobra Faction" group and tries to learn how to fight against his rivals, "The Tigers", by entering the Survival Arts tournament. He is always the seventh character the player faces in the game.
  • Hanna (ハンナ, Hanna) (actress: Monica Brown) - A female warrior from the desert whose family got murdered by a messenger. She decides to enter the Survival Arts tournament to retaliate for the messenger's murdering. She is always the fourth character the player faces in the game
  • Dantel (ダンテル, Danteru) (actor: Sam Radetsky) - The founder of the Survival Arts. In order to become immortal, he must eat the flesh of strong humans. Instead of choosing a successor, he has made his followers fight against each other. He is always the ninth and final character the player faces in the game. Unlike the other eight characters, he can only be played by CPU.

References
  1. Opening credits of Survival Arts. Retrieved on 09-20-2009.
  2. LaMancha, Manny (February 1994). "Hot At The Arcades: Survival Arts (By American Sammy)". GamePro. No. 56. IDG. p. 33.
  3. A. Navarro, Nathan A.; Lee, Bruised; Brady, Jim; Devon, Doctor (February 1996). "Cart Queries". GamePro. No. 89. IDG. p. 13.
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