Survival Arts

Survival Arts (サバイバルアーツ) is a 1993 fighting arcade game developed by Scarab and published by Sammy (now Sega Sammy Holdings after buying Sega while merging with them). Its use of digitized images of real actors with blood and gore within the game, is clearly inspired by Midway's Mortal Kombat franchise when it comes to presentation. A Genesis/Mega Drive port was developed, but never released. Some background characters from the arcade game later appeared in Dyna Gear, another arcade game developed by Sekarabe and published by Sammy.

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

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 has a character roster of eight fighters to choose from the start, each with their own fighting style and special techniques. In one player mode, after selecting a character, the arcade starts with Mongo. The opponent order goes in a certain order (depending on the chosen character) and always leaves the final boss Dantel last. One unique feature is that some weapons fall and become available for players to pick up and use against the opponent, which was later popularized in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series.

Characters
There are six playable characters to choose from the start and three to unlock, for a total of nine.


 * Viper (ヴァイパー)(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.
 * Gunner (ガンナー)(actor: Brian Creech) - A former police officer who noticed that Dantel isn't a human being. Gunner smuggles himself into the Survival Arts tournament to defeat and reveal the secret of Dantel.
 * Mongo (マンゴ)(actor: Handa David) - A former military soldier who knows how to fight efficiently and considers fighting to be worth living with.
 * Tashia (ターシャ)(actor: Saskia) - A member of the kunoichi's group, "Cobra Faction", enters the Survival Arts tournament to learn how to fight against a rival faction, "The Tigers".
 * Kane (ケイン)(actor: Hideaki Takahashi) - An extraterrestrial specie who feels that the Survival Arts tournament will earn him a place on planet Earth. Due to his life of suffering gain strength in the world of human beings, he tries to free himself from it.
 * Santana (サンタナ)(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.
 * Hiryu (ヒリュウ)(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.
 * Hanna (ハンナ)(actor: Monica Brown) - A female warrior from a desert who's family was slaughtered by a messenger. She decides to enter the Survival Arts tournament to retaliate for the messenger's murdering.
 * Dantel (ダンテル) (actor: Sam Rodetsky) - The antagonist of the game and founder of Survival Arts. A shape-shifter who can turn into other characters. In order to become more immortal, he must eat the flesh of strong humans. Instead of choosing to be a successor, he has made his followers fight against each other.