Top Fighter 2000 - 16 bit Dream Crossover - Ryu Playthrough
2I hope you are all healthy & safe wherever you are in the World right now and whatever challenges you are facing.
Time Stamps:
00:00 Intro
00:17 Epic Game Intro
01:00 Character Select Screen
01:16 vs Michael Jordan
02:37 vs Geese Howard
03:19 vs Cyclops
04:14 vs Ryo
05:00 vs Muhammad Ali
05:47 vs Ryu (Mirror Match)
06:47 vs Goku
07:34 vs Kyo
08:30 End Screen
It's been a while since I revisited some Megadrive titles so here we go!
This is an old-school bootleg from back in the Day. Bootlegs usually either ported a game from another system - either a popular title that wasn't released or a downport from superior hardware. These could also be bootleg unofficial sequels to popular titles looking to catch the unaware out.
This is Top Fighter 2000 - MK VIII. I picked this up from a market in the early 2000's. It is the ultimate 16-bit Dream Match in many ways. Featuring 8 characters from 8 different franchises & even the real world. it features:
Ryu - from the Street fighter series (specifically Alpha/Zero here)
Cyclops - from the X-Men
Goku - from Dragon Ball Z
Ryo - from The Art of Fighting
Geese Howard - from Fatal Fury
Kyo - from King of Fighters
Muhammad Ali - from the real world
Michael Jordan - from the real world
Muhammad & Michael are represented with edited custom sprites from the King of Fighters.
While the game is clunky, a little slow & unresponsive & with limited moves & somewhat erratic hit detection & frame rate it is clear the bootleggers made a real effort with this as it features:
Ryu's Street Fighter Alpha/Zero sprite which wasn't ported to the Megadrive at this time
Custom Sprite Edits for Jordan & Ali
Kyo ported from King of Fighters (possibly Geese too or maybe from Fatal Fury Special?)
Cyclops looks ported from Children of the Atom
There is a fair amount of animation, the gameplay does kind of work, plenty of speech too. The backgrounds also have had a lot of effort with animation & parallax sometimes surpassing the original Megadrive game ports that they are derived from such as the Gears & the Mount Rushmore train stage.
Also see if you can hear the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers theme :-)
While it is clear it needed more development time & the gameplay is a little janky I've definitely played worse games that got officially released. Its definitely had more than the minimum effort put into it. It also has a super meter you build up with moves & special moves that while not perfect can be pulled off with enough practice.
I play through as Ryu here.
Enjoy!
I play it here on my CDX/MultiMega - the scanlines are added by a RetroTink as I normally play these games on a CRT but this is easier to capture.
Let me know what you think. Prefer videos with or without scanlines? Want to see footage recorded from a CRT screen (I have various screen from consumer sets to PVM's & a GDM)
As always - captured from genuine hardware in ths case a MultiMega/CDX although the cartridge is obviously an old school bootleg!
If you enjoy this video or want more content like this let me know.
As always this is uploaded under the Fair Use Policy - no money is being made from this video.
Stay strong, stay safe & stay healthy - Grey Fox