Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix

Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, released in Japan as Pocket Fighter (ポケットファイター, Pocket Fighter^?), is a fighting game released by Capcom in September 1997 for the CP System 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" chibi character designs previously used in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. 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.

Gameplay[]

In addition to the standard fighting, there are various gems (similar to the ones seen in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo) that 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 always starts with the ice orb, while Ryu starts with the lightning orb). There are also treasure chests, and item carriers, which both contain items, and food that restores the player's health.

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 character's remaining 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. Players can also perform Mega Crushes (which costs one stock of the Mighty Combo gauge and emptys the Gem Gauges) that can also be done in midair, in which all of the collected gems shoot out of their character and damage the enemy, as well as Counter Crushes, where the character rolls across the screen while attacking.

Each character has animated stock icons on the interface. Throughout the battle, the stock icon emotions for a character will change from happy, to sad, to surprised (only happens if a character is K.O.ed, or has lost a round via Time Over). All fighters normally start with three stock icons at the beginning of a match.

The three sub-bars at the bottom corners of the screen are the Gem Gauges, which displays the level of three of the character's 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 for additional effects.

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 for added humor. 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" (inspired by the Plasma Combo system derived from Star Gladiator), 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. These combos are usually just for fun, and will cause a character to change into various costumes during the sequence (except for Ryu, who uses weaponry instead for two of his Flash/Costume Combos), and perform a powerful, and humorous 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 cosplays of other Capcom characters. For example, Chun-Li might turn into her version of Jill from Resident Evil, while Felicia may turn into her version of Mega Man, or other Darkstalkers characters not playable in the main game.

The in-game 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. In the Playstation 2 Alpha Anthology version of the game, there is a hidden mode, called Random Survival, which has a system similar to Running Battle, and an hidden battle mode, in which characters can be randomly selected from preset characters and played endlessly are present. In Ramdom Survival, the BGM of Running Battle is played instead of the normal stage music. In the secret Hidden Battle mode, the battle theme set for each character is played instead of the normal stage's music. Each character's set theme are all from previously released Capcom games. For example, Zangief's is from Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Tessa's is from Red Earth, Ibuki's is from Street Fighter III: New Generation, and others will vary depending on the chosen character. The character will be the battle theme for the AC version of Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo.

Playable characters[]

Street Fighter characters[]

Sprite	Character	Notes
	Ryu (Street Fighter)	Ryu searches for Tessa who may know a new challenge for him. Tessa sends him to battle Hauzer as his next challenge. In gameplay, his attacks have lightning-themed elements and is the only Gem Fighter who uses normal combos rather than "costume combos". Unlike in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo where he used his Street Fighter Alpha design, his appearance was changed to resemble his Street Fighter III design, but the character setting is close to that of the Street Fighter III and Street Fighter Alpha games.
	Ken (Street Fighter)	Ken grows a bit bored with married life, and is looking for a pretty girl to have tea with. He eventually finds Morrigan and has tea with her until Eliza sees Ken with her. In gameplay, his attacks have fire-themed elements. Unlike in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo where he used his Street Fighter Alpha design, his appearance was changed to resemble his Street Fighter III design, but his character setting is similar to Street Fighter Alpha 2.
	Zangief (Street Fighter II)	Zangief seeks to convince Felicia to perform a concert in Russia.
	Chun-Li (Street Fighter II)	Chun-Li 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. Her face was re-drawn from Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo for her Gem Fighter appearance.
	Sakura (Street Fighter Alpha 2)	Sakura finds her idol Ryu. Ryu agrees to train her if she can defeat him and ends up training her during the summer.
	Ibuki (Street Fighter III)	The only Street Fighter III character playable in this game, though several others make cameo appearances. Ibuki decides to take a personal trip to Tokyo in order to try out and enjoy some ice cream in Harajuku. Upon facing off against and defeating Sakura from within a fight, the latter 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.

"Mini Mix" characters[]

Sprite	Character	Notes
	Morrigan (Darkstalkers)	Morrigan tries to find Chun-Li to prove she is the most attractive. However, when she won the battle she considers herself as the most powerful and attractive 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.
	Hsien-Ko AKA Lei-Lei in Japan (Darkstalkers' Revenge)	She and her sister Mei-Ling (Lin Lin in this game) are searching for Zangief who is offering a part-time job.
	Felicia (Darkstalkers)	Felicia looks for Ken who has contacts in the movie industry.
	Tessa AKA Tabasa in Japan (Red Earth)	Tessa goes in search of a magic wand that Hsien-Ko owns. However, when she gets the magical scepter, discovers that it has transformed her into a penguin.

"Secret" characters[]

• There are no requirements to unlock these characters, they are simply not visible on the character select screen until the cursor is moved over their portrait.

Sprite	Character	Notes
	Dan (Street Fighter Alpha)	Dan is looking for students to start a new school. He finds Sakura as his first student. She leaves him after three days stating she has learned all she can and that his techniques are worthless. He appears by going on the empty space at the top right hand corner. An interesting trait of Dan is that all of his attacks produce only red gems, making it extremely difficult to power up his Koryuken or Dankukyaku. This trait is probably carried over from Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, where Dan's gem pattern was only red gems as well.
	Akuma AKA Gouki in Japan (Super Street Fighter II Turbo)	Akuma is on the lookout for a new location to practice his skills after his island is turned into an exclusive leisure resort. In gameplay, his attacks have smoke-themed elements. His design is heavily based on Street Fighter Alpha, but with an in-game belt sprite design and inherits animations' fluidities (as evident by his Gohadoken) from Street Fighter III. Hsien-Ko takes him to an abandoned graveyard in the middle of a lush forest, telling him that he can practice his skills on the zombies that come out at night. He appears by going on the empty space at the top left hand corner.

Support characters[]

The characters may float on a magic cloud through the upper reaches of the stage and, if hit, drop items. All characters are from the SonSon arcade game, except for Kaminari.

Cameo appearances[]

This lists all Capcom characters that appeared in the game as themselves, or at least an item that is affiliated or referenced to him/her.

Stages[]

• Dee Jay's Bar "Maximum" - A bar which is named after Dee Jay, which is run by him and June Lin Milliam. In addition to E. Honda and Cammy, characters from various Street Fighter series titles such as Guile and Nash are watching, among other Capcom characters. The stage's BGM is a catchy jazzy tune with the BPM of 113.98. This is the last stage of Felicia's story.

• Toy Shop "Dhalsim" - A street area at night, with a toy shop owned by Dhalsim. The atmosphere and decorations indicate that the Christmas season is nearby, with Blodia seen to have a large Santa Claus hat on in the background, and passing characters like Balrog and a child like Cammy wanting the toys and games advertised in the window displays. The stage's BGM is an upbeat catchy tune with the BPM of 127.46. This is the last stage in Ibuki's story.

• Ski Resort "La Menkoi" - A stage set in a ski resort at wintertime. There are many characters who enjoy the resort, such as Yun and Yang who enjoy snowboarding, M. Bison who enjoys sledging with a big smile, and Sodom and Bishamon who eat rice cakes in the igloo. The stage's BGM is a happy catchy tune with the BPM of 138.80. The final stage of Hsien-Ko's story.

• Beach House "Safrill" - A Brazilian beach stage with a hut. Set in a rented float shop run by Blanka. The atmosphere of the stage is similar to the Brazil stage of Street Fighter II. Characters such as the camera man who appeared on the Brazilian stage of SFII including Blanka, Dhalsim, Sally, and Elena eating shaved ice cream. There is Sagat's Buddha statue in the back. The stage's BGM is a catchy beach tune with the BPM of 130.52. The final stage of Chun-Li and Sakura's stories.

• Gen's Restaurant "Daihanjyo" - A chinese resturant owned by Gen. Capcom's Japanese corporate building is depicted in the background, partially obscured by trees. Fei Long, Victor, Vega, Sodom, Birdie, and Guy will appear. The stage's BGM is a catchy chinese tune at the BPMs of 100.19 at the start, and 134.81 at tempo change. The final stage of Morrigan and Dan's stories.

• Tessa's Den - Set in Tessa's home in Ice Larn, a northern country that appears in Red Earth. Characters such as Felicia, Leo and Lilith are relaxing in their own way. Felicia and Lilith appearing in the background will disappear from the stage if they are being used. (Lilith will disappear if Morrigan is used). The number of cameos is less than the other stages. The stage's BGM is a catchy remix of "Magic Square", Tessa's theme from Red Earth at the BPM of 178.63. The final stage of Ryu's story.

• Moonlight Dark Castle - A stage set in a cave area in the demon realm of the Makai, which is the home of the Darkstalkers' warring lords. Jon Talbain is howling at the huge full moon. The stage with the fewest characters. The final stage of Akuma and Tessa's stories. BGM is a catchy upbeat tune with the BPM of 119.19 and shares a similar BGM identical to Demitri's Moving Mansion.

• Demitri's Moving Mansion - A mansion in the demon world where Demitri and his relatives move into a new residence. He slips on the floor, and there is Jedah who is in his Midnight Bliss form. The final stage of Zangief and Ken's stories. BGM is a catchy upbeat tune at the BPM of 125.32 and shares a similar BGM identical to Moonlight Dark Castle.

• Desert Fields (Running Battle Stage) - A dedicated stage in "Running Battle" mode that is exclusive to the Sega Saturn and Playstation versions. It is set in the ruins of a desert area which is a continuous stage with intervals (battle points). The stage's BGM is an upbeat catchy tune named "Never give up", composed by Isao Abe.

Development[]

After Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo was released, development on the game began, as it is a children's game for the light-hearted. Some of the art designers that worked on Puzzle Fighter returned for Gem Fighter to work on the designs for the story and stage backgrounds, characters, and objects that were used in the game. The illustrations were done by Shima Maeda, with some minor artwork by Edayan.^{[citation needed]}

The game's original musical score is composed by Yoshino Aoki, as well as Isao Abe, Yuki Iwai and Setsuo Yamamoto, and the sound design for the game is done by Satoshi Ise, Ryoji, and Hiroshi Ohno. Additional sound design for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn ports was done by Nariyuki Nobuyama and More Rich. Norihiko Togashi did the sound design and music for the Wonderswan version.^{[citation needed]}

The primary themes for the game's music are a mix of catchy tunes and themes that would fit well for it (the Wonderswan version uses chiptune variants of the music). Additional music was scored for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions. The soundtrack album for the game was released on December 17, 1997 in Japan, and the remixed soundtrack album was released on September 18, 1998 in Japan, which includes the music from the Playstation and Sega Saturn versions of the game, and the soundtrack for Capcom Sports Club.^{[citation needed]}

The PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions of the game add in additional modes like Character Edit and Running Battle Mode, while the Wonderswan version adds in "Point Battle" where the results are evaluated by points when clearing, and "Card Fighter" which fights using cards of normal and special moves are included.

Trivia[]

• This is the only Capcom fighting game that includes more playable female characters than male.

• This is also the only Capcom CPS-II fighting game to have the gameplay tips on the Continue Screen translated into English for the international versions of the game, as Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, the Marvel vs. Capcom series, and the Street Fighter series all don't have gameplay tips on the Continue Screen in non-Japanese versions of those games.

• All of the game's cutscenes have additional voice acting in the Japanese version, but this was removed in the international versions of the game.

• All characters have disguise forms in-game except for Ryu who can only change weaponry and wears large Geta sandals (both wooden, and metal) to knock his opponent away.

• The design of the collectible gems are based on the block of the same name (normal gem and Power Gem) used in Puzzle Fighter, but the green gems don't appear due to the amount total of three moves for each Gem Fighter.

• The game's internal working title was Street Fighter Kids, which meant that this game was originally going to only have characters from the Street Fighter series as it's name suggests (this concept was later used for Fever Street Fighter II), but during development, characters from other Capcom games were added in, thus dropping the original working title completely.

• There are some interesting and amusing animations for some of the characters if the controller is put down and/or they are left undisturbed: Chun-Li grows tired and goes to sleep, Felicia twitches and scratches behind her ear, and Dan will do something strange with his eyebrows. These animations are more likely to occur in mirror matches (Chun-Li vs. Chun-Li, Felicia vs. Felicia, etc.).

• This game uses comical cartoon-like sound effects from Warner Bros., Hanna-Babera, Hollywoodedge Cartoon Trax, and Sound Ideas at certain times (such as when Flash Combos hit on impact, or when Gems pop out of the character, etc...).

• One of this game's Mighty Combo Finish backgrounds is based on the Japanese painting "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Hokusai, which has been described as "possibly the most reproduced image in the history of all art".

• In the Wonderswan port, due to the monochrome screen, Gems are distinguished by shape rather than color. Gems are the shapes of ■ (square, corresponding to red), ◆ (diamond, yellow), and ● (circle, blue). There are also no items, and all characters don't have any in-game dialogue.

• Since this game, the throw command by pressing the Punch and Kick buttons at the same time has been used in many Capcom fighting games such as Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Capcom Fighting Evolution, and Street Fighter IV.

• Two mobile-only spin-offs based on this game, Solitier Fighter and Poker Fighter were released for cellphones in 2003 in Japan only. Also, on Capcom's mobile phone site "Capcom Party," several app games using the deformed characters of this work are distributed.

• In Namco x Capcom, "Flash Combo", which is the combo system of this game, is used as a special move of Sylphie from Forgotten Worlds, and she cosplays as outfits of Capcom female characters (such as Michelle Heart, Mai-Ling and Makoto) like in this game. In addition, Moonlight Dark Castle is also used as a background in the story.

• This game was adapted as part of UDON's one-shot comic, Street Fighter: Sakura vs. Karin for Free Comic Book Day in 2019, which features some references to this game in it.

• In the PlayStation 2 port of Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix in Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, there are many BGM tracks from a few Capcom games that are located in the sound adjustment section in the Options menu. Mainly character battle themes from Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo for Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Sakura, Morrigan, Felicia, Hsien-Ko, Dan, and Akuma. Ibuki's theme, "Sharp Eyes" from Street Fighter III: New Generation, Zangief's theme from Marvel Vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, and Tessa's theme, "Magic Square" also known as "Tema de Tabasa" from Red Earth, also make it into the sound gallery. However none of these are used in game, or have yet to be proven they can be activated in-game as a nostalgic easter egg. The Running Battle music track "Never give up" from the Sega Saturn and PlayStation console release also shows up in the sound gallery and also goes either unused or yet to be proven to be able to activate in game.

Gallery[]

In the Playstation version the game is called Pocket Fighter, and it drops the "Mini Mix" suffix.

In most other American instances, the game is called "Super Gem Fighter: Mini MIx", as seen here from the PS2 Street Fighter Alpha Anthology version.

"No Mercy" is a common phrase of the game. It appears to be taken from the mid round quote from Red Earth.

Screenshot from the game introduction.

"No Mercy" being used pre-fight.

In the Playstation 1 version of Pocket Fighter a blue button indicator (seen here in the bottom right) appears when the player has to push a button to continue that is unique to this version. When a button is pressed a unique sound effect is played that is also exclusive to this version.

Character artworks[]

Dan

Chun-Li

Ibuki

Ken

Ryu

Sakura

Videos[]

Gem Fighter Intro

PS1 Pocket Fighter Attract Mode

Character introductions[]

Akuma Gem Fighter Intro

Gem Fighter Chun Li Intro

Dan Gem Fighter Intro

Felicia Gem Fighter Intro

Hsien Ko Gem Fighter Intro

Ibuki Gem Fighter Intro

Ken Intro Gem Fighter

Morrigan Gem Fighter Intro

Sakura Gem Fighter Intro

Tessa Gem Fighter Intro

Zangief Gem Fighter Intro

Character endings[]

Ibuki Gem Fighter Ending

Ken Pocket Fighter ending

Audio files[]

External links[]

• Wikipedia article
• Capcom Database article
• Sega Retro article