Cool archive footage features 1995 Sega Fighting Vipers cosplay tournament

Honey Pot

A delightful piece of archival footage has surfaced on YouTube, which shows Japanese cosplayers battling it out in a 1995 tournament on Sega’s Fighting Vipers. The footage appears as part of a Japanese gaming sho🧔w, and was uploaded to YouTube this week b🌠y user . before being spotted by the eagle-eye of history lover .

The brief feature, shot at the , sees various players competing on what was then Sega’s hottest release. Despite Fighting Vipers‘ varied and over-the-top cast of characters, it appears that almost everyone participating here has chosen to don the battle armor of cutesy femme Honey (or “Candy” in the international release).

I was super stoked to catch a fleeting glimpse of one woman who had chosen to cosplay my favorite character, Jane, but for the most part it’s quite clear who is Fighting Vipers breakout superstar… Oh, I don’t mean Honey… I’m talkin’ ’bout the Bad Boy rocking the obligatory leather jacket and ’90s “wet look”. Boy, we drowned ourselves in hair gel in those days. I hope he’s still playing fighting games.

Elsewhere in the episode, one can find footage of players queuing up to purchase Dragon Quest VI on the Super Famicom, a brief preview of Street Fighter Alpha 2, and footage of a group of middle-aged adults having a Virtua Fighter 2 house party… what is what I call Saturday night even in 2021.

Thanks to Kukun Kun for sharing this wonderfulಌ blast from the past.