Gingo Fighting Royale

Gingo Fighting Royale is a crossover fighting video game developed and published by Universal Interactive for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows. The first installment in the Fighting Royale series, it was first released in North America and Europe in late 2002, followed by Japan in early 2003. The game is a crossover between several Gingo properties, including Gabriel Garza, Hatty, Funky Fu! Pop Star Fighter, Niz Chicoloco, Chrysocolla, Jenny Zoom, Planetokio, Fiox, Furryous, and Cookie and Cream. It is similar to the first Super Smash Bros. game, in that its main objective is to use each character's unique skills and the stage's hazards to inflict damage, recover health, and ultimately knock opponents off the stage.

After completion of Fiox, development on Gingo Fighting Royale began in 2000 under the working title of Gingo Fighters and was extensive. The Universal Interactive team sought to differentiate the game from other games developed by Universal, deeming their new entry into the franchise required a different direction. The development team repurposed the fighting mechanics of Super Smash Bros. and nuanced character development for the game.

Gingo Fighting Royale received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised its multiplayer mode, graphics, and interpretation of the Gingo brand as a video game. Criticism was mostly centered on its lack of content and some aspects of gameplay, such as bugs and glitches, as well as its similarity to Super Smash Bros. The game was a commercial success, with recorded sales of over three million copies worldwide, and spawned a series of sequels, starting with 2008's Fighting Royale 2.

Gameplay
Gingo Fighting Royale is a crossover fighting game bringing together eleven playable characters from several Gingo franchises, such as Gingo mascot Gabriel Garza and Hatty Weasel, in one epic battle on an arena that plays very similar to the Super Smash Bros. series. Up to four players (human or CPU controlled) can control a character and fight on a multi-tiered 2D stage. Players may use various items that appear randomly to get the fighting edge over their opponent. Additionally, the stage may use set elements to take out other players. For example, in the Sinking Spring stage, players can open a door from Gabriel's house. Each playable character has their own special move set that uses different elements from their respective franchises. Each has an up, down, side, and neutral attack. Most characters have a projectile attack. Vio is the only character who has a disabling attack.

The game features a traditional single-player arcade mode, in which players must defeat several randomly-selected opponents, followed by a character-specific rival battle and, ultimately, a battle against the game's main antagonist and final boss, the Collector. An "Adventure Mode" where the player must traverse a longer sequence of stages found in Classic Mode, and some of the stages require more effort; some, for instance, lack fighting altogether, while others feature challenges the player must traverse before finally clearing the stage. A "Training Mode" is also available in which players can manipulate the environment and experiment against computer opponents without the restrictions of a standard match. Multiplayer modes include time-based matches, where players compete to achieve the most kills within a time limit; stock-based matches, where players attempt to be the last one standing; and kill-limit matches, where players compete to be the first to reach a certain number of kills. The game also features a single-player challenge mode, in which players attempt to complete specific objectives. The game also includes a stadium mode where players can compete in minigames, the mini-games play mostly similar to Digimon Rumble Arena's minigames.

Completing matches and fulfilling objectives with a character will gain them experience points; leveling up a character will unlock bonuses such as character bios and a special video.

Playable characters

 * Gabriel Garza
 * Hatty Weasel
 * Niz Chicoloco
 * Chrysocolla Reed
 * Jenny Zoom
 * Iken
 * Fiox

Unlockable

 * Vio
 * Allo Frog
 * Tad Sumoray
 * Sam Reed
 * Cookie (known as Chestnut in the European and Japanese versions) and Cream
 * Leonard the Lion

Bosses

 * The Collector
 * GeroVio

Non-bosses

 * Punching Bag
 * Fighting Doppelgangers

Stages

 * Sinking Spring
 * Fozzville
 * Klemos
 * Nitropolis
 * Grand City
 * Planetokio
 * Springbank Complex
 * SFA Base
 * Chicoloco Place
 * Big Beach
 * Tad's Dojo

Unlockable

 * Battle Arena
 * Endpoint
 * Planet Vebes
 * Vio's Fortress
 * Rabbit Village
 * Garden Valley
 * Icy Island
 * Blannetkio
 * Music World

Plot
Coming soon!

English

 * Debi Derryberry as Gabriel Garza
 * Rob Paulsen as Hatty Weasel
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Niz Chicoloco
 * Grey DeLisle as Chrysocolla and Sam Reed
 * Ashley Johnson as Jenny Zoom
 * Jason Marsden as Iken
 * Matt Hill as Cookie
 * Tara Strong as Cream
 * Corey Burton as Fiox
 * Jim Cummings as Vio, Allo Frog, The Collector, Announcer
 * Kath Soucie as Tad Sumoray
 * Laura Summer as Leonard the Lion

Japanese

 * Megumi Hayashibara as Gabriel Garza
 * Kōichi Yamadera as Hatty Weasel
 * Sachi Matsumoto as Niz Chicoloco
 * Mika Kanai as Chrysocolla Reed
 * Sanae Kobayashi as Sam Reed, Fiox
 * Jun Mizusawa as Jenny Zoom
 * Yū Sugimoto as Iken
 * Kappei Yamaguchi as Chestnut
 * Rei Sakuma as Cream
 * Jurota Kosugi as Vio
 * Tomohisa Aso as Allo Frog
 * Daiki Nakamura as The Collector
 * Kurumi Mamiya as Leonard the Lion
 * Atsushi Kisaichi as Tad Sumoray

Development
Development on Gingo Fighting Royale began in 2000 under the codename Gingo Fighters, while Universal Interactive's in-house game development team was producing Chrysocolla: Battle for Nitropolis after finishing Fiox. During development, Universal wanted to steer every franchise they own in a different direction by giving the game engine a complete overhaul. The developers decided to add their characters from each different franchise into a fighting stage and battle each other so that the game offered a better experience of the Universal-owned Gingo properties. The internal development name for Fighting Royale was Gingo Fighting Championship, as referenced by its title in the E3 2001 trailer, or referenced by the executable file of the game "Gingo".

Gingo Fighting Royale, along with Chrysocolla: Battle for Nitropolis, was originally intended to be designed by Mark Cerny, who had designed most of Universal Studios Digital Arts games thus far. On September 21, 2000, Universal Interactive and Konami announced that they had entered an agreement that would enable Konami to publish several Gingo games for next-generation game systems, with Universal Interactive handling the production of the games. Konami revealed that the Xbox version of the game would be titled, Gingo X.

Michael Wildshill, CEO of Gingo and Universal Feature Animation, oversaw the game's development. During Fighting Royale ' s development, Universal Studios, DreamWorks and Glass Ball Productions played important roles in bringing every Gingo franchise into a 3D environment. All character voices were supplied by the actual cast from those franchises, and Gingo and Universal animation writers wrote the entire story for the game, including dialogue. Jim Wilson, the CEO of Universal Interactive, considered it a blessing to have the opportunity of working with the voice cast, along with the writers, whom Wilson called "the best there is".

The developers explained why particular characters were not playable and others were not available as playable characters upon release. Initially, Wildshill wanted some of his Universal-only characters such as Ama from Ama and the Mysterious Crystal to appear the game, but she was cut due to time constraints. Animator Bob Jaques originally requested the inclusion of Universal cartoon character Woody Woodpecker to Wildshill, but the game was too far into development.

Release
Gingo Fighting Royale was first shown at E3 2001, and then again E3 2002. During the showing, Universal promised unlockable characters, stages, bonus levels, and power-ups. Before the game's release, the official website included weekly updates, including screenshots and character profiles. Universal followed this trend with the sequels, in which there were daily updates by the game's developer Geo G.. IGN reported that Universal advertised the game in between showings of The Gabriel Garza Movie across theaters in the United States. Originally scheduled for a worldwide release in October 2002, the game was delayed and released on November 19, 2002, to coincide with the DVD and VHS release of The Gabriel Garza Movie (where it was advertised) in North America, December 6, 2002, in Europe, and March 27, 2003, in Japan. A Game Boy Advance port was planned to be released alongside the console versions but was scrapped due to it not being powerful enough to support the game.

Critical reception
Gingo Fighting Royale received mixed to positive reviews upon release. PlayStation: The Official Magazine said that Gingo Fighting Royale was "satisfying, but quite challenging" and "very creative for it's time, with a bunch of unique franchises.". Matt Helgeson of Game Informer dismissed the game as "probably one of the most surprising fighting titles you will ever play."

The game received a Metacritic score of 74/100, initially receiving "generally favorable reviews".

In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of one seven, two eights, and one nine for a total of 32 out of 40.

Artwork
Coming soon!

Screenshots
Coming soon!

Wallpapers
Coming soon!

Trivia

 * This game has the least unlockable characters with six (seven if you count Cookie and Cream as separate characters).
 * If the player achieves No Miss x11 at the end of Classic Mode, the announcer will say "Awesome!" instead of "Congratulations!" on the victory screen.
 * This is the only game in the series with more fighters than stages.
 * The Opening FMV was animated by Toei Animation.
 * Interestingly, the back of the box alludes to it's playable characters, reading "With more than 20 playable characters, with a few you can unlock in the one-player challenge.", even though it only has eleven playable characters, likely a mistake at their point.
 * This is the only game in series to:
 * Not be released on a handheld system.
 * Use question marks (placeholders) to represent unlockable stages.
 * Not have the announcer counting down from 3 before a VS. Mode match begins. Instead the announcer says "Ready? Go!" when the match begins.
 * Have Tad Sumoray have faster air speed.
 * Not have separate announcer voice clips for free-for-all and team battle, instead collectively announced as either "Time Battle/Battle Royale", "Survival", "Grab/Get the coins" and "Decision" (in time, stock, coin and bonus battles, respectively), or in cases of Special Battle, respective announcements for each rules.
 * Not have the announcer fully dubbed in Spanish, French, Italian and German version.
 * Not have a credits music theme, a results display screen music theme, or a game clear music theme.
 * Not have unique on-screen appearances for each playable character. Instead, all playable characters use animation of coming in from out of nowhere.
 * Only The Collector has a "true" on-screen appearance, where he gradually enters the stage from the background.
 * Have the announcer shout the title of the game at the end of the opening movie.
 * Use question marks (placeholders) to represent unlockable characters. In it's sequel and onward, the placeholder slots were completely removed.
 * Exclusively have Universal-owned fighters.
 * Not reveal any unlockable characters before launch. Despite Leonard the Lion, Cookie and Cream, Sam Reed, Tad Sumoray appearing in the E3 trailer, their roles were kept secret until the release.