Here’s another out of that old Aztech’s Super Games cd:
At the twilight of the Eastern-Han Dynasty of ancient China, under the reign of the frail and incompetent emperor Han-Ling, the country was in disarray when the government was run by a group of corrupted eunuchs-theso-called “Ten Attendants.” Hardship and famine finally threw the country into turmoil. The rebellion quickly spread over the country. The rebels were known as “Yellow Scarfs” because they covered their heads with yellow scarfs. To get the full support of the generals in the military regions, Emperor Han-Ling entrusted them with more military power to put down the uprising. The Yellow Scarfs were finally crushed but at the expense of the central government which saw its authority threatened by the generals turned warlords. One of these warlords, Dong Zhuo, on the pretext of dislodging the Ten Attendants, marched into the capital city Luoyang and then usurped the throne. Although Dong Zhuo was quickly defeated by other allied generals, the turmoil was far from over. As the weakened Eastern-Han Dynasty no longer had authority over the whole country, every warlord was watching for the opportunity to take over the leadership. After ten years of suffering from numerous battles between warlords, the people in northern China finally had some respite when Cao Cao, a Machiavellian strategist, eliminated all his opponents in the North.
Not content with his sucesses in the North, Cao Cao wanted to reign over the whole China by eliminating the rest of the warlords in the South. His first target was Liu Bei who, being a royal prince of the Eastern-Han Dynasty, has a legitimate claim to the throne. Though small in force, Liu Bei was well entrenched in the country of Jing, and he knew how to preserve himself by allying with a neighboring warlord Sun Quan. Together they engineered a serious b;pw to the ambition of Cao Cao when they defeated his great army in the Campaign of Chibi.
Having suffered a great loss, Cao Cao had no alternative but to retreat to the north. Taking advantages of his military success, Liu Bei went further to occupy the region of Sichuan so as to consolidate his position in the country of Jing. With the help of his five intrepid generals — Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Cao and Huang Zhong, he managed to build up an army strong enough to wrestle alone with Cao Cao. With the aim of restoring the Eastern-Han Dynasty, he now sets off to the North to confront Cao Cao. But Cao Cao is by no means a chicken. He also has many experienced generals like Duab Weum Xy Xy abd Xuahou Chn holding out in various fortresses.
Will Liu Bei over come all these obstacles on his way to the North? Will he finally defeat Cao Cao to restore the Eastern-Han Dynasty?
And that’s how 1993’s Sango Fighter is laid out in its original documentation.
Back then, a small Taiwanese company called Panda Entertainment set out to design a historically accurate 2D fighter. The result was Sango Fighter — which was supposed to be marketed as “Violent Vengeance” in the US, but the distributor went with the original name.
Sango Fighter was also a Sega Master title called Sangokushi. Released exclusively in Asia, the Master port was 8MB and one of the largest in size ever released on the console.
This is, of course, a Dos title, but it has amazing graphics, a loud MIDI soundtrack and 12 playable characters based on real 2nd century Chinese warriors. The controls are a little awkward, but Sango Fighter is an enjoyable play and works perfectly in Dosbox. The shareware version is limited to fewer players and the first part of the story mode.
Sango Fighter never took off in the US. Street Fighter was already in arcades by 1987 and Midway put out it’s own 2D fighter — you may have heard of it, Mortal Kombat — in 1992, and Acclaim was quick to put out a home version. Sango Fighter never saw any Super Nintendo or Genesis (Mega Drive) action, which may have helped.
Download 1993’s Sango Fighter shareware free from Blast Magazine.
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