Fossil Fighters: Champions

 Fossil Fighters: Champions Topics: &bull; Game &bull; Plot &bull; Soundtrack &bull; Videos

Fossil Fighters: Champions (スーパーカセキホリダー  Super Fossil Diggers) is the sequel to the original Fossil Fighters. It is known to have over 140 vivosaurs, and a new function that allows players to Super Revive their vivosaurs into new, stronger forms. The game was released on November 18, 2010 in Japan.

The game was officially announced for a western localization in June 2011 at Nintendo's E3 presentation as Super Fossil Fighters. The game released on November 14, 2011 with the title Fossil Fighters: Champions.

Gameplay
Fossil Fighters: Champions overhauls many of the features present in the original Fossil Fighters and introduces a slew of additional features as well. The player can now choose to be either a boy or a girl at the start of the game and is given a choice of one of four starter vivosaurs, each corresponding to one of the four primary elements in the game: Aeros, Tsintao, Dimetro, and Toba. Regardless of which is chosen, the player is also given a Tricera towards the beginning of the game. Besides these and various quality of life alterations, however, the core mechanics remain mostly untouched.

New and Updated Features
Core gameplay remains largely unchanged between Fossil Fighters and Champions. However, Champions boasts significantly more polished assets throughout the game and a more focused artistic direction. Aesthetic changes have been made to much of the game, the graphics are considerably more detailed, and character models and environments appear more complex than in Fossil Fighters.

Battles in Fossil Fighters: Champions are now based on a formation that can be rotated, as opposed to the Escape Zone system of movement featured in the original Fossil Fighters. Vivosaurs placed in the Support Zone are no longer helped nor hindered by an attack penalty, and in the place of the classes presented in the original, vivosaurs are now either Long-Range, Mid-Range, or Close-Range, with according bonuses and penalties to their attacks based on their placement on the field relative to the target. The ranking system has also been changed, with the cap raised from 12 to 20, with each rank now requiring merely 50 Battle Points as opposed to the original 100. Support Effects now also scale according to rank.

While the mechanics of location and acquisition of fossils remain almost identical to how they are presented in the first game, there are now new and different types of fossil rock available. In Fossil Fighters: Champions, it is now possible to find Giant Fossils and Curious Fossils containing exclusive new vivosaurs, as well as Wondrous and Miraculous Fossil Rocks, which, once cleaned, may be integrated with any vivosaur for stat bonuses. Additionally, some vivosaurs will become Super Evolvers upon the integration of a Miraculous Fossil, possessing new abilities and new forms.

Fighter Level is now no longer determined by plot as of Fossil Fighters: Champions. Fighter Experience is now gained through completing quests and sidequests, making it possible to rank up independently of the main story, though the bearing of rank on FP remains the same. Fighter Rank now caps at 20.

Marketing
To promote the game in Japan, a partnership was formed with the video rental shop and bookstore chain Tsutaya. Using a modified version of the game at select locations, customers would take a dinosaur related quiz as well as excavate three fossil rocks. Upon completion of either of these minigames customers would be rewarded with a 500 yen discount for the game. There was also a small chance to win a 3000 yen discount based on a lottery. In addition to discounts, customers who received the game at Tsutaya through the promotion could obtain Igno earlier than their official release date.

Dig Sites (In Order of Unlock)
* This dig site is only ever accessible once in the game.
 * Treasure Lake
 * Jungle Labyrinth
 * Mt. Krakanak
 * Rainbow Canyon
 * Hot Spring Heights
 * Icegrip Plateau
 * Bonehemoth
 * Dusty Dunes
 * Petrified Woods
 * Seabed Cavern*
 * BareBones Brigade Base
 * Stone Pyramid

Major Characters

 * Hero
 * Todd
 * Joe Wildwest
 * Pauleen
 * Rupert
 * Zongazonga
 * Princess Pooch
 * Joanie
 * Stella
 * Terry
 * Kent
 * Cole
 * Lester
 * Lola
 * Digadig Chieftain
 * FossilDig CEO
 * Minister Pomposa
 * Robinson
 * Don Boneyard
 * Prof. Scatterly
 * Trip Cera
 * Ty Ranno

Reception
IGN: 7.5

Nintendo Power: 8.0

Trivia

 * 60 new vivosaurs have been added in Champions. You may view a full list of vivosaurs in Champions here.
 * The two legendary vivosaurs, Frigi and Igno, have received extensive redesigns. They are also considerably weaker than in Fossil Fighters. King Dynal, Duna, and Raptin have been given a similar treatment. All five of these vivosaurs were once available as DLC through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
 * This is the only iteration of Fossil Fighters to have a temporary title during localization.
 * A visual glitch can sometimes occur where characters are replaced with highly pixelated planes intersecting in an X shape. It is believed that these are meant to be simplified models meant to save on processing power when viewed from a distance, and in certain instances the proper model fails to load in before the player arrives.
 * The Fossil Fighters: Champions Japanese website is still up. https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/vdej/index.html