Alright, I'm going to try here. I'm looking for this either Ps1 or Ps2 game. It's this weird sort of 3d fighting game thing, but it had platforming sometimes? The camera wasn't typical for fighting games, it was zoomed out, and either top-down or isometric or something. It had free movement in all directions and a jump button. All of the characters had a more cartoony look with more chibi like proportions IIRC, with the game textures not trying to be realistic at all. I don't remember the combat really being complex. Or at least, I don't remember thinking through a strategy with it. There might have been like two attack buttons and some kind of special move, but I can't really remember. The game kind of seemed like it could have been shovel ware thinking back, but I'm not confident in saying that until I see it. I don't remember it having that big of a roster of playable characters.
I remember there's this sort of bonus / side stage where you're in this closed up tower and you're jumping from platform to platform upward trying to keep ahead of the rising water level until you reach the top. And there's another stage where you're on this sailing ship, I think on the deck. It had grey metal walls and wooden flooring I think. Here I think you were fighting with other CPU fighters or maybe generic enemies or something. However there's these walls everywhere in this grid pattern, making a bunch of identically shaped square rooms. I think you might have been initially blocked off from others rooms, and you had to defeat enemies to open up the paths to other squares or something, but I might be wrong about that. I'm super hazy with my memory here, so forgive me. I'm pretty sure the game does have a way to have up to 4 players fight each other though, and I think that WAS the focus. I think those two levels that I remember might have been later in the game, like mid-way through it. I also remember the character's HUDs being along either the top or bottom of the screen, and it was just a simple health bar or something.
The thing I remember the most about this game though is... well, my mom made me take it back. I had rented it at a block buster. It still had like 2 or 3 days left. It was the only time in my life she made me not play something anymore because she thought it was too violent and extreme for me at the time. Like she was fine letting me play Mortal Combat 3 on the SNES. I... don't remember it being all that violent or extreme, and I didn't think it was at the time. I don't particularly remember is being super bloody either. I think it might have been either like the presentation, or the characters themselves were extremely vulgar with how they did things.
Other than that.... I think there was this stage that was really orange? It was like a straightforward, open arena for people to fight each other in. Idk I'm really stretching my memory now, I don't have anything else. If anyone could help me find this thing I would REALLY appreciate it, even if it's just a spitball of a suggestion. I never saw it ever again after that rental, and I certainly don't hear anyone talk about it. And I tried checking my old memory cards to see if I had save data of it but I didn't.
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