It is the sequel to 1995's Fighting Vipers and was released for the Sega Model 3 arcade system, before being ported to the Dreamcast in 2001.

The armor system, dashes, and the ability to hurl an opponent through a wall are all retained from the original Fighting Vipers.

[4] Fighting Vipers 2 features all 10 characters from the arcade version of the first game, along with four new characters, the latter two of which must be unlocked: AM2's Hiroshi Kataoka told Sega Saturn Magazine that development began in early 1997 after work on Fighters Megamix for the Saturn had concluded, and lasted for ten months.

Members of the development team visited Alcatraz early on in the project for inspiration for the caged stages and the character designs were inspired by the "fashionable sports that are being played by young people today, such as BMX riding and skateboarding along with their associated music culture".

Motion capture was utilised for the opening sequences and winning and losing poses, but the majority of animation was done by hand.