No wonder they've cancelled the sequels they want to make for this franchise.

The last game to this day is Sculptors Cut, and there's been so many announcements of it coming back only to get silently cancelled.
There was a cancelled Wii/DSi game, and that 2016 listing on their website of a new game that got cancelled. And the fact the IP got sold.

It also doesn't help the creators outright despise the second game with Hoppy being the only character they liked from it. (Half the roster are "evil' recolours)
And Interplay have been really dickish about fan content as a fangame was cancelled because of them. (Shame too because the sprites looked really good)
I'd blame the advertising as well because it was just the characters beating up established fighting game characters.
When you make fun of your competition, it makes you look like an asshole.

As was the case of Western made fighting games of that time, both 2D and the pains of early 3D. Without sounding too blunt, the Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct series were considered the best out of a bad bunch if you don't count early ones like Way of the Exploding Fist and International Karate. There were some decent ones like One Must Fall 2097 on PC, Eternal Champions: Challengers of the Dark Side and Midway outside of MK did try (Wrestlemania, Mace) but yeah... Way easier to name the bad ones or the case of Fight for Life would have been good if Atari didn't screw around with the developer (one who worked on Virtua Fighter).

The Clay Fighter series was one that had potential but at the end of the day, people tend to remember the graphics especially the claymation, the characters and their humour more than the gameplay. Even the first game had mixed reviews, both back then and now while the second game tends to be a bit more obscure.

This game sadly sucked. It could have been GREAT. It had heart but a bad coding team