There are two ways that you could look at a game in the Virtua series: as a game on its own, and as a technical achievement for the genre it tackles. Using Virtua Racing as an example, at the time it came out, there were no other racing games like it, and it paved the way for other 3D racers to come afterwards. But, as a game on its own, it is as barebones and basic as racing games got, with the 3D graphics being severely outdated, even by 1993, when games like Ridge Racer came out and looked MILES better then it. So yeah, as games on their own, the Virtua games may not be something to get too excited about, but it is always interesting to go back to these titles, as it seems like they represent a transitional period between where these genres already were, to where they could potentially go in the future. So, to continue looking at these games, I figure I would take on a genre I am a bigger fan of other than racing with Virtua Fighter.

Out of all of the games from Sega to receive the “Virtua” sub-title, Virtua Fighter is definitely the most popular and long-lasting of the bunch, with it not only being Sega’s primary fighting franchise (which isn’t really something to brag about), but it has had plenty of different installments and updates that have released all the way to this day (even though there hasn’t been a core title in the series for almost 20 years). Despite that though, I myself hadn’t really tried out the franchise at all, not because I got distracted by other things like usual, but more so because I didn’t have any desire to. I just thought it was “the one that was 3D” more than anything, and that it wouldn’t contribute anything else aside from that. But of course, like they say, you can’t judge a book by its cover, so I decided to play the first game and see if I was wrong, and to the surprise of nobody, it turned out I was right. For what it is worth, for being one of the very first 3D fighting games out there, it still holds up somewhat to this day, and it did definitely do a lot for the genre at the time, but like with Virtua Racing, it mostly wears all of its issues on its sleeves and suffers for it.

The story is insanely generic for a fighting game, where a World Fighting Tournament is organized, and many warriors from around the world come to not only fight, but also discover the sinister secret behind it, which is basically the plot of every single fighting game that has ever existed in the history of ever, but somehow this game makes it sound even more generic than it actually is. The graphics are on the same level of quality that Virtua Racing was on, in which it may have looked extremely impressive at the time, but nowadays, it looks on par with Elon Musk’s Cybertruck, the music is way too good for this game, having plenty of up-beat and memorable tracks to go along with the gutter trash you look at when you play the game, the control is more simple compared to other fighters at the time, but it works fine enough (for the most part), and there are plenty of combos you get to work with, so it is fine, and the gameplay, like with Virtua Racing, basically does the bare minimum with not much else to offer aside from its central gimmick.

The game is your typical early 90’s fighter, where you take control of one of eight different fighters, take on a set of opponents that you will take down one by one, deliver plenty of punches, kicks, throws and combos to deplete your opponent’s health to nothing at all, make sure to block and dodge at all appropriate times to make sure that you stay up and fighting for many more rounds, and… that is about it. Yeah, when I said this game does the bare minimum for the genre, I meant it, because aside from the obvious, there really is nothing that this game offers the player when revisiting it after over 30 years. With that being said though, I will say that I did have a fine time with the game as a whole, and there are some admirable qualities to it.

Like with Virtua Racing, the main thing this game has to provide the player is its 3D visuals, with the game itself playing almost exactly like a regular 2D fighter, except all of the environments and characters are all fully 3D. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but like with the previously mentioned game, everything runs very smoothly, even when playing on an original arcade cabinet (which I did), and as such, all of the attack animations also look pretty smooth as well, even if it is nothing compared to what we have today. But again, it doesn’t try to do more other then the bare minimum, only focusing on the fighting, with no different bonus stages, no extra cutscenes before or in between fights, and not even any proper endings for any of the characters, which does kinda suck, but that is probably for the best in this case.

That being said though, this game certainly has aged over the course of 30 years, as you could imagine, and not just in terms of the visuals. Not only is the character roster pretty limited when compared to other fighters at the time, which had up to almost 20 characters at that point, but whenever you actually try to play the game, it feels pretty rough. Pulling off the moves can feel somewhat heavy a lot of the time, which is an unfortunate consequence of the visuals, so if you are looking for a fast-paced fighter to have fun with with your friends, this is definitely not gonna be for you. What also doesn’t help is that, whenever you try to jump with any of the characters, it feels like they are on the fucking moon. And of course, since it is an arcade fighter, it comes with the bullshit these games typically get, such as fighting game syndrome, where all of the opponents are way too over-powered, and will make sure you will never be able to win a round against them without you abusing certain combos to win, which is what I did for most of the game. Then again, given the fact that you get nothing when you beat the game, would you really wanna try to beat it at all?

Overall, despite its charm for what it is and how I didn’t completely hate my time with it, this is definitely not the kind of fighter that I would ever be willing to revisit, not just in terms of the graphics, but because of the more clunky and slow gameplay, along with the lack of things to see, do, or admire. Don’t get me wrong, for what it is, it is a good game, but unless you are either a big fan of the series, or you are fan of early 3D fighters like this, then you would probably just wanna stick to later games in the series or other similar titles. Also, like with Virtua Racing, or even with Ridge Racer, I would suggest not looking at the characters in this game for too long, especially in their victory poses. I swear, it almost feels like Akira is gonna bust out of the arcade machine and eat me, it is disturbing.

Game #467

US Saturn Release #001 - Virtua Fighter

Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE

As a port of the arcade version of Virtua Fighter, this is an incredible showcase for the Saturn. It really doesn't age wonderfully in the visuals department, but I hardly think that matters. My only critique on the visuals is that there's a lot of flickering polygons in the character models, and sometimes to the game maps go a little crazy when you jump around. It's like the game camera doesn't know how to properly display the playfield when you do that.

The gameplay itself feels really weird though, which is kind of sad. I think the game tried to be a lot more realistic, at least closer to real martial arts in comparison to something like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter. I feel like that just made it harder for me to play it though. Stuff like manually turning around and lows not blocking mids like the games I'm used to playing. Also, I had a seriously hard time getting special moves and grabs out. I don't know if it's just me not being good or that this game functions differently input-wise to other fighters. I'm not excellent at fighting games but I have an ok time adapting and pulling off moves. Here, I could barely do anything.

It was very fristrating, but part of me feels like it's just me being bad at the game rather than the game just being poorly executed. I would have loved to train, but there really isn't a training mode here. You can try to train in the arcade mode, but I feel like the A.I. gets too hard too quickly. It even tries to cheese you by jumping around when the clock runs low, trying to time you out. Surely you can cheese it back, but I really don't know how to yet. You could also jump into the VS mode alone, fighting a static opponent, but that didn't help me out much either.

I'm being rather critical, but I understand that this was kind of a big deal at the time. I also understand that I'm struggling to enjoy it partly because I'm playing solo, when fighters are at their most fun when you're playing with friends. I'm sure if I was playing with friends, I would have bumped this up a couple points. But as it stands now, this didn't really do much for me for the time I played it.

5/10

I really think you should try it out. You might not like it but you might find more here than I did. Just be sure to play with somebody else if you can.