Virtua Fighter

The Imperial Guard of ancient China developed a Kung Fu technique known as Hakkyoku ken meaning the Eight Point Fist that was widely admired and adopted by the Japanese army who created their own version of it. They had created the ultimate fighting force, but now, one hundred and fifty years later there remains only one active master of Hakkyoku ken named Akira Yuki, a Japanese Kung Fu instructor.

He sets off traveling the world searching for some competition and finds it in a World Fighting Tournament. Using only their bodies in hand-to-hand combat with no weapons, the best fighters of the world have come to compete to see which one of them will be victorious. This tournament is what you, the player, will be participating in when you play Virtua Fighter by Sega.

Having found seven other opponents, there is a total of eight fighters to choose from, each with their own fighting techniques. The others are Pai Chan a Chinese action film star, Lau Chan a Chinese cook, Wolf Hawkfield a Canadian pro wrestler, Jeffry McWild an Australian fisherman, Kage-Maru a Japanese Ninja, Sarah Bryant an American college student, and Jacky Bryant an American Indy car racer. Each fighter has their own specialty and special moves that if mastered will aid you in beating the others and winning the tournament.

Although the graphics are not as detailed as they are in the arcade version, the Saturn version has all 700 plus special arcade moves, all nine polygon based fighters with smooth sprite scaling and 3D graphics. The characters are not textured but instead are color shaded polygons. The area in which you compete is in 3D, but the background is in 2D and is textured. Each fight takes place in a different area with different backgrounds such as hills with trees, deserts, mountains, beaches, sun sets, etc. Two energy bars, a timer and the names of each fighter are at the top of the screen. When playing a two-player game, the champion with the number of consecutive wins is also at the top of the screen.

The sounds in the game are of an excellent stereo quality and add to the excitement experienced in the game. The sonic sounds are especially outstanding when listened with headphones as you heard the sounds go from one side to the other. Other sounds in the game include thunder and lighting, many different punches and yells, and an announcer who tells you when to fight, congratulates you, etc. Each player has a different theme song for fighting which you will hear as you fight your way to the top.

There are three modes in which you can choose from to fight. The first one is Arcade which allows you to select a character and fight against the others just like in the Arcade. A second player may join in during the play and once they leave, the game will resume from the position before the second player arrived. Once you win against all eight players, you'll get to fight Dural who is a metallic robot and will not be easy to beat. The second mode is VS in which you must be two players and fight against each other. Ranking is the third mode where you fight until you are beaten and then are given a ranking on how well you fought. In the Arcade mode, once you are beaten, you are given the choice to continue from your current position using any of the eight characters available. When the timer reaches zero and both fighters have the same amount of energy left in their energy bars, the match is declared a draw and a sudden death match is held. The sudden death match is held on a small platform where the winner usually wins by knocking his opponent off it. If again both fighters are at a draw, the previous champion remains and wins the fight except in the case where there was no previous champion where player one would win the fight.

The option menu allows to change a few of the settings to adjust the game to your liking. You'll be able to set the life gauge for both players from smallest to largest, the match point between one and five, the time limit to either 10, 20, 30, 60 seconds or no limit, the enemy level from easy to expert, and control whether the continue option is proposed at the end of each game. You can also test the sound, voice and music by listening to each track and sound, and view the records for each character. The last option is the set up of your control pad where you can choose between four different types.

Conclusion:

Virtua Fighter is a great 3D fighting game that is usually included when buying a Sega Saturn console. This game is great for letting out your frustrations by beating up the characters on your screen and provides much enjoyment.