Virtua Fighter 3

VIRTUA FIGHTER 3
Sega Japan
Arcade coin-op
3D Fighter

-- by Eugene Moon

An arcade game showcasing the power of Sega's new Model 3 hardware, VF3 is the third in a line of polygon-based fighting games from the company that may be credited for creating the sub-genre. The new hardware is very powerful and results in great-looking graphics, but great graphics do not guarantee a great game. While overall an excellent game, VIRTUA FIGHTER 3 does have a few shortcomings.

Like its predecessor VF2, VF3 is (from initial impressions) a game with "deep gameplay," meaning quite simply that though the game takes a relatively small amount of time to learn, it takes a lot of time and effort to master. VF2, and STREET FIGHTER 2 also, were two fighting games in which people could walk up to the machine, put in their money, and get right into the business of beating their opponent. While playing, however, people became aware of other elements of the game. For SF2, it was combos. In VF2, you have things like crouch-dashing, modified moves, and option-select moves (in which one control input can translate into two different moves).

Walls? So much for ring outs...

VF3 also has the best-looking graphics this side of a Silicon Graphics workstation. This game looks incredible. The flesh hues are somewhat off (most of the characters look deathly pale), but that is probably the only major complaint players will have. The characters are detailed and fairly smooth, with the exception of the sumo wrestler. The stages in which the fights occur are very detailed and the player's character interacts with them in a greater way than either of the two previous VF games. Most of the "rings" have uneven terrain, and a couple of them have objects which can be affected by the movement of the characters. For example, one stage has leaves which can be shifted as the character's feet move through them. Another is comprised of sand in which footprints and impressions made by the characters are slowly erased by the perpetually-blowing wind.

An addition to the stage design that some will welcome is walls in some of the arenas. Though most of the walls will help prevent the ending of a match via ring out (some of the walls are short enough that people can still be pushed out over them), the taller ones can be used to perform more damaging throws and combos.

The button layout carries over the punch, kick, and guard buttons from the previous games, but a dodge button has been added to allow players to make better use of each ring. The moves are executed primarily in the joystick tap(s) plus button press method used in the MORTAL K OMBAT series of games, but a few of the moves require a Street Fighter-style motion. For the most part, most of the moves and some of the combos are fairly easy to perform.

Awesome graphics make this game fun to watch and play

Two new characters have been added to the ten available in VF2. One is a female martial artist who practices aikido while the other is a sumo wrestler. Players used to the previous Virtua Fighter games will find the character balance different than it was in the past.

But all is not happy in VF Land. Some of the more vocal proponents of VF2 on the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.video.arcade lamented the fact that VF2 was not nearly as popular here in the West as it was the East. Two reasons commonly given for this are that VF2 was an expensive game for arcade owners to acquire (in comparison to STREET F IGHTER ALPHA 2, for example) and so did not reach as wide a market, and that VF2 may have been too complex for the casual gamers who generally make up the bulk of arcade revenues. The fact that VF3 is an expensive machine (the 50-inch screen version goes for well over $10,000 US) and that arcades have priced it accordingly is not good news.

VF3 is a great game, and if you are lucky enough to get a machine in your area and be able to afford the attack on your bank account, you will get many hours of enjoyment out of it.

Rating: ***