is a 1993 fighting game developed and published by Sega for arcades. It was developed for the Sega Model 1 arcade platform by AM2, a development group within Sega headed by Yu Suzuki. An early prototype version was location tested in Japan by August 1993, before the complete game was released worldwide in December 1993. It was the first arcade fighting game to feature fully 3D polygon graphics. The game was ported to Sega Saturn as a global launch title in 1994 and 1995, and also received a port to the Sega 32X.
The game was critically acclaimed and a major hit, becoming one of Sega's best-selling arcade games of all time with more than 40,000 arcade units sold while the Saturn versions sold over copies. Virtua Fighter was highly regarded for its in-depth 3D fighting engine and real-world fighting techniques, and has been revolutionary and highly influential in the evolution of the genre and video games in general. Its success led to the Virtua Fighter series, with its sequel Virtua Fighter 2 released in 1994.
In 1995, an update titled Virtua Fighter Remix was developed and released by AM1, featuring drastic graphical improvements. This improved version was quickly ported to the Saturn console and later received a port to Windows. The game's remake, Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary, was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2003 as a standalone title in Japan and as a bonus in Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution in North America.
Gameplay
The Virtua label indicates that the onscreen action takes place in a 3D environment; however, movement is restricted to 2D. The graphics were made using wireframe and flat-shaded quad polygons. The game retains the fighting game staple of having multiple characters, each with their own distinctive moves.
In the game's single-player mode, the player faces all eight characters (including a duplicate of the chosen character) in a pre-determined order, followed by a fight with the game's boss, Dural. Each fight is a best-of-three match, and the player has three ways of winning: knocking out the opponent, forcing them out of the ring, or having more health left when time runs out.
Unlike other fighting games of the early 1990s (such as Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat), the game relies on a control stick and only three buttons, punch, kick and guard (block), although different situations and button combinations led to a vast variety of moves for each character.
Plot Characters
Akira Yuki—An assistant kung fu teacher from Japan, fights with Bajiquan. Pai Chan—A martial arts film star from Hong Kong, fights with Mizongquan. Lau Chan—Pai's father and a cook from China, fights with a fictional fighting style . Wolf Hawkfield—A professional wrestler from Canada, fights with professional wrestling maneuvers. Jeffry McWild—A fisherman from Australia, fights with Pancratium. Kage-Maru ("Kage")—A ninja from Japan, fights with Jujutsu. Sarah Bryant—A college student from San Francisco, CA who had been abducted and brainwashed by a criminal organization, fights with Jeet Kune Do (Sega changed her fighting style to "martial arts", which also includes Tae Kwon Do, Savate and Karate as of Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution). Jacky Bryant—Sarah's older brother and a race car driver also from San Francisco, fights with Jeet Kune Do. Dural—A gynoid that is the game's final boss and is Kage's missing mother, Tsukikage. She fights with a mix of all the other fighters' styles.
An Arab fighter named Majido "Siba" Abdul was planned, and his character model appeared on some Virtua Fighter arcade cabinets (though, in some cases, Akira's name was placed under his portrait). Siba was originally to be the protagonist of the franchise. He was ultimately dropped, but later appeared in Fighters Megamix. Two other characters were also discovered. One was an early design of Akira Yuki, under an early name Takeru Ryushoji, who was shirtless and wore pants and shoes. The other was a military man named Jeffery "Jeff" Buckman. Other fighters in the game that were planned to appear were the Koskol brothers Rekka (the eldest) Score (the middle) and Aeon (the youngest), these 6 fighters were part of an organization known as the "Red Scorpions", but was later scrapped.
Story Once in the Shōwa period, the defunct Japanese army intended to approach Puyi, the last Emperor of the Qing Dynasty in their effort to take advantages. However, they were defeated by the Imperial guards who used the martial art called Hakkyoku-ken. During World War II, the Japanese army research the mysteries of Hakkyoku-ken to create supersoldiers, developing the ultimate martial art.
Half a century has passed since these events - at the time the game is set, the 'ultimate World Fighting Tournament' is about to start, featuring fighters from around the world. Behind the Tournament, however, there exists an intrigue designed by a sinister syndicate.
Development and release Virtua Fighter The game's development began in 1992, following the development of Virtua Racing. Virtua Fighter was developed to run on Sega Model 1 arcade hardware, developed internally at Sega. According to Sega of Japan's publicity manager, Kurokawa, "We deliberately didn't publicize all the [fighting] moves at the same time but instead revealed them to gamers one at a time by means of the Japanese videogame press." Virtua Fighter also used 3D motion capture technology. Before Virtua Fighter, Sega AM3 simulated 3D using a creative method of sprite scaling on the 1993 arcade fighting game Dark Edge.
According to Suzuki, an issue during the game's development was performing fast division calculations for 3D operations. The only applications he was aware of performing fast enough divisions at the time were nuclear reactors and space rockets. The team "were working away with craftsmanship equivalent to inscribing 100 words on a single grain of rice" to achieve fast 3D division operations, according to Suzuki. (Part 1 and Part 2)
An early prototype version of the arcade game featured an Arab fighter called Siba. This early version did not have Akira Yuki, who was added later in development as a replacement for Siba, with Akira becoming the game's protagonist. This early prototype version was location tested in Japan and then demonstrated at the Amusement Machine Show (AM Show) in August 1993. The game then made its North American debut at the AMOA show in October 1993.
Virtua Fighter was a launch game for the Sega Saturn, and served as the pack-in launch game in North America. Its Sega 32X version was developed by the same team responsible for the Genesis port of Virtua Racing.
Virtua Fighter Remix Virtua Fighter Remix was an update of the original Virtua Fighter with higher-polygon models, texture mapping, and some gameplay changes. It was given free to all registered Saturn owners in the United States via mail. It had an arcade release on the ST-V (an arcade platform based on the Sega Saturn) and later ported to Microsoft Windows as Virtua Fighter PC. In Japan, Game Machine listed it on their August 1, 1995, issue as being the twenty-first most-successful arcade game of the month.
Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary With the 2003 PlayStation 2 release of Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution arriving in time for the series' tenth anniversary, a remake of Virtua Fighter, Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary, was released on the PlayStation 2. While the music, stages and low-polygon visual style were retained from the first game, the character roster, animations, mechanics and movesets were taken from Evolution. In the previous PS2 release of Virtua Fighter 4, a button code would make the player's character look like a Virtua Fighter model. In Japan, the game was included as part of a box set with a book called Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary: Memory of a Decade and a DVD. The box set was released in November 2003 and was published by Enterbrain. In North America, the game was included in the home version of Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution, and in Europe it was only available as a promotional item; it was not sold at retail.
Reception Reception Review scores Publication Scores Arcade Sega Saturn 32X Computer and Video Games 83% 94% 95% Edge Positive 9/10 Electronic Gaming Monthly Positive 8/10, 8.5/10, 8/10, 7/10 29/40 Famitsu 9/10, 9/10, 9/10, 9/10 7/10, 8/10, 8/10, 7/10 Game Informer 8/10 GamesMaster 96%GamesMaster, episode 73 (series 4, episode 11), November 29, 1994 Hyper 90% Maximum 5/5 Mean Machines Sega 96% Mega 97% Next Generation 3/5 (Remix) 4/5 (original) 5/5 (Remix) 4/5 Sega Magazin 87% (original) 91% (Remix) Sega Power 97% Sega Saturn Magazine 5/5 (Remix) Sega Saturn Tsūshin 38/40 Ultimate Future Games 96% Awards Publication(s) Awards Gamest Awards (1994) 3rd Best Game of the Year, 3rd Best Fighting Game, 6th Best Graphics AMOA Awards (1994) Most Played Videogame (nominee), Most Innovative New Technology (nominee) EGM, 1UP, Famitsu, Computer Gaming World Best Games of All Time GameSpot, 1UP Most Influential Games of All Time
Arcade Sega began location testing an early prototype version in Japan prior to the game's demonstration at the Amusement Machine Show (AM Show) in August 1993. Sega reported it to be their highest-earning location test performance of all time, with each test machine earning a daily average of or . At the 1993 AM Show, it was rated the "hit of the show" by many visitors.
Upon the game's release in Japan, Game Machine listed Virtua Fighter as the country's most popular upright/cockpit arcade game of December 1993. It went on to become Japan's highest-grossing arcade game of 1994, and one of the country's highest-grossing arcade games of all time. According to Next Generation magazine in 1995, Virtua Fighter was "the biggest game in Japan since Super Mario World." In North America, RePlay reported Virtua Fighter to be the sixth most popular upright arcade game of February 1994; it went on to be one of America's top five highest-grossing arcade games of 1994. In the United Kingdom, it was the second top-grossing arcade game in London during early 1994 (below Ridge Racer), and went on to be one of the most popular coin-ops of the year.
Virtua Fighter sold more than 40,000 arcade units worldwide by 1996, with each unit costing between and £14,000 / . Virtua Fighter and Virtua Fighter 2 (1994) became Sega's best-selling arcade games of all time, surpassing their previous record holder Out Run (1986). (Translation by Shmuplations. ).
Following its demonstration at the 1993 AM Show, Virtua Fighter received a positive industry reception. RePlay magazine called "the adaptation of 3-D polygon graphics to video fighting games" a "sensational development that could define and revitalize this already-hot category." California Games CEO Pat Schroeder said Virtua Fighter "was by far the dawn of a new era of games" with praise for the "computerized 3-D graphics with effects that are unreal" and how it "shows the fighting action" from different angles. Edge magazine called Virtua Fighter "a tantalising glimpse into the future of fighting games employing the same ground-breaking CG computer graphics system as Virtua Racing." While criticizing the appearance of the "excessively blocky polygonised people," Edge said "the 3D scrolling, animation and movement are all silky-smooth and very realistic" and that "the fluid animation and imaginative camera angles quickly won the audience over." Electronic Gaming Monthly hailed Virtua Fighter as a demonstration of "just how far video games have come in the last eight years." EGM made particular note of the advanced graphics, how the camera moves along different axes depending on the fighters' location, the use of multiple viewpoints in the instant replay, the high quality of the gameplay, and the smoothness and realism of the animation. The game received similar praise following its 1993 AMOA Show debut.