IN DEPTH: Virtua Fighter - version comparison

[c0ldb33r]

I think it'd be fun for users to create and post their own in-depth articles about games they enjoy. It could include a brief history and descriptions about various ports. Kind of like a DP version of a Retro Gamer retrospective. I'm going to start things off with Virtua Fighter. Please start your own thread and create your own about a game you like. If people actually participate, it'll be a lot of fun

VIRTUA FIGHTER

Virtua Fighter Arcade changed a lot from prior fighters. Gone were the fireballs, there were no hurricane kicks and there were no weapons other than your hands and feet. This game was pure uncut one-on-one martial arts combat. There were no special attacks, but that doesn't mean there aren't special movies. Even though controls consisted of only three buttons (punch, kick, guard), each character had an obscene number of moves, meaning that combat had an incredible amount of depth.

This game was ported to the Saturn twice, the 32X and the Playstation 2 as part of Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. It has also been ported to cell phones, but I'm not going to discuss that version as I have no experience with cell phone games. IMHO, from best to worst, the quality of the games can summed up as follows (from best to worst):

Arcade > VF Remix > VF 32X > Playstation 2 > VF Saturn > VF Animation (Game Gear) > VF (R-Zone)
note: this has been updated to include Game Gear and R-Zone

Arcade - 1993

The game that started it all. Still images can't do this game justice. The graphics are just breathtaking. The sounds and music are fantastic and instill a real sense of excitement. The animation is smooth as butter, which unfortunately you can't see in the still image below.



Sega Saturn - 1995

The translation from Arcade to Saturn was a real disapponmtment. The music was great. The sounds were great. The load times were reasonable. The controls and combat are good. In still shots, the game looks very close to the original. The characters are a little smaller, but otherwise look almost identical. HOWEVER, once the game is seen in motion, it starts to fall apart.

The game suffers from horrible horrible graphical glitches. The edges of the fighting area suffered pop-in (despite being just a few feet away) and the limbs and joints of the characters glitch in and out of one another. It gets bad enough that the names and health bars for the characters will sometimes flicker on and off. This was not what Sega needed to show off Saturn's processing power. The Playstation had Battle Arena Toshinden, which in retrospect was pure crap, but which had graphics that far exceeded VF Saturn. Toshinden was amazing to look at and in comparison Virtua Fighter was an embaressment.

Sega made good on Virtua Fighter's possibilities. The problems with the original Saturn release were fixed in the re-released version called Virtua Fighter Remix, which added VF2 quality graphics. Oddly enough, the characters in this version actually have considerably less polygons than the original, but with textures added it looks much better. With fixed graphics, this game is really the entire package. Unless you're looking for the raw graphics of the arcade, in which case you should pick either the 32X or PS2 versions (both described below).

To apologize with the crappy version of the original, Sega sent VF Remix free-of-charge to anyone that requested it. It may have been sent to all registered Saturn owners, I'm not sure. I never registered my Saturn. I had to request mine by sending in a form to Sega. This version was released in 1996 on the PC as Virtua Fighter PC. I've never played it.

VF Saturn


VF Remix Saturn


Sega 32X - 1995

As explained, the original Saturn version was shit. But the 32X version, that was something to be proud of. Because of the technical limitations of the 32X, the characters were blockier but that being said, the characters were nice and big. More importantly, the graphics were free of the distracting glitches that plagued the Saturn. A combatants arm stayed where it was supposed to. The edges of arena's simply sat there like they're supposed to.

The game seems to run a little slower, but otherwise everything's great. The controls are spot-on. The sound effects and music are just beautiful (an amazing feat considering that the it uses the Genesis for its music and sound effects). I just love this version. It impresses me to no end. Sega took their time and it shows.



Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary (Playstation 2) - 2003

VF 10th Anniversary is a weird amalgam of VF1 and VF4. Its supposed to recreate VF1, but the characters aren't as blocky. The graphics and animation seems smoother than they're supposed to be. The combat and characters seem to move a little more quickly than they're suppposed to. They've also allowed you to use characters and moves from later VF games.

All in all, this is fun. It's an adequate version to play with, but in the end feels like a bastardization of the original. The screenshot posted below is a comparison I found on google images which shows the difference between this version and the original pretty well.