Virtua Fighter

"Not really good but not really bad either."

(Note for this first sentence try to do your best Michael Buffer impersonation)Ladies and Gentlemen,boys and girls get ready for LEGO FIGHTER!!! Well here I'am reviewing Virtua Fighter and for some strange I end up calling it Virtual Fighter by mistake at certain times. Although I'am not giving this game that high of a score it is pretty revolutionary because it is the first 3D fighting game(Not fully 3D but 3D as in graphics). This game did end up turning people's heads including my own but at the time we were not ready for this. Umm okay Sega we know you want to be innovative but its a little too early so why don't you try again in a year or so Mmmmmkay. Look I know a couple of people did go to the VF machine but it was probably only a quick stop at best and also I was hooked on both Super Street Fighter 2 and World Heroes 2 so Virtua Fighter was kind of left behind in some cases. Let's get to the fighters and they include the spiky hair super saiyan look a like Jacky,Jacky's sister Sarah who was originally going to be called Sara in the beta version,the Chun Li type fighter Pai,the Ryu clone Akira(Here's an interesting fact Akira was originally not going to be in this game instead some Arabian stereotype named Shiba was in his place but I guess some guy at Sega said ''Hey we can't make a fighting game without a Ryu clone'' so poor Shiba was dropped but he did appear in Fighters Megamix),Australlian strong guy Jeffery,the Canadian wrestler Wolf,the ninja Kage who I'am not sure he should be called a ninja since he doesn't use sleath type attacks but then again he's a hell of a lot better then the MK ninjas,and finally Lau the Chinese master who unlike most others like Gen or Tung Fu Rue is not a really old guy with a white beard. At the end you fight Dural a silver statue like fighter who uses moves from other fighters and well looks wise she was a Neo Geegus knock off from World Heroes(They are both silver fighters). Let us come on down to the review now.

Graphics
Back then graphics back in the day were great but now they only seem one step above the graphics seen in Battlezone. Once you think about the fighters looked like they were constructed out of Legos. Whenever one of the fighters opened their mouth all it showed was red and it made it look like that the inside of their mouths was a part of the face. Backgrounds were kind of drab like Jacky's beach level which was just a plain beach(No beach umbrellas,no towels just a beach with a bland looking ocean). The only ones I kind of liked were Sarah's night stage with a city in the distance and Jeffery's outback stage the rest were kind of junky. For the time they were great but now they are really showing their age.

Gameplay
It was pretty good fighting in 3D for the first time and yeah it did provide some entertainment but take note that I said some. You fight all of your opponents in a set order like every time you fight Jacky first and then Jeffery second and I wasn't a really big fan of that and well they didn't really fix this until the 3rd game. If there is one thing that the first game does not have too much of yet the sequels do is fun. For the first couple of minutes Virtua Fighter does seem kind of fun but it kind of decreased along the way and it was shall I say this kind of slow at points which also prevented you from having too much fun. To add to this this was one of the first games to have ring outs and in here if you go outside the ring you automatically lose so even when someone is almost dead and their opponent still has full health that person could still win. The gameplay is good at first but as time goes on it is only okay.

Control
There are three buttons and they are a punch button,a kick button,and a defense button for you to block. I wasn't to thrilled with the block button at first but it wasn't that bad pressing a block button in a 3D environment. I wish the game didn't move kind of slow because it just made controlling your fighter a little hard but not too hard. Your fighters also jump like 10 stories high and belive me Michael Jordan couldn't jump as high as some of fighters in this game. Control is okay.

Sound
Music was sounded alright but not too many of them will win me over. The announcer sounded silent at times but he was there and I'am surprised no one mentioned this but sometimes there was some audience that you could hear cheering on for you and that was pretty annoying but then again don't you think it is kind of cool that a crowd starts cheering you on when you do something really good(You don't see the crowd only hear it). The voices on the other hand suck and it is mostly something like laughs or the usual hi yas. It's okay but nothing great.

Replay
For a little while but not too long. It is possible that you will play this longer for a while but not that long and you can't change your guy when you continue the game(Of course sometimes I stick to the same person but C'mon at least at some points I want to change people). The replay value here is average.

Final Word
Virtua Fighter is on that thin line between good and bad and I must give this game credit because it was the first 3D fighting game. I don't really hate this game that much but seriously its only average and the later games make this one look obsolete. Pity poor Virtua Fighter because it was simply too advanced for its day.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/25/01, Updated 05/25/01