Virtua Fighter

"Aaagh! My eyes!! My poor eyes!!!"

Virtua Fighter…This game gets a five for a few reasons. One, it was the very first Saturn game. The programmers were inexperienced, so I'll cut them a little slack. Two, the base game didn't look much better, so I'll cut them a little slack there, too. Three, it plays like Virtua Fighter should, and that gets the most points here. The mind truly does gloss over bad memories, and I played this one a while ago, so bear with me. I thankfully do NOT own this relic, and for good reason. I picked up my Saturn when they gave Virtua Cop, Daytona U.S.A., and Virtua Fighter 2 free with the system, so I had no real need to buy Virtua Fighter. I did, however, play it beforehand though. Virtua Fighter was blocky in the arcades, but here it's actually much worse looking. “Lego Fighter” is a far better title. Everything looks pretty darned bad, and after seeing this game one wonders how many AM2 programmers sold their souls so they could gain the programming skills needed for their fantastic Virtua Fighter Remix and Virtua Fighter 2 Saturn conversions. Everybody knows about Virtua Fighter, or at least they SHOULD; eight fighters have gathered from around the world to compete against each other and blah blah blahbitty blah blah, throw in Dural at the end, and that's about it for the story. No endings in here, either, just like every Virtua Fighter game, and I often wonder why they do not put more work and personality into the single-player experience. You’re not going to be playing against another person ALL THE TIME, so why not give the player more incentive to play 1P mode other than to just hone their skills? Anyway, this is the very first 3D fighter to appear on the scene, the one all others came after, the one they all strived to beat. This one created the dastardly ring-out, and you could lose the round with a full health bar if you happened to be careless. That sucked, and always will suck. It also, for some strange reason, created the notion that 3D fighting game characters need to jump five hundred feet up in the air, and float down fifteen seconds later. Whyyyyyyy do I need to jump that high into the air, and descend that slowly? Never could figure that one out. Pounce attacks were invented here, too, and all were happy. Hit your opponent while they’re down! Fast forward to the Saturn's release. This looked good considering it made your Super NES and Genesis games look like crap, but...fast forward to the second generation Saturn releases, and this game was looking bad. Fast forward to Virtua Fighter Remix, and it now looked like utter trash, and with Virtua Fighter Remix around, there was no real reason to play Virtua Fighter anymore.

Graphics: So blocky and crappy you'll literally feel your stomach twist into a knot and explode. Then your eyes will try to sink themselves inside your skull to hide from the horrible images. Let's move on, shall we? This is the worst thing EVER to appear on the Saturn, hands down. If ever there was an indicator needed of how much programmers can progress in a year, they should put Virtua Fighter and Virtua Fighter Remix, then Virtua Fighter 2 all side by side. But graphics were never Virtua Fighter’s focal point to begin with; they are just the vessel in which the gameplay came packaged in.

Sound: The music is all right, but it didn't stay with me like Virtua Fighter 2's score did. The sound effects are pretty good as well, but need a bit of beefing up in the hit effect department, just like #2 does, actually. It just doesn’t sound satisfying when your character’s attacks connect, so it loses a bit of the impact. Everything is pretty good in the sound, but not great.

Control: Now we get to the game's finest point. The controls will allow the Virtua Veteran to pull off all their favorite combos and moves with more ease than ever, due to the Saturn pad and its many buttons. The game still PLAYS like Virtua Fighter, despite the ugly looks. Virtua Fighter is, arguably, the deepest fighting game series ever created. You don’t just learn to play the games, you basically learn a martial art. You need to know your character’s large move list inside-out in order to take full advantage of them. There is also, arguably, no single “best” character, as a skilled player can defeat anyone who comes after them with any of the eight fighters. Well, Dural is a bit more powerful than the others, but she’s not a regular character…

Funfactor: Against the CPU, this game is rather weak, just because of the limited amount of fights, and zero replay value because of the lack of endings. Credits? All I get are credits?? Bleh. Fighting against human beings is where Virtua Fighter earns its fun-fun silly-willy points in droves. Virtua Fighter, though it has a small roster, can entertain in versus mode with the best of them. There are lots of moves per fighter, though not as many as in Virtua Fighter 2 or 3, and there is a lot to learn here. 3D fighting standards were created in this game, and they are still used in today's 3D fighters for a reason. Except the big, floaty jumps...those still suck.

Replayability? At the time it came out, yes, because it came with the Saturn as its pack-in game. You bought a Saturn, you got Virtua Fighter, too. But today, uh, in a word, no. You'll play it to laugh at it, but that's about it. Virtua Fighter Remix and Virtua Fighter 2 turn this CD into a coaster, and nothing more...It’s only a part of history now, and if you really want to play it to see how the first game “feels” compared to Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua Fighter 3tb, find Virtua Fighter Remix instead, so you’ll at least get treated to the great visuals of Remix along with the classic VF1 gameplay. GlucoseJoe

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/28/00, Updated 05/28/00