Virtua Fighter 3tb
Dreamcast
Nostalgia Factor:
I'll never forget the first time I played this game. I was about 16 or 17 years old. The family was on a trip to Florida, where we were staying at a resort. There were so many fun activities to do at this resort, like mini-golf, swimming, basketball, pool, etc. But what did I spend the whole week doing? Hanging out in the arcade. This arcade had dozens of great games that I had never had much of a chance to play before. But the game that stood out to me was Virtua Fighter 3.
As soon as I laid eyes on the arcade cabinet, I feel like my jaw must have hit the floor. Graphically, the game was light years better than anything I had ever seen before. This was the era of the Saturn and the PS1 - notoriously known for its jaggedy, experimental 3D graphics. This game was on a completely different level. The characters were lifelike, the environments were amazing, and everything was so smooth and realistic. No blocky polygons, no messy pixel splotches. It was the most fluid and lifelike game I had ever seen in my life.
I had played Virtua Fighter and its sequel before. I liked the games, but had never been wowed by their graphics before. They were always a bit too clumsy and blocky for my tastes. But Virtua Fighter 3 was a game changer. I seriously felt like I was witnessing the next step in the evolution of video games. It looked that good.
I spent my entire week flitting around the arcade, checking the coin slots and looking under the machines for extra quarters. I put a good amount of time into Virtua Fighter 3 (as well as the many other arcade cabinets nearby), but I never got good at the game. Arcade fighting games are always insanely hard. They don't want you to win, they just want you to keep popping quarters in one after another. Eventually I had to go back home, but thoughts of the game and how amazing it looked never left my mind.
I had to wait a few years for the game to come out on the Sega Dreamcast. By then, the graphics in video games had improved, and I was no longer quite so smitten with Virtua Fighter 3. I bought the game, but I never invested much time in it. I'd say I probably completed the game about five or six times before I moved on with my life. There's only so much you can do in fighting games, which is why I don't really play them anymore. I don't think i have picked up the game since.
So here we are: 2024. Assuming I last played this in the year 2000, it means that 24 years have passed since my last experience with the game. The perfect game to come back and review.
How would I feel about it after so much time had passed? Time to find out.
Story:
If you go to the game's Wikipedia page, apparently it has some kind of story to it. But it is never once explained or talked about in the actual game. Nothing at the beginning of the game. When you beat the end boss and complete the game, the credits immediately start to roll. No story whatsoever.
Beating the game does unlock an "ending" in the special menu. It's just a cutscene compilation of the characters "doing things" set to music. Jeffrey catches a shark. Some guys in business suits get punched by Akira. If you've played Tekken, it is kind of like the opening montage to one of those games. Just a bunch of random, non-sequitur events featuring the game's characters, set to music. In no way, shape, or form does it feel like a proper ending for any of the characters. Oh well.
Gameplay:
Loyal readers will know that fighting games are not my favorite genre of game. In fact, I actively go out of my way to NOT play them. When I was a kid, they were fun. I loved Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. But when I realized how short the games were, and how you are essentially just doing the same thing over and over again, I quickly lost interest in them. I'd say it was around the time I first played this game in the arcade that I lost interest in the genre. In between then and the time I got my copy for the Dreamcast, I had already moved onto bigger and better things. That's why I didn't spend much time with the home version of the game. And that's also why I didn't spend much time on it for my review.
The game has several different modes, but they all amount to the same thing. You fight through a series of characters until you get to the end and square off against the metallic Dural. If you beat Dural, you complete the game. If you lose to Dural, you still complete the game. You only get one chance against her. I remember as a kid, it always sucked making it all the way to Dural and then losing.
Normal mode is what I played through first for my review. I picked Aoi and made my way through the game with relative ease. You only really use four buttons, aside from the d-pad. There's a punch button, a kick button, a block button, and a button where you can dodge left or right on the 3D plane. My strategy consisted of waiting for the enemy to attack, dodging, and then rushing in and doing some damage with a flurry of quick moves. I used the same strategy the entire game, and I was rarely challenged. I beat the whole thing in about fifteen minutes or so. It was so easy, I had to come back and check the setting to make sure it didn't default to easy mode. Nope, it was on normal.
I came back the next day and tried team mode. Essentially you are just picking two characters. When one lose, the other one comes in. You have to fight duos of enemies and knock out both of them to win the round. So it is basically the same as normal mode, except when someone loses a fight they switch out characters instead of just moving to round two. I beat this mode in about fifteen minutes. After that, I was done with the game.
So in total, I spent about thirty minutes with the game before I got tired of it and decided to count it as "complete." If I had someone to play versus mode against, I probably would have. But let's be real, it would not have added much replay value to the game for me. As I said, fighting games are not my thing. In thirty short minutes, I had seen and experienced everything I wanted to see and experience out of the game. Time to move along.
Graphics:
This is still a pretty good looking game. I don't think it looks as good as the arcade version, though. I noticed some jankiness and some blotchy textures from time to time. The characters are not quite as smooth as I seem to remember them. I don't know if it is because my memory is failing me, or because this version truly is not as good looking as the arcade.
What impressed me the most was the stage design. I just love the beach level, and how you can wade out into the water as you are fighting. Go too far out, and you fall off a drop and sink to the bottom of the ocean. I always thought that was fun. Other stages have things like stairs you can fight on, or big hills and bumps on the ground. One stage even takes place on a sloped roof. I was always used to flat surfaces when playing fighting games as a kid. Not only do the uneven surfaces look really cool and add a lot of depth to the game, but they affect the gameplay, too. Your character will fight differently when standing on a slope as opposed to a flat road. Seems pretty common in modern times, but back in the 90s this was revolutionary.
Sound:
I've always enjoyed the music and sound effects of this game. The song that plays during the game's introduction is one that immediately brings back memories. I just love it. I also love the little jingle that plays when your next opponent is introduced. It makes each matchup seem special and important. The rest of the game's music, while nothing particularly outstanding, fits the tone of the game perfectly.
I like the punch and kick sound effects, and how overly exaggerated they are. Thwock, thwack, boom! It's charming. I don't know how else to describe it. But the thing I'll always remember about this game is the announcer. "Fight one. Ready.... go!" There's just something about his voice that gets me so excited for this game. Maybe it is the nostalgia speaking. I remember being able to hear this guy's voice from all the way across the arcade when I was a kid on vacation in Florida. It always made my ears perk up. I still perk up when I hear it today.
Overall:
Obviously, this game carries a lot of sentimental weight with me. It meant a lot to me as a kid, and it completely changed the way I looked at graphics in video games and what they were capable of. Unfortunately, the gameplay itself is nothing to get too excited about it. It's a fighting game, just like dozens of other fighting games out there. You pick a character, you fight through some enemies, you beat the boss at the end, and then you are done. Yippee. You can only do this so many times. I got bored with the game after playing through it twice and spending about a half hour with it. I don't think there are even any unlockable characters or anything to keep you interested. Once you've beaten the game, you've seen and done everything there is to see and do.
I want to like this game. I mean, it really is not a bad game if you are into fighting games. It's just not for me. Fighting games rarely are. I don't think I've given a single fighting game a good review score since I started this blog nearly ten years ago. This one will have to join the club. It gets the 'ol C for average.
THE GRADE:
C
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