Virtua Fighter (series)

The computer video game Virtua Fighter is a fighting game of 1993, developed by Sega AM2 in collaboration with the studio. It was the first in a series of slot games that have been implemented for home consoles.

In 1998, the series of the Smithsonian Institution for his contribution in the field of art and entertainment was recognized and became a part of the study pieces of the Institute for Innovation in Information Technology.

Overview

The nickname Virtua suggests that the processes run in 3D; Virtua Fighter was the first game in the arcade area of ​​this kind, the images were generated by calculating the wireframes and filled polygons. In addition to revolutionary for its time representation Virtua Fighter is mainly for his extremely detailed combat system, which is based primarily on real fighting techniques known.

Successor

Virtua Fighter was released in 1993 as slot machines. The hardware for this was developed by Lockheed Martin in collaboration with Sega. New versions of the game were always accompanied by a new hardware basis ( Sega Model 1, Model 2 and Model 3). Virtua Fighter 3tb added to the gameplay in the year 1997 added team fights. Virtua Fighter 4 was finally released on the in-house NAOMI hardware in 2001.

Sega used the epithet Virtua also in other products, such as Virtua Racing and Virtua Tennis.

Chronology

Console versions

The conversion of Virtua Fighter to home consoles was a difficult task since the consoles of the time were not powerful enough to calculate the polygons in real time. In 1995, the game was brought to the 32X and the Sega Saturn on the market. Christmas 1995 Virtua Fighter 2 was converted to the Saturn, as well as a spin-off of the series called Virtua Fighter Kids. For the Saturn appeared still more games that were related to the Virtua Fighter universe: Fighters Megamix (1996) and Virtua Fighter Portrait Series (1996).

Sega's 8-bit Master System and 16-bit Mega Drive were not suitable for the representation of 3D worlds. However, since the series has seen so much success, Sega wanted to profit on the old console systems thereof. Sega created 2D offshoot of the Games in 1996. The Mega Drive was equipped with a 2D version of Virtua Fighter 2, which was held in the graphic style of the machine template, but lacked two fighters in the machine version and only had very few game modes. Therefore, and due to the 16-bit ratios at best mediocre graphics was this version of success failed. The conversion for the master system had little in common with the original, and had a highly simplified 2D graphics. Consequently, the game Virtua Fighter Animation titled.

The only implementation of Virtua Fighter 3 was released on the Sega Dreamcast as Virtua Fighter 3tb, which was implemented by Genki and published in 1998. After Sega withdrew from the hardware business, Virtua Fighter 4 has been implemented for the PlayStation 2 and published in 2002. A slightly improved version called Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution was released in 2003 and included two new characters, a better ( because flicker ) graphics as well as minor changes in the game mechanics.

Virtua Fighter 5, which was released earlier in Japan as an arcade game that was released in early 2007 for the PlayStation 3. End of October 2007 was followed by the Xbox 360 version, which also offers an online mode and compared to the Playstation 3 version is based on a newer version of Virtua Fighter machines and includes more unlockable items.

Others

The working title of the Dreamcast game Shenmue, which was also developed by AM2/Yu Suzuki, was originally Virtua Fighter RPG and included a combat system that was very similar to the Virtua Fighter series. During the entire duration - and also its successor - find characters whose appearance and fighting styles are very close to the model of the characters from Virtua Fighter. For example, the main character is actually the Virtua Fighter veteran Akira should be.

In addition, after the release of the video game Virtua Fighter 2 is a 35 - episode anime series was released. In the U.S. two seasons containing 24 episodes appeared. In Italy the series was first aired on a private channel with all the consequences and later released on a 18 -part VHS collection at regular intervals of 14 days.