US Saturn Release #001 - Virtua Fighter
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
As a port of the arcade version of Virtua Fighter, this is an incredible showcase for the Saturn. It really doesn't age wonderfully in the visuals department, but I hardly think that matters. My only critique on the visuals is that there's a lot of flickering polygons in the character models, and sometimes to the game maps go a little crazy when you jump around. It's like the game camera doesn't know how to properly display the playfield when you do that.
The gameplay itself feels really weird though, which is kind of sad. I think the game tried to be a lot more realistic, at least closer to real martial arts in comparison to something like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter. I feel like that just made it harder for me to play it though. Stuff like manually turning around and lows not blocking mids like the games I'm used to playing. Also, I had a seriously hard time getting special moves and grabs out. I don't know if it's just me not being good or that this game functions differently input-wise to other fighters. I'm not excellent at fighting games but I have an ok time adapting and pulling off moves. Here, I could barely do anything.
It was very fristrating, but part of me feels like it's just me being bad at the game rather than the game just being poorly executed. I would have loved to train, but there really isn't a training mode here. You can try to train in the arcade mode, but I feel like the A.I. gets too hard too quickly. It even tries to cheese you by jumping around when the clock runs low, trying to time you out. Surely you can cheese it back, but I really don't know how to yet. You could also jump into the VS mode alone, fighting a static opponent, but that didn't help me out much either.
I'm being rather critical, but I understand that this was kind of a big deal at the time. I also understand that I'm struggling to enjoy it partly because I'm playing solo, when fighters are at their most fun when you're playing with friends. I'm sure if I was playing with friends, I would have bumped this up a couple points. But as it stands now, this didn't really do much for me for the time I played it.
5/10
I really think you should try it out. You might not like it but you might find more here than I did. Just be sure to play with somebody else if you can.
Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE
As a port of the arcade version of Virtua Fighter, this is an incredible showcase for the Saturn. It really doesn't age wonderfully in the visuals department, but I hardly think that matters. My only critique on the visuals is that there's a lot of flickering polygons in the character models, and sometimes to the game maps go a little crazy when you jump around. It's like the game camera doesn't know how to properly display the playfield when you do that.
The gameplay itself feels really weird though, which is kind of sad. I think the game tried to be a lot more realistic, at least closer to real martial arts in comparison to something like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter. I feel like that just made it harder for me to play it though. Stuff like manually turning around and lows not blocking mids like the games I'm used to playing. Also, I had a seriously hard time getting special moves and grabs out. I don't know if it's just me not being good or that this game functions differently input-wise to other fighters. I'm not excellent at fighting games but I have an ok time adapting and pulling off moves. Here, I could barely do anything.
It was very fristrating, but part of me feels like it's just me being bad at the game rather than the game just being poorly executed. I would have loved to train, but there really isn't a training mode here. You can try to train in the arcade mode, but I feel like the A.I. gets too hard too quickly. It even tries to cheese you by jumping around when the clock runs low, trying to time you out. Surely you can cheese it back, but I really don't know how to yet. You could also jump into the VS mode alone, fighting a static opponent, but that didn't help me out much either.
I'm being rather critical, but I understand that this was kind of a big deal at the time. I also understand that I'm struggling to enjoy it partly because I'm playing solo, when fighters are at their most fun when you're playing with friends. I'm sure if I was playing with friends, I would have bumped this up a couple points. But as it stands now, this didn't really do much for me for the time I played it.
5/10
I really think you should try it out. You might not like it but you might find more here than I did. Just be sure to play with somebody else if you can.