Virtua Fighter 2


Developer: 

 AM R&D Dept. #2

Publisher: 

 Sega

Players: 

 1-2

TV System: 

 Europe / PAL

Accessories: 

 N/A

Style: 

 3D Beat'em up



Just like Sega Rally, this game is getting pretty old now - but is still the best Saturn beat 'em up available. Using the Saturn's hi-res mode and running at a very smooth 60 frames per second, VF2 is one of the most graphically amazing games there is to buy.

There are now 10 fighters to choose from, with the new additions of Lion and the drunken kung-fu master, and might I add the granddad of VF2, Shun. Lion is 15 years old, and very agile. Shun is, well - pissed. Some of his moves are just so weird you can't help laughing, and he adds a comedy touch to the game while still establishing himself as one of the best fighters.

The graphics are amazing. It is a long way better than VF1, as that used very few polygons, a low(ish) res mode and no texture mapping. VF2 includes tons of texture mapping, hi-res and tons of polygons - with absolutely no slowdowns or indeed any problems at all.

The 2-player game invades the computer game borders once again and is great. Because this game only involves to fighters in a reasonably small ring, it doesn't use a split screen and instead just looks like a normal fight. The further apart the fighters go, the further out the camera gets and looks quite good. This is the only way of pummelling your friends in this way without getting into trouble, so you might as well put up with this.

The music is just brilliant. Every song sounds very different and they are all enjoyable to listen to. The sound effects are good to, with some good bone-snapping noises and some great 'whoosh' sounds for things like roundhouse kicks or sweeps. It also features some nice fist-meets-face samples and gives a good feeling when you hear the smack of your opponent being hit. The winning poses include some good speeches and you can't help but agree completely with the Japanese speeches (well - you might if you could understand them).

There are plenty of options like rounds each fight and difficulty settings. Once you complete the game you get another options menu in which you can alter the ring size and which ring you fight in (which also gets you straight to that character in tournaments). Put simply, there are just too many options.

But what about the bad points? And yes indeed, it foes have some. For instance its lastability. It's only really fun for beat-em-up pros or fans of this gaming genre. But if you haven't really tried this before, eventually it becomes a bit boring and you'll find yourself leaving it for a few weeks, then finding it a bit boring again when you try it next. But it still is technically a great game and is almost arcade perfect - the resolution is higher than the arcade version. Good for pros at this sort of game, but try it first if you're new.

Graphics: 

 97%

Sound: 

 94%

Playability: 

 93%

Lastability: 

 90%

Overall: 

 95%


This is an absolutely brilliant game which you must have. But you may soon find this a bit boring and leave it for a while. It's great just for a 10-20 minute play but playing it every day may grow a bit boring if you're not familiar with this sort of game. It received the high rating because of it being technically amazing in terms of graphics, etc - the work put into this must have been phenomenal. If you try to look for new moves yourself it would be a bit more enjoyable, but there's a list in the book which you can't help but read. It is a brilliant game which you should buy now at roughly £20, but it might wear off within a few months. It's still very fun and playable, but despite the visuals this game is not quite what it is always cracked up to be. But an excellent arcade conversion which you have to buy.

Review By: Joel Stanier



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