Virtua Fighter 3tb
Score: 80% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Sega Developer: Genki Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Fighting/ Arcade
Graphics & Sound: Once again folks, we are looking at a home version of an arcade original that darn near blows the big brother away. Some of the smoothest polygons you are gonna find next to Soul Calibur on the Sega super system. Independent animation of individual fingers, clothing, and even hair can be easily seen. The character movement is flawless, even down to the roaming and following eyes of each of the martial arts masters. Virtua Fighter 3tb sports a brilliant color pallet which makes the characters appear almost surreal. A jazzy score keeps the battles paced well. However, they sound just as midi as its arcade counterpart, which does a good job of keeping the arcade feel.
Gameplay: Virtua Fighter 3tb should definitely be taken into consideration by hardcore martial arts fans. The techniques are accurate, there are no super-jumps, and there is a strong sense of player strategy involved in taking on another experienced player. The complexity of the battle strategies definitely makes this one for a grown-up audience who are interested in depth of martial arts technique and individual style likeness.
Difficulty: A little lacking in this department, although so was the arcade. Virtua Fighter 3tb is easily beatable by mastering a few powerful techniques, and using them over and over. The A.I. does adjust to the player using the same technique; however, a quick change in strategy followed by returning to the original strategy leaves the computer somewhat helpless. Replay value of this one on a single player basis is somewhat non-existent. Most difficulty still lies in laying your fists of fury into a defenseless friend.
Game Mechanics: Whoooooooaaaaa! Sorry, I almost slipped on this game’s smoothness. The controls are extremely responsive, and react identically to its arcade roots. Combinations are somewhat difficult to master and button mashers are easily dismantled with this one. The major problem that I and most others found in the game was a problem which existed from day one in the line of Virtua Fighter games. The characters are kinda boring and really don’t have a large amount of substance to their backgrounds. This substance is what made and still makes the Street Fighter and Fatal Fury series more compelling to the gamers experience. People fight with characters to find out what happens next in that character’s lifetime. Overall though, I still give Virtua Fighter 3tb a thumbs up for its true-to-life fighting strategies.
-Sabumnim, GameVortex Communications AKA Larry Callier
Soul Calibur Time Stalkers