Virtua Fighter 2

Moby ID: 1124
Arcade Specs
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Description official descriptions

One year after after the first tournament Akira, Wolf, Pai, Jeffry, Kage, Jacky, Sarah and defending champion Lau are invited to the World Fighting Tournament, and are joined by the master of drunken Kung-Fu Shun-di, who wants to prove he's more than an old geezer and Lion Rafale, who's fighting for his freedom. Each fighter has his own style, from the lightning fast attacks of Pai to the powerful slams of Jeffry.

Home port of Sega's popular Model 2A arcade vs. fighter released in 1995. Game modes include classic arcade mode, 2P vs mode, Expert mode (where the computer character progressively learns and counters players' technique), Ranking Mode (similar to Arcade, but at the end, a fighting style analysis is shown based on number of specials and time to knock down an opponent), Team Battle Mode (two teams composed of five fighters go against each other, the first to beat five characters being the winner) and Watch mode (allows choosing two fighters and then see them fighting). Both VF2 and VF2.1 (a tweaked version available only in Japan) modes are included. Gameplay keeps the same style from the first game, adding more moves to each fighters' roll. Using a three-key layout (block, kick and punch, being possible to assign button combinations to the extra keys) the player is able to control their fighter, aiming to knock or push the opponent outside the rink inside the time limit. Combo moves range from the quickest, which require the player to push up to five buttons quickly, to strong moves that require more button presses along d-pad nudges to be successful. As with the previous game, fighting is realistic (except the physics-defying leaps), and each fighter has nothing but their body to harm the opponent.

While in comparison with the arcade version some parts took a hit on graphical quality (such as the texture details and backgrounds), the game uses the Saturn High-Resolution mode and flowing 60-fps to bring the arcade experience home.

Spellings

  • VR战士2 - Chinese spelling (simplified)
  • バーチャファイター2 - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Arcade version)

43 People (39 developers, 4 thanks) · View all

Main programmer
Main designer
Motion choreographer
Variety
Enemy
Object
Character Effects
Co-processor
AI & Rank mode
Motion set
Stage Effects
Scroll
Motion designers
Character designers
Stage designers
Texture designers
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 45 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 76 ratings with 5 reviews)

Martial-Arts with superior control.

The Good
One thing about VF2 is the variety in characters to choose from. Ok, there are 'only' 12 to choose from but most of them are very different to control. It's called the thinking man's beat'em'up for a reason. The learning curve is pretty steep which you'll realize as soon as you got smoked by a seasoned player. The other thing is the steering and the animations. It doesn't get much smoother. Forget the choppy Tekken rubbish. This is how it's done.

The Bad
There really isn't much to rant about. At it's time it was the best 3D beat'em'up out there. Hell, for me it still is! I still find myself playing once in a while despite being spoiled by all the cool graphics nowadays.

The Bottom Line
It's a classic. Go try it yourself but look under the surface. You're bound to find a true gem. If you can't get a hold of it then go and try at least VF4:Evo for the PS2. That will give you an idea - but you better don't use the standard PS2 pad since that one doesn't quite fit for this kind of games.

SEGA Saturn · by Hazuki (41) · 2004

Even better than the arcade version

The Good
All 1200+ moves from the arcade are there, and gameplay is still deeper than any other PC contender. The 3-button controls make learning the moves easy, but the demanding combo system makes every 5-hitter a real payoff. Every single character has won a tournament somewhere, meaning game balance is amazingly good. Characters look very nice and are based on real martial arts, so there are no super lightning moves or fatalities, but the realistic animations more than make up for this. The game will run at arcade-perfect 60fps. New features to the PC version include team battle, saving replays, included matches between 3 of Japan's best players, and plenty of CG character renders.

The Bad
The system requirements are very steep (your average Pentium 2 will have difficulty running on medium detail) and the "endings" for each character are just CG art. The stages aren't as impressive as the arcade version. The music and sound is still cheesy. The characters move like they would in real life: most moves are slow to recover and will miss completely in some situations, so it's very very difficult to pull off impressive combos.

The Bottom Line
If you liked VF2 in the arcades, this game is a no-brainer. If you like games like Tekken or Soul Calibur and want to try something new, be prepared to spend several weeks learning to beat the excellent AI, much less human competition. If you're new to 3D fighters, this is way too hard; try something else instead.

Windows · by Robyrt (46) · 2001

Probably the best

The Good
Graphically, the game ranks among the best in the platform. Nicely detailed backgrounds, high resolution, nicely designed characters, flicker-free graphics, and all this running at an impressive frame-rate, showing what the Saturn can do, as long as the developers know the internals. Which many didn't, sadly. If graphics are impressive (even lacking a lighting engine), gameplay is the true king in the game. All moves can be pulled with a bunch of punk/kick presses and d-pad nudges, and the result is awesome to look at. The animation of the moves is perfect, and if you are a wrestling fan, after playing with Wolf for a while you start wondering "why haven't Sega done a wrestling game?". It's a joy to pull some of the combos, like Sarah's double punch followed by her trademark somersault or one of many of Akira's moves, and personally, as long as I'm having fun throwing away the moves, the game is good. Simple as that.

The Bad
The game lacks a lot of unlockables that would be featured on other Sega fighters, such as the CG renders/drawings and extra fighters of Fighting Vipers and Fighters Megamix or the FMV clips of Last Bronx. Yet, it requires 180 memory blocks for bookeeping, when most other fighters are happy with taking 20 - that's like having a 2006 PC game (considering an average HD is 200 GB) requiring a 60 GB installation. The unlockables available are hardly notable - Sega's trademark "Option+" menu with stage select, rink size and fight with underwater physics aren't in par with games that held me until I could unlock everything, such as Super Puzzle Fighter 2 or Fighters Megamix. And with only 10 fighters to choose from, VF2 is more a matter of perfecting your style than to spend hours trying to find out what winning "like this" would do.

Finally, sounds (particularly voices) sound a little muffled, and incredibly, at a quality barely better than the Mega Drive version.

The Bottom Line
VF2 is a gem - the killer app of the Saturn, and one of the best 3D fighters of the 32-bit generation. However, until I find a memory card, it will be regularly played only when I'm terminally bored and don't mind deleting a few savegames from other games - while I do like bookeeping options, VF2 goes too far. For me, hours played, a top 20 in the arcade mode and a move checklist is enough. Of course, hardcore fans really don't mind that much, but would it harm to allow the player to select the level of bookeeping ?

In the end, VF2 is a title every Saturn owner should have. Had Sega followed it with another mainstream titles of the same quality, and the platform might have succeeded.

SEGA Saturn · by Luis Silva (13444) · 2006

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

Advertising

As part of Sega's advertising campaign in Portugal, a Saturday morning show (cyberMaster) pitched eight contestants in a knockout playoff showcasing the most popular titles (such as Mortal Kombat 3, FIFA 96 or Virtua Racing) for both the Saturn and the Mega Drive. The only game that was permanently featured in the show was Virtua Fighter 2, and was played between the two finalists to decide the winner.

Dural

The original arcade version was rumored to allow players to choose Dural, the final boss character, via some sort of super-secret code. This wasn't true, but she was made available for the Saturn version albeit only on vs and practice mode. Now guess what Sega did for the PC version?... they made Dural available on every game mode.

Easter Eggs

Beating 20 opponents with Kage makes his face mask fall off instead of just his headband when he falls down.

ESRB Rating

The version distributed by Expert Software has a packaging error. The front of the box lists the correct ESRB rating of "Teen", while the back incorrectly lists "Kids to Adults".

Patch

A Direct 3D patch was released to take advantage of hardware acceleration on slow PCs.

Popularity

Virtua Fighter at one point reached a popularity peak in Japan that went up to having actual schools that focused on teaching people how to play at their best in the game!

Promotion

At one point to boost Saturn sales Sega of America ran a promotion where if you bought a Sega Saturn they would give you Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop and Daytona USA for no extra cost.

Resolution

Virtua Fighter 2, at the time of release, boasted the highest resolution seen in a console game: 708x480.

Sales

Virtua Fighter 2 is Sega of Japan's only game to sell a million copies in Japan.

Awards

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • November 1997 (Issue 100) - ranked #79 (Best 100 Games of All Time) (Saturn version)
  • Game Players
    • 1995 Holiday Edition (Vol. 8, No. 13) - Game of the Year
    • 1995 Holiday Edition (Vol. 8, No. 13) - Best Saturn Game of the Year
    • 1995 Holiday Edition (Vol. 8, No. 13) - Best Fighting Game of the Year
    • 1995 Holiday Edition (Vol. 8, No. 13) - Best 32-Bit Graphics of the Year

Information also contributed by AkibaTechno, Big John WV, John Chaser, Luis Silva, Robyrt, Satoshi Kunsai, and Zovni

Analytics

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Derrick 'Knight' Steele.

PlayStation 3 added by Charly2.0. Xbox One added by Kennyannydenny. SEGA Saturn added by Kartanym. iPhone added by Sciere. Xbox 360 added by NIBOR 1904. Arcade added by The cranky hermit.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Alaka, ケヴィン, richardsu.

Game added March 23, 2000. Last modified February 13, 2024.