It's a little known fact that Shenmue was originally going to be a spin-off of Virtua Fighter. While many references remain, most famously in the shape of those little toys, the characters have been completely changed. It's interesting, then, that after the closure of Yu Suzuki's social Shenmue game, Shenmue Gai, his team are supervising a new Virtua Fighter spin-off called Virtua Figher Cool Champ.
Developed primarily by Epics (but supervised by Ys Net Studio and, ultimately, SEGA), Cool Champs is a card game which has you building up a character and fighting off against your friends. It'll be available via the Mobage service in Japan and is unlikely to ever see a western release. The game is available from today.
Yu Suzuki created many of SEGA's biggest games including Virtua Fighter, Virtua Cop, Out Run and Shenmue. He has said more than once over recent years that he'd like to finish the Shenmue story, but is currently working almost exclusively on social gaming.
