Virtua Fighter, not Super Smash Bros., not Tekken, not Dead or Alive, is the originator of the 3D fighting game. AM2’s groundbreaking title jumped on the hype train for fighting games and virtual reality with the promise of a realistic martial arts experience that had never been seen before.
31 years later, we can properly see that some of that hype was a bit exaggerated. Virtua Fighter wasn’t really a VR game, and while it had full 3D polygonal characters squaring off, they didn’t really have full movement across a 3D plane. Newer gamers may even find the game’s title and design to be quaint.
When you talk to fighting game fans today, they will say that Virtua Fighter is important because it’s the reason Tekken exists, to compete against it. But that’s totally underselling it. Virtua Fighter, which was playable in arcades one year before Donkey Kong Country came to the SNES, was a major step forward in bringing games from 2D to 3D.
Virtua Fighter demonstrated to other developers that they didn’t have to wait 10 or 20 years to make their 3D games like Quake, Tomb Raider, Panzer Dragoon, etc. On top of that, it went on to become a fixture in the fighting game genre, that prompted a wave of other 3D fighting games.
And it also forced 2D fighting game developers to step up with their own games, leading to classics like Street Fighter III and the entire King of Fighters franchise.
But the fighting game genre slowly dropped in the rankings of the top video game genres from the 1990s to the 2000s. The last numbered game in the Virtua Fighter franchise, Virtua Fighter 5, debuted all the way back in 2006.
Sega themselves struggled to find how to keep interest, and sales, going for their signature fighting game franchise. This wasn’t unique to them, but I think we can all agree they didn’t have to take this long to try again.
Today, Sega has launched a Steam listing for Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Stunningly, this is the 7th iteration of this particular game, now offering 4k visuals, high resolution textures, and rollback netcode. Listed as developer as RGG Studio, who does have some staff who originally made these games.
Now, we won’t sugarcoat this. Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. is definitely not the generational jump that Street Fighter 6 had from Street Fighter V. It’s definitely a small upgrade, just enough to get the game back in the hands of the fighting game community.
So, this might not quite be the big comeback for the Virtua Fighter franchise yet. Sega may have to copy the features that Capcom and Namco added to Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, like virtual arcade lobbies, to really live up to modern day expectations.
But this is definitely a revival for Virtua Fighter, to help bring back that interest with the fans, maybe find some new ones. And it’s the next big step Sega needed to take, to move forward into making Virtua Fighter 6.
You can watch the official Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. in-game opening cinematic below and wishlist it on Steam here.
