VIRTUA FIGHTER 6 PROFESSIONAL
VIRTUA FIGHTER 6 SERIES

Granted it was more of a semi playable interactive-type demo than a real game (four lucky Japanese show attendees actually got to play the demo!), but what was being demonstrated was running on an actual prototype of Sega's new Model 3 board.

Never in the history of gaming has any product ever look as good as Virtua Fighter 3. Your editors were there to witness the unveiling, and what was shown was unbelievable. The long-awaited sequel to Sega's immensely popular Virtua Fighter 2 arcade game made its world debut at the AOU (Amusement Operator's Union) arcade show in Tokyo on Feb. Right now, the AM2 team is looking at using the same technology for the upcoming Daytona 2 coin-op. Virtua Fighter 3 is due to ship into American arcades late in Summer and may well give Capcom and SNK something to worry about. There are two (possibly with another one hidden) new characters in the VF3 line-up, as well as your old favorites, all of whom have been updated with new moves and more subtle strategies.Two new characters may not sound like a whole lot, but the Japanese audience that made the game so popular in the first place will lap 'em up. Each character behaves exactly like their real-life counterpart, using highly convincing martial arts techniques. The new characters look more like prerendered intros than live game fighters and the overall effect is staggering.The graphics do more than tart-up a jaded game style, they give life to the exceptionally realistic characters.Yu Suzuki, the team leader has continued to research actual martial arts, and the results are fabulous.

VIRTUA FIGHTER 6 PROFESSIONAL

The new incarnation of Virtua Fighter has been created by Yu Suzuki and his AM2 team using the brand new (and untried) Model 3 system board.This machine apparently has polygon handling like nothing else on Earth and was developed in conjunction with Martin Marrietta, the professional flight-sim experts. Sega's coin-op division recently unveiled Virtua Fighter 3 at the recent AOU arcade show in Japan. Look forward to more news on this amazing arcade machine soon. The bad news is of course that a Saturn conversion could never hope to look anything like as good as this.The problem with setting yourself such high standards-they're nearly impossible to beat.

VIRTUA FIGHTER 6 SERIES

They got to watch a series of early demos (from which these shots are taken) and went away breathless. When this game was unveiled (and at a very early stage) to a Japanese arcade convention, the crowd gasped in awe and astonishment. The results of all this hard labor and intensive research have to be seen to be believed. Rather, he has endeavored to hone and perfect the mechanics and characters used in VF2. Yu has added a couple of new characters, but not enough to make this a completely new game. The results are among the most impressive displays of motion-capture ever seen.These characters move and look exactly like real human beings, albeit a bit shiner. If the graphic appeal of the game wasn't enough, the third game in the series promises to offer even more addictive and enjoyable fighting action.Yu Suzuki takes his martial arts very seriously and each character is modeled on an expert in a real fighting style.

Stage five is planned to look like film footage rather than graphics.

Yu Suzuki apparently has a five-stage plan.This is stage three. Running at an awesome (and completely convincing) 60 frames per second, Virtua Fighter 3 has the most lifelike characters ever seen in a game. Graphics just don't get much better than this. As a matter of fact, the gameplay sequences look like high-quality rendered intros rather than live action fighting. Sega has just unveiled the first look at Virtua Fighter 3 and the good news for Sega fans is that it puts almost every other arcade game to shame. Virtua Fighter has never really been huge here in the US, but in Japan, they just can't get enough of it. Perhaps his most important games to date have been Virtua Fighter and VF2. Since the early days of Space Harrier and Hang On, he has been Sega's leading light when it comes to arcade development. Yu Suzuki has been a very, very busy boy.

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