Today we’re going to be talking about Virtua Fighter 2 on the Sega Genesis. It’s the game no one asked for. Ever. Sega’s popular fighting game helped usher in the age of 3D graphics in the arcades, and the home ports to the Saturn console are among the most impressive releases that generation. So why the 16-bit Sega Genesis then? I don’t actually know. Maybe it’s because the Sega Saturn was a failed console in the West, and Sega wanted to make a quick buck. Or maybe they really thought they could do the game justice on significantly weaker hardware. Only the developers know for sure. Either way it’s here, and we’ve been playing it for quite some time. Let’s take a look at this rather curious port.
Once again there’s almost no story. The intro sequence just shows us the character profiles. Am I the only who doesn’t care that Akira’s profession is a kung fu teacher, or that is blood type is O? I didn’t think so. The game is basically a tournament of fighters from around the world. That’s basically all you, me, or anyone else needs to know. The roster is filled with fighters that have different combat training. This ranges from the aforementioned kung fu to wrestling. They each play distinctly from one another, and as far as I can tell it’s a decent portrayal of the various disciplines. I’m no expert though. This is just my best guess.
For the uninitiated, Virtua Fighter 2 is a one-on-one fighting game. In this case it is two dimensional, and features a roster of eight characters to choose from. The basic way to play is arcade mode wherein you’re facing off against the entire line-up of characters in a series of bouts. The goal is simple. You have to beat the heck out of the other guy, and upon winning move on to the next one. Both combatants have a life bar and victory is declared when one is depleted. Or when the time runs out. Whichever comes first. Anyone who has ever played a traditional fighting game knows the score here.
The first thing you’ll notice is that this version of Virtua Fighter 2 is missing a few characters. Everyone from the original game is here. This includes Akira, Pai, Lau, Wolf, Jeffrey, Kage, Sarah and Jackie. That’s all fine and dandy, but did Sega think we wouldn’t notice that Shun-Di and Lion are missing? Normally I wouldn’t care that much. Unfortunately Shun-Di with his drunken fist style of fighting is one of my favorite characters in Virtua Fighter 2. It just isn’t the same without him. At this point they might as well have just called this Virtua Fighter because with the missing content it’s basically a port of that one. Slapping a 2 on the name is mean spirited trickery at this point.
Missing characters aside, the roster is pretty good. Characters move differently from one another, their recovery frames vary, and they each have their own set of strikes/moves. Even scaled down to a two dimensional package they still handle vaguely similar to their Saturn counterparts. Unfortunately this means the floaty jump physics are here too. This was always a little off-putting in the 3D games, but you get used to it. Unfortunately this feels more awkward with sprites. We know how characters in 2D fighters on the Sega Genesis are supposed to handle. This ain’t it.
That’s not to say that the game is horrible. It isn’t. Gameplay in Virtua Fighter 2 on the Sega Genesis is surprisingly reminiscent of the Saturn version. This means you can’t go in and play it like you would Street Fighter II. That simply doesn’t work. Virtua Fighter 2 is a more technical experience based on more realistic fighting moves. The game doesn’t spell out how to counter each attack. You’re left to figure this out on your own, and it’s highly rewarding. You only have three basic moves. These are punch, kick and block. Directional inputs in tandem result in different results, and these can be significant. The combo mechanics also return, and these require precise timing and inputs to pull off.
For the most part the pacing is decent in Virtua Fighter 2. Characters move just fast enough that it doesn’t feel like you’re waiting for them to get across the screen. That is until you fight Dural. His arena is an underwater one, and for some reason Sega thought it a good idea to reflect this in its physics. This final boss is a really slow and floaty fight. I’m not a fan. Why they did this in a game that was just barely fast enough to be interesting is beyond me. It sure doesn’t make things more exciting. A speed setting would have been welcome, but I guess Genesis owners had to take what they could get in 1997.
Sega managed to come closer than I thought they would to re-creating the gameplay in Virtua Fighter 2 here. With that said the character roster isn’t the only place cuts were made. Characters have fewer attacks. This also means less combos. For the most part each fighter’s trademark abilities made the cut, but it’s disappointing nonetheless. You also have fewer stages. This isn’t that big of a deal considering how the differences were nominal anyway. They are however smaller especially without 3D movement. At least the day and night system returns, and this adds some nice graphical changes.
Unfortunately there are some issues that make the game a little awkward to play. Invincibility frames, for one thing. The game has too many of them. Sometimes attacks that should clearly connect with a foe don’t. This occurs a lot when they too are launching an attack, and it’s not a problem that the Sega Saturn version had. Movement is also a little weird. It feels too slow to move backwards. The characters kind of use small leaps instead of steps. I didn’t like this, and felt that it made dodging attacks more difficult than they should otherwise have been. Furthermore, because of the move to sprites the animations cause some issues with timing. It took some serious adjusting before I was able to do decently in Virtua Fighter 2 on the Sega Genesis.
Also, this version of the game is pretty light on content. It has just arcade mode and versus mode. I mean, that’s pretty standard for a 16-bit fighter but the Sega Saturn version had a lot more to offer. Gone in this downport is team battle, expert mode, and watch mode. You can however still adjust options including the controls (even to use the six button controller), difficulty and handicap, but that’s pretty ordinary stuff. The only thing I don’t really miss is watch mode. Clearly there would be no point considering the game wasn’t exactly a technical showcase on the then aged hardware.
I said earlier that Virtua Fighter 2 on the Genesis isn’t a technical showpiece. That’s technically not true. It looks really good compared to other similar games on the console. The characters have a fair amount of animations, and the sprite work is quite good. The backgrounds are a little bland, but at least they use a lot of colors. Some of them even feature animations like lightning strikes which is really cool. The ground however looks amazing. The developers were able to pull off a pseudo 3D effect that looks marvelous. The soundtrack however is pretty bad. The Sega Genesis had a poor soundchip, and it does a not great job of re-creating the classic music. At least some of the tracks are still recognizable, but just barely.
