Daily Radar says....

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Our Virtua Fighter 3 Review

I read your Virtua Fighter 3 review and a lot of what you said rang true. With Soul Calibur upgraded for the Dreamcast's power, it's hard to compete graphically. And Soul Calibur's motion capture is impressive indeed. Virtua Fighter does start to look aged in comparison.
What you neglected to note, however, was the extreme depth of mastery possible in Virtua Fighter 3. Since Soul Calibur is the current benchmark, let me use it for comparison. In SC there are a huge number of move available, but the control system is a little unreliable. Often you'll be trying for one move and get a completely different one. There's so much you can do you often have to pick a few moves you can do and let the rest of your fight go pot-luck. VF3 has almost as many moves and combinations available to those adventurous to seek them out. To someone who has not played VF3 for very long, it might seem like there are only a fe viable moves, but were you to play a veteran, you would see any number of moves you either didn't suspect being useful or simply didn't know come into play. VF3's control scheme is rock solid, meaning that you almost always get the move you want out of it and the moves and their interactions are much more calculated and precise than anything Namco has to offer.

Truly though, VF3 is a daunting game to the casual fighter, but to a master, or someone desiring to be, the moves and mechanics will constantly reward with a learning curve that even a kung-fu master could respect: all or nothing.

I suggest you play VF3 a bit more against truly hard opponents and learn the system well before you try reviewing this one again. As far as moves and mechanics are concerned, a good overview requires a lot of play time. I've barely broken the surface in my year of experience with the game in Japanese arcades and while watching arcade matches I've seen some spectacular strategies, wins, and losses of the type you will never find in Soul Calibur or any of its ilk.


Brandon Walker


Brandon, thanks for the constructive (and exceptionally polite) criticism of my VF3tb review. Given the pounding I have been receiving from VF3 fans, I must honestly admit that to say this game has a lack of depth is completely wrong. I should have stuck to the point that I feel the fighting engine is awkward. You are right in saying that it's good to rekindle the enthusiasm I had for this game 2 years ago. However, I maintain the game is nowhere NEAR the Calibur (you'll pardon the pun) of Namco's fantastic fighter for the Dreamcast. Given it's Sega's flagship fighting franchise, that's very disappointing.
It is true, though, that the title has an enormous following internationally, and we are giving serious thought to doing a special feature on its fans and the special VF3 tournaments that occur around the country. Hopefully that will be on DailyRadar in the coming weeks.

- Jim Preston



ice-9 | Sennin

 

If you ask me, I'm willing to bet Mr. Preston referred to the manual Sega supplied with the game as his definitive move list.

ice-9 | Sennin