Power to the People: A Virtua Fighter 32X Retrospective

Power to the People: A Virtua Fighter 32X Retrospective.
All in-game footage captured from a real Sega 32X via the wonderful OSSC Pro.
Correction: Although the box features the AM2 logo, development of this game was lead by Sega CS-4.
If you enjoyed this retrospective, please take a look at my retro-infused sci-fi (ish) novels here:
www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Samue...

[@Alianger]

Get get get, get thumb

[@who432]

I sank so many hours into this game. I got the 32X with this included for $20 in the fire sale after it was discontinued.

[@retromuel]

That's a damn good buy. Thanks for watching.

[@MarkFrankJPN]

$30 for me but same bundle, worth every penny at that price.

[@TheBeird]

One of only five games I had on the 32X, along with Stellar Assault, Star Wars Arcade, Knuckles Chaotix and Doom. By far, Virtua Fighter was my favourite

[@claydogg234]

Stellar Assault/Shadow Squadron and Doom are no jokes either. Star Wars Arcade is a decent action game and stunning technical showpiece for the 32x but it's way too difficult. I ordered a reproduction copy of Knuckles Chaotix. I'm curious to see how that game will play since Sonic fans have divided opinions on it.

[@chriswright6245]

Was it a good system?

[@sagittariusseiya8310]

Virtua Fighter is always my favourite fighting game and it's still is until this day. I hope that Virtua Fighter 6 will make a dream come true for the 30th anniversary of Virtua Fighter and Virtua Fighter live action movie.

[@orderofmagnitude-TPATP]

I was quite a spoilt child thanx to a divorce but one time my father was out of work through redundancy; he felt bad as all he got was this for my 32x one birthday .... honestly probably one of the best birthdays ever. I was so damn happy havin this in my home.

[@CocktailFridays]

Dude this is so great, I still cite Virtua Fighter 32X as one of the most ultimate home-ports of all time. Just like you point out, I remember being mesmerized by Virtua Fighter in my local arcade as a pinnacle of arcade technology.. and when I heard that they might bring it HOME to the 32X!? I was like "I have to see it to believe it", and when I finally had it, I would just invite my friends over and play this beast for hours since we truly now had the arcade experience sitting in my bedroom! This was a moment in sega port history that will never be topped.

[@retrobeastgames]

I loved VF back in the day, as i was a massive SEGA fan boy, still am, VF was breath taking when it came out in the arcade, first of its kind, great video mate

[@ricepony33]

If there are any developers watching there is a real market for a proper port of the original arcade. I’d start by ripping the Astro mini version and improving it for PC. People will pay $$!

[@MacUser2-il2cx]

There's a remastered version for Virtua Fighter 2 on PS3 and XBOX 360 that was sold digitally too. I think it was on Steam?

[@DonnyK17]

@@MacUser2-il2cx No, it's only the Genesis/Mega Drive version of VF2 on Steam. There is an actual PC version, but it's abandonware, and it can be difficult to get running properly on modern PC setups.

[@MacUser2-il2cx]

@@DonnyK17 Ok yeah we need the arcade version back asap!

[@cartoonworld1000]

@@DonnyK17 no that person is correct there is an arcade perfect PS2 port of VF2, it was part of the Sega Ages 2500 collection. They then used that version as the base for the PSN/XBLA version. Too bad it's not on Steam though, only the Genesis version.

[@graemetimmins]

Hooves!

[@Awesmic1]

And on top of all this, it had selectable fixed camera angles and two secret perspective angles by simply pressing right several times.

[@burmecian123]

Mercenary Tao is my favorite virtua fighter character.

[@TheHorrorExperiment]

I always thought VF was an Underrated series, as well as Power Stone.

[@franciscor390]

It is, it's a very elegant game with simple yet hard to master movesets. It does many things in reverse compared to the other more bombastic and popular fighting games. To me it is unmatched.

[@bombjack1984]

This was a great port, but my favourite 32X game by far is Virtua Racing Deluxe.

[@gamecomparisons]

I've still got my launch day Virtua Fighter 32X, and the pre-order VHS tape sitting right here behind my couch. I'll play this on 32X before Saturn, or the glitchy Mame version, and especially the VF Evo travesty on PS2 that is totally not Virtua Fighter at all. The 32X game looks great with my HD Retrovision Component Cables or Composite on my Plasma screen too. I do believe those 2D backgrounds are entirely on the Genesis VDP side, not enhanced except that they can use all 61 colors for the background alone, instead of sharing them with sprites as the average Genesis game screen required.

[@retromuel]

That's interesting and it makes sense. Is it VF Evo specifically you don't like or Virtua Fighter 4 as a whole? Thanks for watching.

[@gamecomparisons]

You can hook the video cable directly to the Genesis AV out to see what it is producing, or play with layers in an emulator. I played VF4 and Evo quite a bit on PS2. I was referring to the VF1 esque flat shaded mode of Evo mostly. It still plays like VF4, not like the original VF, but I've seen it referred to as "the best way to play VF1" many many times. As for PS2 VF, my first gripe is the backgrounds and texture detail are a huge step back from VF3 in the Arcades or Dreamcast, not to mention the aliasing. Naomi 2 VF4 had super sharp textures for cloth on the characters, and the floors, and the backgrounds. All of these are glossed over in the glowing reviews that essentially marketed the PS2 versions as "arcade perfect." Meanwhile the actually nearly Arcade perfect VF3tb was utterly thrashed by the media, and subsequently people who like to repeat what they read on the internet. Gameplay wise, I also came to understand VF4 and VF5 as a digression to button masher friendly gamers. Especially with Akira, if you mess up a combo, he just continues doing other moves, rather than being immediatly open to a counter combo. I'm sure they are still very balanced, but I never appreciated seeing my character just keep punching and kicking, but not the moves I intended. That said, I still play VF4 PS2 and VF5 on 360 from time to time, but nowhere near as often as VF3tb or VF2 on Saturn. That is mainly due to the shift in gameplay focus.

[@retromuel]

Yeah I had the Japanese "10th anniversary" game and it most definitely wasn't Virtua Fighter 1! I also had a Sega Naomi 2 hooked up with a Raspberry Pi SD loader at one time and I really regret selling it now! It was definitely superior to the PS2 version although I think they did a good job capturing the aesthetic on PS2 considering the Naomi 2 was essentially 2 Naomis bolted together. Yes Dreamcast Virtua Fighter 3tb is a very good port, albeit bare bones. I have a (short) comparison of it on my Virtua Fighter 3 arcade retrospective (unfortunately my board is the original version, not "TB," so it's not entirely fair, but you can see that they're actually very close.) I'm not as interested in 4-5 mainly because of the aesthetic shift from the original 3 games. The blue, blue sky era Sega stuff is my jam, and the soundtracks also are a huge part of the experience. They're still excellent games though of course.

[@Jolly-Green-Steve]

The Sega CD and 32x should have been the same system with no Genesis required. It should have focused on Arcade/Super-Scaler/Sports titles and it would have done well. 2x cd-rom... 4 meg ram... with cartridge slot like Saturn for cart based games and ram expansion. Late 93 launch for 299.99 with 20 games for launch titles including new Sonic/Virtua Fighter/Virtua Racing/NBA Jam/Final Fight/Street Fighter 2 CE/Mortal Kombat 1 and 2/Run and Gun/Cadillacs And Dinosaurs/Galaxy Force 2/Metal Black/new 2d Contra/Outrunners.... etc.

[@neko_samurai]

Sega CD came much earlier. 32X was destined to fail because its entire POINT was to upgrade your Genesis at a lower cost than a brand new console. That’s why it was made. They were already launching the Saturn, which was to be the true next gen 32-bit console that brings the arcade home. Releasing the 32X as a standalone console just a year before the Saturn was only going to eat into both consoles’ sales even more, because why would people want to buy two new Sega consoles in such a short amount of time, especially when one of them was underpowered compared to the Jaguar and 3DO, let alone the upcoming PlayStation and Nintendo 64? The 32X should’ve just never released, full stop. Sega of America’s insistence on releasing an upgrade to extend the Genesis, when they knew full well that Sega of Japan was developing a more powerful, true successor confused the audience and ate heavily into Sega’s R&D funds.

[@Jolly-Green-Steve]

@@neko_samurai I unfortunately owned both the Sega CD and the 32x. They should have released the Saturn with 6 meg ram standard and never released the CD or 32x add ons. They should have focused on sprite scaler arcade games as well. The launch lineup needed Outrunners/Racing Hero/TMNT Arcade/MK 1+2/SF2 etc.

[@theobserver4214]

@@Jolly-Green-SteveThe CD add on was a decision taken by SOJ, and could have worked had the system been engineered to be more cost efficient, and SOA was cooperated with. Seeing how the CD add on allowed for far larger and more dynamic games, it was understandable. The real failure was with 32X.

[@Jolly-Green-Steve]

@@theobserver4214 Well with Sega CD they should have just waited till late 1993 to release it in all regions but made it stand-alone and backwards compatible to the Genesis(16mhz 68000 down-clocked when running Genesis carts).... made it 15-bit(32,768 color capable) with 2X-speed cd-rom and increased the video ram/system ram 2X(512kb/2MB) and also focused on arcade ports instead of crappy FMV games and it would have done amazing. The pack in game would be Virtua Racing CD with 15 tracks and career mode. This system spec would have been possible by late 93 for 299.99 because original Sega CD was launched in 1991 in Japan.

[@theobserver4214]

@@Jolly-Green-Steve As a standalone “Genesis Pro” with backwards compatibility and a CD drive it could’ve done better for sure, since it wouldn’t be restricted by the Genesis. 15-bit color wouldn’t even be needed compared to 12-bit palette (or not upgrading it at all), the main issue with the Genesis color wise is that it can only display 64 colors on screen easily compared to the TG-16 which can easily go higher than 256 colors on screen. 2X drive would’ve been too expensive

[@JOBBBIN]

What is the music you used during the montage of 32X footage around 6 minutes in? It's incredible!

[@retromuel]

It's the replay music from Virtua Racing on the 32X. Awesome isn't it? Thanks for watching.

[@retrobeastgames]

Never had VF on 32x, had this on the SEGA Saturn, VF2 was a big jump graphics, but when Tekken came out it just killed VF chances of success

[@leehurst6922]

Was the version shown at the beginning a prototype? It had someone else instead of Akira, also the names were different

[@retromuel]

Yeah the prototype versions had an arab character called "Shiba," and some of the names were changed too. He later appeared as a playable character in Fighters Megamix on the Saturn. I think they dropped him pretty close to the final release of VF1, but I don't know the exact details. Thanks for watching.

[@pixelsrnautded9286]

What is the music playing at 6.50?

[@retromuel]

It's the replay music from Virtua Racing on the 32X.

[@System_Sega]

Did you ever play Virtua Fighter Remix on the Saturn?

[@retromuel]

Yes I did have VF Remix (bought it a few months after I got this one) and it was really good although to me it feels subtly different to the original arcade (and the 32X version) and I find it very slightly less enjoyable to play. I'll probably do a vid on it at some point. Thanks for watching.