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Review: Sega Superstars: Virtua Fighter |
And now for something completely different.
Ever wanted to be in a fighting game? Virtua Fighter (one of twelve games in the Sega Superstars EyeToy compilation) is the quickest and easiest solution.
The title screen, high score table, and various fighters.
VF is an interactive fighting game which is very simple and easy to learn. You fight three 90-second matches in a row versus random opponents from Virtua Fighter 4: Akira, Jacky, Sarah, Kage, or Jeffry. Win against all three and you receive a total score. A top score rewards you with a snapshot for the high score table with three photo frames to choose from. Easy is the initial setting, Medium and Hard must be unlocked by beating the previous difficulty.
The EyeToy requires a well-lit area to fully detect the player’s body, it might also have trouble picking you up if your colors blend into the background so keep that in mind. By making any motion within an “Attack” icon on the opponent, it will register as a hit. Moving within a “Block” icon over your body will snuff an incoming attack. It is not difficult to determine the general size of the hitboxes, however if you strike within the wrong area the opponent will automatically block. Continuous attacks will build a combo counter. Once past the fifth hit, a “tunnel” effect (Hyper Mode) will activate and let you attack successively until you either miss or the enemy collapses. You can block an attack once a combo has started and the counter will continue to increase unless you take damage. The VF characters will use many signature moves against you. Voices, sound effects and music are all lifted faithfully from VF4.
Bottom: Elbow, Headbutt, Hyper Mode, Excellent!
The EyeToy does not require much distance to be played effectively, only about a five foot distance from the camera. The conventional way to play is by facing your right and turning your head toward the TV, which can be awkward and easily wear out one side of your body. A simple solution is to face the television and place the EyeToy on your left so you can move naturally without your head turned. The body outline displayed in the first few seconds of each round shows they intend for you to play with your whole body, but the game becomes much easier the closer you are to the camera.
Easy mode is slow-paced and accomodating. You have about a full second to Attack or Block when icons appear. The opponent will mostly attack just once, and only up to three times in a row. You can pace yourself comfortably and use your whole body to strike. Easy is where the bulk of the enjoyment is, but I’ll get back to that later.
Medium HUGELY ramps up the difficulty. Attack icons appear farther away and disappear faster, so you have to be closer to the camera to win. Your block icons appear much farther away from each other. The reaction time is cut in half so combos are much more difficult (but not impossible). Medium introduces the Counter icon, which will appear above or below Attack icons. If you strike the Counter by accident, the opponent will take a good chunk of your life off. Opponents will also attack up to 5 or 6 times in a row at blazing speed and varying heights. You have little chance to use anything other than quick jabs.
The only way to win at Hard is by standing so close to the camera that your torso fills your side of the screen and continually waving one arm across your body to block whatever insanely fast fusillade is coming at you while keeping the other arm ready to TRY to hit the opponent when an Attack icon appears for a quarter second. You might get a two hit combo if you’re lucky. The AI will basically run you over with a constant barrage, often only give Attack icons WHILE you’re blocking, and Counter the ever living snot out of you. It’s literally impossible to play using your whole body. I assume Dural is the last character since she appears on one of the high score frames with the other five characters, but I haven’t managed to reach the third round.
So if Easy’s so easy and the other difficulties so restricting, why play this game? The game by itself may not seem to be anything too special, but that’s because how much fun you have is wholly dependent on your enthusiasm & creativity as opposed to a typical sit-down gaming experience. With EyeToy it is entirely up to you to make it fun, they just present the scene. YOU are IN THE GAME. Once you realize you can do whatever the fuck you want to slap the crap out of the AI, that’s when the real fun begins.
Since you can set the pace for yourself on Easy mode you’re free to take risks. Want to get your Bruce Lee on, work your inner Jin/Mugen, or just blow off some steam? You can do that. Wield a bat, swing a sword, whip your nunchucks, rubber chicken, makeshift homey sock, fight standing backwards. Challenge yourself to win using only one arm, one leg, one type of attack, only your head, just knees or elbows, anything you can think of. You don’t have to know how to fight or throw a proper kick. If you can move, you can play.
Here’s an example of how I made it more fun. As a martial artist, I want to utilize my dexterity, so I restricted myself to kicks like so:
Afterward, I tried to do as many jumping kicks as possible:
Then tried to land some of the most difficult moves I could manage without crashing into the wall.
I have to re-emphasize that you don’t need to know how to fight. Your options are limited only to your imagination, physical ability, and whatever you might have lying around the house.
As you’ve no doubt surmised from my pictures, VF can be an excellent form of cardiovascular exercise. Even just doing simple boxing for three to five rounds can be one hell of a workout. It’s also a very convenient way to build up a good sweat in the comfort of your home, especially during the winter season.
Virtua Fighter can be great fun, great exercise, even great therapy, all depending on how much energy you put into it. If it’s not fun, that’s YOUR fault.
My only faults with the game are that I would’ve liked to see more VF characters in it (Lau and Pai would’ve fit fine), a selectable number of rounds would’ve been nice, and Medium & Hard are too difficult to use your whole body. Other than that it’s the best game on the Sega Superstars disc for how much potential you can wring out of it.
Score: 8/10
I bet DYLE wishes he’d charged me more for the EyeToy.
Extra pics: Two aerials and a backflip (some lucky double-hits at that) and the body outline that appears in the first few seconds.
