Virtua Fighter 5

This is just a quick post to enthuse about my most recent gaming accquisition. Getting Virtua Fighter 5, (I got it for £4 by trading in a lot of Dreamcast duplicates from my collection) means I now have every incarnation of the franchise, which in itself is something I'm rather excited about. VF1, VF2, VF Remix, VF Kids, VF3Tb, VF4, VF4 Evolution and now VF5 - eight games spanning four consoles and every one with it's roots planted firmly in rich, Saturn soil.

I suppose that would be my first point. From the ridiculously blocky and angular characters of VF1, to the photo realistic graphically gorgeous polished characters of VF5, the game is essentially the same... Moves, fighting styles, outfits etc. are quintessentially untouched from console to console.

Obviously the range of characters, the environments and other features have changed over the years, but on turning the game on, and selecting the game mode one is afforded the familiar 'ping' from VF1. It's a reverberation of the Saturn in the 21st century and a comforting one at that...

But then when the game kicks in, and you see the stunning next gen graphics, you know that the 360/PS3 incarnation is a different beast. It's literally breath taking! For me, even the PS2's VF4 was so next gen, that I was blown away... But seeing VF5 made me jump.

Playing VF4 in arcade mode I was able to beat the opposition on first play, up to Dural. Playing VF5 I was stomped unceremoniously. It would seem that the stakes in gameplay have been raised. This was confirmed by my first experience of playing VF online...

I've had two matches, and got fucked up royally (3-0) twice! I play all out attack (as Kage, always as Kage!) and apparently the way forward in VF5 is defense. Defense and then a stunning array of attack... Well that was how I got my arse kicked anyway! I'm going to enjoy playing and getting to know this title. It's as stunning a Saturn rebirth as Sega Rally Revo... (don't even whisper Nebacha! LOL!)

I'll update you more on this one as I become more familiar with it. Initial impressions? 10/10!

Happy days! :)

Shun shunned?

I was really excited about receiving my recently purchased copy of Virtua Fighter Remix (a lovely factory sealed Japanese one...) I sat down to play it... The characters looked sumptuous compared to the blocky and jagged representations of the original incarnations, and the backgrounds and fighting stages were breath-taking. All good so far!

So I decide I'm going to play as Kage Maru (I usually do...) and off I go, beating Dural on my second attempt! Lovely! A worthy addition to the Virtua Fighter family! Then something hit me, and when it did it hit me hard, like an icy blast to the stomach...

Where was Shun? The drunken master, a warrior so cool, he literally sits down in the middle of a fight for a swig of hooch! A guy so old that he has lost most of his hair, and the little he has remaining is as white as the snow on the top of Mount Fuji itself! Yet a man whose ninja skills are as supple as a shaolin monk who has just spent his eighteenth year training in a Tibetan dojo!

A man about whom wikipedia informs us...

"He is from Northern China and is considered as a sage by many. He teaches in his small training hall and had many students in the past but most have left him by now. This is due to his keen interest in taking students able to take hardship as part of the training.
While drinking with his friends, Shun hears them boasting about the success one of their student fighters in recent tournament competitions. He suddenly exclaims, "I also want to participate in the World Fighting Tournament". Shun's friends pleaded with him not to, but once Shun had mentioned his intent to fight, he was adamant and eventually joined the tournament.

During the 2nd tournament, Shun saw a suspicious shadow in one of the rings. When he followed it, it turned out to be one of his beloved disciples, a man he himself raised. He didn't have an opportunity to talk to him, but the incident filled Shun's heart with doubt. Why would they meet here? Why hadn't he heard from his student in so many years? Resolving to solve the mystery, Shun decided to enter the next tournament and find out.

After the 3rd world tournament, Shun was still unsuccessful in finding his student. One day, he received a letter from his student, informing him of his intention to escape from J6 but was recaptured eventually. Not wanting to react rashly, he waited for the next letter but it never arrived. He decides to join the 4th tournament hoping to find more information about his missing student.

Fighting style:
"Suiken" is one of the stylistic Kung-fu forms of Chinese martial arts, also called "Suishuken". The fighting posture of "Suiken" is derived from the form of a drunk, walking without balance, moving like the wind, sometimes taking a drink along the way or occasionally falling down. These attributes give the style all the necessary means of defense and offensive movements, making it one of the more interesting Virtua Fighting Styles. Shun's style and appearance are based on the character of "Su Hai" from the movie Drunken Master, played by Yuen Siu Tien"

Then it struck me... Had I purchased VF2 before VF1 all those years ago? Had I then made the assumption that he had been there in the franchise all along? Had I bought VF1 as a cheap bargain purchase and then consigned it to the back of a cupboard because it was an inferior copy of it's successor?

Was Shun, my lovely drunken master, merely an after-thought in Yu Suzuki's vision? It seemed the answer to all these questions was "yes". Shock and disappointment set in... did that make me merely an amateur Virtua Fighter fan? But I'd played every game in the franchise, other than VF5, which I had vowed to purchase as soon as budget allowed!

Tears rolled down my cheeks as I walked into "The Wiseman's Kung Fu" shop at the foot of Scarlet Hills... (sorry, did I forget to mention I was in the middle of Shenmue II on the Xbox 360??) for there on the wall at the back of the shop were reverential posters depicting our baldy hero...

Will I ever be able to pop Virtua Fighter Remix into my Saturn again? So many things are up in the air right now, so many things... For now I'll have to console myself with playing VF 4 Evolution on the PS2... LOL! ;)

Saturn Splurge!

I've got Sega Rally Revo sitting there under my TV. A graphically lucious, 360 compatable, current gen, rallytastic treat. So what did I just do for the last hour and a half? That's right, I sat and played the original on my Saturn, trying to shave seconds off my time so I can beat the World Championship. I then played about twenty minutes worth of Sega Rally 2 on the Dreamcast, to see how it compared to the original... Quite frankly it didn't.

Still a great driving game, the Dreamcast version feels too heavy, clunky if you will. Having held the Saturn controller for so long, the Dreamcast controller felt too weighty and strangely so did the car it was controlling. But I digress...

My evening started off trying out my recently accquired Saturn demo disc"Sega Flash Vol. 3" given away free with Issue 15 of Sega Saturn Magazine (January 1997). As well as video of Fighting Vipers, NiGHTS, Virtua Cop 2, Dark Saviour, Bug Too and Mr. Bones, this lovely disc also contains playable demos of Virtual On (can't say I was that impressed), Tomb Raider (Yay!) Sega Worldwide Soccer '97 (only one half of a match though!) and Daytona USA CCE (driving the Hornet around Dinosaur Canyon), which inevitably lead me to think... "Hmm! driving... Saturn... SEGA RALLY!" and that was that... With the familiar ignition sound, I was off... But I digress once more...

I've been a bit naughty friends... I've had a bit of a 'splurge' spending-wise on coveted Saturn items... let me share with you the recent Saturn goodies I've secured from eBay over the last week... I'm currently waiting for them to arrive...

The first thing was... Virtua Fighter Remix. Apart from Virtua Fighter 5, I now own every incarnation of the franchise. This re-release or 'update' of the original had higher-polygon models, and believe it or not, a copy was sent free to every registered Saturn owner in the US!



*Harumph!* another smack in the eye for European gamers... But a copy is now winging it's way towards Krishna Towers so I can't complain...

And talking of Virtua Fighter, one of the purchases I'm most excited about is... (wait for it...)


"Virtua Fighter THE COMIC!" Issue No.1, produced by Marvel. Now I love comics, particularly Marvel Comics and this one's about Virtua Fighter characters! I never even knew it existed till I stumbled across it... Happy days! And at only £3 including postage, it represents the biggest bargain of the splurge!


OK, next. Pandemonium... Sound familiar? This is a game I loved on the PSX, but I never knew had a Saturn release. A medieval jester-themed platformer, this psychedelic bounce-fest is a real blast, with gorgeously garish graphics, weird monsters, freeze and fire rays, slides and trampolenes and mushrooms... Lots of mushrooms! Great stuff!

A paradoxically 'hot property' on the SJY at the moment, I just couldn't resist buying Winter Heat, the Alpine themed brother of the wonderful Athlete Kings. With all of the lovely video recently posted, plus all of the reccomendations for my Saturn colleagues it was a must buy!


But perhaps the one I'm looking forward to getting the most is Burning Rangers! The wonderful review by J, plus his demands for it's Wii remake, have left me salivating for the game. But, not one to do things by half, I'm not just getting the game, but also a rare Japanese demo of this hallowed title! Now this little bundle set me back nearly £30! So I guess you know how much I want it!

I'll let you know how it all works out!