Virtua Fighter 3tb: Solid, Sexy, Sweet... Soulless? (3TAC w/o)

Overall: 8
Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 8
Sound: 7
Replay Value: 10

The original Virtua Fighter has the distinction of being the first 3-D fighting game in existence. While Virtua Fighter and Virtua Fighter 2 were arcade hits and released on the abortive Sega Saturn, the series was quickly eclipsed by others, most notably Namco's Tekken franchise. Upon its release in the arcades, VF3 was praised for its excellent graphics and the continuation of the series' strong gameplay. Announced as a release title for the Dreamcast, VF3tb (Team Battle) provided gamers with a great beat-em-up for the superior new console.

Many other fighters try to come up with some hackneyed backstory to explain the action. It almost always degenerates into The World's Most Ultimate Super Tournament of Fate and Death and Stuff, like a bad ripoff of an already bad Dragonball cartoon. And, while Virtua Fighter does provide a bit of background for the characters, there are no cut scenes between battles or long drawn out dialogues trying to explain who killed who's father and why they want revenge with The Super Korodarewa Uppercut Hyper-Punch! Instead, you get a solid fighting engine and a handful of extremely well designed characters.

And handful is the right word. While most fighters today try to pack in 25 characters, VF3tb has just 10 playable characters (there are two secret characters, but you can't use them in 2-player vs. battles). This may seem like a small number, but each character has their own strengths and weaknesses and each is unique. In fact, it would be hard to say that there are any characters that are even similar to each other in this game. Not only are they unique, but each has their own style of dealing with an opponent; this is no rock-paper-scissors fighter, where one particular character always has an advantage over another. With the right level of proficiency, any character can be useful in almost any situation.

The character variety serves to make the game engine that much better. VF3tb is a 'block-button' fighter, with four basic commands: punch, kick, block, and evade. Characters can also jump and crouch, and these are the basic building blocks of the many moves each character has. While beginners can easily pick up the game and use the basic punches, kicks, and combos, as they progress they'll will learn advanced grabs, reversals, counters, and parries. The command scheme is easy to learn, making it easy for players to learn more complicated commands later on. In addition, the evade is new to the series, allowing the character to sidestep for true 3-D battles.

The core of the game lies in the Arcade and Versus modes. These are pretty self-explanatory; in the Arcade mode you fight through several stages until facing the final character. Depending on how well you did and how you challenged yourself with settings (time limit, difficulty, etc) you are ranked at the end. Versus mode is obviously a fight against another challenger, either human or computer. Giving the game its 'tb' tag, there is also a 'team battle' mode, though it's not a multiplayer fighter like Power Stone or a tag battle like Tekken Tag Tournament. Instead, each player chooses a set of characters, and as they are defeated the next character is used.

There is also an excellent training mode, allowing the player to choose a character and perfect their moves. As you practice, the commands you enter are displayed on the far left of the screen, so you can see exactly what you're doing right or wrong. The opponent can be chosen, and can be placed in any one of a number of positions to practice specific moves, or can be set at a computer difficulty level for free sparring. There is even a feature which will increase the sparring difficulty as your skill increases, a great training aid. The only thing that is missing is a list of moves the player can call up, as in Soul Blade or Fighters Megamix.

While these game modes offer some good solid play, there just seems to be something missing. Don't get me wrong; with a couple friends you could play this game for years. Yet some extra challenges, like a survival mode or some kind of story mode would make great additions. As it is, the game seems like a near direct port of the arcade version, which is both good and bad.

While VF3tb is also graphically outstanding, it could have been a bit better here too. Again, no complaints; the characters are well-detailed, and they even follow their opponents with eye and head movements. Animations are done extremely well too, and the game is very smooth. However, it's not quite up to the standard of another early DC release fighter, Soul Calibur, and could use a bit of polishing like some antialiasing. To its credit, VF3tb features some nice additions like multi-level terrain; as you fight on a sloping rooftop, you may have a slight height advantage or disadvantage over your opponent, or the steps of a stone bridge may have a similar effect. The amazing thing is that this actually affects the gameplay! If you're at a slightly higher level than your opponent, certain high or low attacks may miss altogether or strike in different areas.

Sound is just above average, typical for Sega games actually. The music is standard Sega light guitar rock, and is not invasive though it isn't exactly inspiring either. Sound effects are done pretty well, but don't seem to have the extra 'oomph' of reality behind them.

Really, what this game offers is not awesome graphics or a cinematic story; it gives good, solid fighting gameplay, and lots of it. It will take you many long hours of practice to master your favorite character, and it's nearly impossible to master them all. There will always be a new surprise and some new technique to learn, keeping the game fresh.

Apart from the lack of game options and good but not great graphics, VF3tb does have one major flaw. It still uses ring-outs. If you step outside of the ring (usually off of a cliff or other feature, understandably), you lose the round. This can add to the gameplay; being able to position your opponent and use the right technique to knock them out is a skill. However, it just seems cheap when it happens to you, and most players would at least want the option to turn it off, if not the removal of the much loathed ring-out altogether.

Honestly, that's the game's only major downfall. While other great fighters have appeared on the Dreamcast - notably Soul Blade and Dead or Alive 2 for 3-D fighters, or one of the various Marvel vs. Capcom or Street Fighter titles for 2-D games - VF3tb stands as an excellent example of the 'less is more' theory. By using a fairly basic engine and a handful of well-crafted and unique characters, it's the perfect game to get together with a couple of friends and beat each other silly.

Since this game's release, Sega has also released Virtua Fighter 4 for the Playstation 2. VF4 builds upon VF3tb even further, and adds some of what was missing; namely, some extra modes and featurs to make it a great single-player game. If you have a PS2 and the cash to blow, it may be worth picking up over VF3tb, but every Dreamcast owner should at least have this game.

This review is part of lemon_lime's 'Third Time's A Charm' write off, celebrating his three year 'anniversary' at Epinions. Please visit his profile for details and a list of other participants!