Virtua Fighter 2 should have been a 32X game and not a Genesis game

[gamegenie]

I hated SEGA for wasting their time on turning a 3D fighter into a 2D animated fighter for an aging Genesis when they could have repeated the same step they done in developing VF1 for 32X in making a VF2 - 32X. I did not mind the less polygon count, it was arcade perfect in my eyes. But Genesis VF2 was a smack in the face, because they had a good 2D fighter called Eternal Champions and they killed it for 3D Virtua Fighter.

[Glisp]

There's a Genesis version? I thought there was only a 32X and Saturn version....
Regardless, you're attacking the wrong port. The correct port you should be attacking is the Sega Saturn version. However, you should really be attacking Sega of Japan, they forced Sega of America to cancel Eternal Champions: The Final Chapter.

Regardless, that doesn't matter because Eternal Champions will (unofficially) live again. I have big plans and they involve the series creator himself. Eternal Champions 3 will be revived as a fan game for PC in the near future. I'm behind that ambition and I intend to see it through. Michael Latham is a consultant for the fangame just to make sure I get everything as it was originally intended correct.

[Assman]

The 32X was already dead by then, so it would have been even more of a waste of time.

[gamegenie]

The 32X was already dead by then, so it would have been even more of a waste of time.

If there was a 32X version of VF2 available, it would have been time well wasted.

VF2 for Genesis is a complete waste, it was in bargain bins immediately upon release (just picking up the game box and looking at the backside was a disappointment.

[Nuxius]

Basically, it reminded me of those cheap hack fighters like Tekken 3 Special and Soul Blade (Genesis versions, I mean, of course). O.K., so it wasn't quite as bad as those, but it wasn't much better.

[Guntz]

^Yep, at first I thought Genesis VF2 was a pirate game. It was very horrifying to hear that it was actually made by Sega...

[kool kitty89]

Not mutually exclusive... and it might have ended up a bit hacked on the 32x (might have been OK, but probably lower polycount in favor of textures -maybe a bit more fine tuning). Probably a bit wider of a gap than with VF 32x vs VF Remix though, but maybe fairly close to that depending just how they managed the textures. (memory constraints of the time would have limited practical ROM speeds and sizes so you'd have pretty low res/cut-down textures -and compression can only do so much)

However, the actual opinion on quality varies a good bit, some like it, others don't. (for that matter, some find a massive difference in playability/quality of the 32x and Genesis versions of Virtua racing, but others don't)

I can't comment on the gameplay, but the styling is quite novel and rather well done IMO.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qQh7dXD3ro

[Aarzak]

I honestly don't know what compelled Sega to make VF2 Genesis.....by the time of its December 1996/January 1997 release, the coin-op was two years old, the Saturn port a year old (speaking of which, Sega was promoting a "3 Free Games" deal with the Saturn that holiday season, one of which was VF2). Perhaps it was their feeble attempt at expanding the franchise's popularity in the U.S (they also released the almost-as-pathetic "Virtua Fighter Animation" for Game Gear that same year, based on the anime series, which is actually a pretty good show), which of course didn't pan out.

The Genesis, already feeling the pinch of withering third-party support by late 1995, was moribund by the next year. Some of the last releases like 3D Blast and UMK3 may have been of interest to those still hanging on to the console (such as me and my cousin respectively), but sales were way past their peak and weren't making a difference in Sega's pockets.

Back on-topic, the 32X was already stretched to its limits with the stripped-down port of VF1 it received. I shudder to think what VF2 would've looked like on it, given the texture-mapping and more advanced backgrounds (which had to be cut down even on Saturn). Nakayama-san of SoJ already discontinued all non-Saturn consoles in the Fall of 1995 (SoA and the few remaining third-parties were what kept Genesis barely alive into '96), so it wouldn't have happened anyways. VF2 Genesis was probably outsourced to some Japanese developer, and the Japanese wouldn't have wanted anything to do with the "SUPAA 32X-SU" by then. Why bother busting their asses trying to squeeze out a cut-down 32X port of VF2 when they could've easily churned out those crappy Genesis and Game Gear VF games for a quick paycheck from SoJ (which they did)?

[gamegenie]

I wish SEGA would have marketed 32X from the get go as a "poor man's Saturn" and killed the Genesis completely in '95 stopping all developers from attempting to put out anything other than Saturn (CD-ROM) or 32X (cartridge) games.

The Genesis was already unable to keep up in terms of hardware power by 1994 against SNES so there should have been no incentive years down the road for a travesty like VF2 for Genesis to come out.

Aarzak so you think VF had already maxed out the 32X and there was no more room to pull out any additional resources from the hardware for a better looking game or sequel to VF? I thought 32X offered a lot of potential that SEGA didn't enact on. Plus there were a lot of Easter eggs hidden in the 32X Virtua Fighter like the 'big head', or 'VR' fights that made me want to see what more would be tossed in if AM2 did a VF2 32X.

Also can you imagine, if SEGA had done the above I suggested and freeze out Genesis completely. Ultimate MK3 in '96 wouldn't have lacked voices, background, and characters from MK3 and sucked because it would have been a 32X game.

[Lastcallhall]

However, you should really be attacking Sega of Japan, they forced Sega of America to cancel Eternal Champions: The Final Chapter.

This time a million. You can sell me overpriced, shoddy, questionable, poorly supported add-ons all you want, but cancelling the final chapter of a trilogy because you're scared it would compete with your VF franchise (apples and oranges!)? You've crossed the line. That's really the only thing SEGA has done to me where I've truly felt betrayed.

[Leathco]

I would have rather seen a 32X version of VF2 also. However, if they HAD to make a Gen version, why not do what they did with the Gen port of Virtua Racing and put an SH-2 chip on the cart to make it a TRUE 3-D title? It may have been stripped down significantly from the arcade version, but would have been better than what we actually got.

[kool kitty89]

I would have rather seen a 32X version of VF2 also. However, if they HAD to make a Gen version, why not do what they did with the Gen port of Virtua Racing and put an SH-2 chip on the cart to make it a TRUE 3-D title? It may have been stripped down significantly from the arcade version, but would have been better than what we actually got.

Sega never put an SH2 on a Genesis cart... Virtua Racing used a Samsung DSP in the cart...

And the reasons would be that the performance would be limited still, the graphics would be very limited (16 colors and probably significantly lower poly count and/or framerate than VF32x), and the cost would be significantly higher for what amounts to a budget release.
So likely it would have looked and played worst while costing more.
They might have been able to get a half decent VF1 rendition on the MD with the SVP (or maybe an SH2 on cart -or the DSP from the Saturn), but VF2 would be tougher to make decent due to the color limits among other things. (texture mapping in 16 colors can be useful, but more so for a highly customized game with at least some degree of realtime dithering or highly customized color use -Doom would probably have been much easier to get looking decent on the MD than a full 3D VF2...)

[Orchid87]

Releasing a 2D port of VF2 on Genesis was a really weird move by Sega. The problem lies in the quality of the game - the animation is so bad and choppy it hurts. I think it would be great if they made characters of independently-animated segments like those bosses in Gunstar Heroes and Alien Soldier. This way the game would actually decent and could capture the smooth 60FPS flow of the arcade original.

[Lan-Di]

How about this idea...
SEGA (AM2) could have used VF1 polys for VF2 characters on the poor man's 32X!

I've seen it with my own eye's in the rerelease of VF4 (greatest hits version)! Looks pretty good and could have easily worked in this scenario!

[kool kitty89]

Releasing a 2D port of VF2 on Genesis was a really weird move by Sega. The problem lies in the quality of the game - the animation is so bad and choppy it hurts. I think it would be great if they made characters of independently-animated segments like those bosses in Gunstar Heroes and Alien Soldier. This way the game would actually decent and could capture the smooth 60FPS flow of the arcade original.

It was already 4 MB... not massive for 1996, but pretty good sized for a budget title. (very few MD or SNES games ever went beyond 4 MB anyway) To include more animation they'd have had to cut out other things, animation takes a ton of space to pull off. (they'd also probably need to clip the screen like SFII... hmm, one possibility could have ben dropping to lower res like SFII to conserve ROM/VRAM use with lower res sprites/graphics in general -and thus allow more animation without having to resort to cutting out sound or cuttign out other graphics -or dropping some characters from the roster)