Virtua Fighter 2

While Sonic the Fighters is fun novelty and Fighting Vipers is plain old goofy, Virtua Fighter 2 is the real deal. This is Yu Suzuki at his finest, delivering one of the most influential arcade games of all time. With its deep move list and diverse roster of memorable characters, it's hard to believe that Virtua Fighter 2 is closing in on its twentieth birthday.

You play one of eleven characters, each on a mission to travel around the world to fight an android woman named Dural. Fans of the 1993 original will be happy to see all nine of their favorite characters updated for Virtua Fighter 2. That includes Canadian wrestler Wolf, Sarah the college student, Jacky the race car driver and Akira the unofficial face of Virtua Fighter. New to the roster is Shun Di (a 100 year old drunken kung fu master) and Lion Rafale (a French high school student who is an expert in praying mantis kung fu).

The advantage to reviewing a game like Sonic the Fighters is that there aren't endless sequels to compare it to. Even Fighting Vipers only had one sequel, and that is well over a decade old. But Virtua Fighter is different. In the past few years I've been there for the highs (Virtua Fighter 5), the lows (Virtua Fighter 3) and everything in between (Virtua Fighter 4). These are good looking games with complicated mechanics and a large roster of characters. In comparison, this is a very small game.

But don't be fooled by Virtua Fighter 2's modest size. It may not look as good as the recently released Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, but this 1994 arcade game runs incredibly fast and smooth. The backgrounds, although simple, also pop in high definition. It's a shame Sega couldn't figure out how to make it widescreen, but even in 4 x 3 I was blown away by Shun Di's fight on the floating raft.

You get the same options and modes found in Sega's other Model 2 ports, including online play and customizable options. Don't expect to any bells and whistles from Virtua Fighter 2. At five dollars it's hard to say no. Even if recent sequels have done this formula better, Virtua Fighter 2 is still an incredibly addictive fighting game with a surprising amount of depth. It may have taken them eighteen years, but Sega has finally delivered the ultimate console version of Virtua Fighter 2.