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Virtua Fighter 3. What a badass game!

T

Trojan X

Banned
After all these years, it's incredible how amazing this game looks. It's so ahead of its time and I still can't believe it's running well.

I've made a video of the game running on the model 3, check it out. In honesty, I feel that I have been enjoying this game more than Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown of late. How wild: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buuDqbouIJE
 
I adore VF3. I think it was in the VF2/FV thread that I said I wanted a port of VF3 with that much love put into it. Fun environments to tumble around on.
 
I used to load up the river stage with the floating wood and little boat and have my character stand with one leg on the floating wood and one on the boat and just watched how the legs bobbed.

Little details like that are missing from games these days.
 
Death Dealer said:
The aliasing was horrible on the original release. But other than that, it was a good port.
Click to expand...

Aliasing, lighting effects, texture filtering, and missing shaders...

I played the arcade version alot.

The worst texture downgrades (Especially in the face) belong to Lion and Akira.
 
It was amazing to see this in arcades at the time, considering how primitive the home consoles (PSone and N64) were in comparison at the time. One of those "you had to be there" things.
 
I really loved this game. To me, it has the most memorable soundtrack and stages of all the VF games. I loved that gargle that you would hear if you got a ring out in a water stage. My custom Kage in Final Showdown is the 3 alt costume. I switch up between VF 2-5 and Fighters Megamix all the time which really messes with my muscle memory because I can't switch that easily in my mind. I forget Kage doesn't have the 9+P+G throw in Final Showdown and the Ten Foot Toss has been changed.

I was really on a Virtua Fighter high back then with the Saturn and anime being out around that time as well.

YO AKIRA DANCE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWkifERzM00
 
I couldn't fucking believe Virtua Fighter 3 when I first saw it in an arcade. I think it was '96 or '97? The graphics back then were just unbelievable.
 
Reiko said:
Aliasing, lighting effects, texture filtering, and missing shaders...

I played the arcade version alot.

The worst texture downgrades (Especially in the face) belong to Lion and Akira.
Click to expand...

I think the aliasing was the biggest flaw. But I remember from the press at the time, things like the aquarium stage's lighting not being as good as the arcade, less fish in the background etc. But I think the compromises were such that if you weren't intimately familiar with the arcade version, you probably wouldn't notice. I thought the PS2 version looked really good. Except for the jaggies. They were so bad it was distracting. I hear the evo release fixed the aliasing somewhat, but I never played it. I'm a casual VF fan.
 
Death Dealer said:
I think the aliasing was the biggest flaw. But I remember from the press at the time, things like the aquarium stage's lighting not being as good as the arcade, less fish in the background etc. But I think the compromises were such that if you weren't intimately familiar with the arcade version, you probably wouldn't notice. I thought the PS2 version looked really good. Except for the jaggies. They were so bad it was distracting. I hear the evo release fixed the aliasing somewhat, but I never played it. I'm a casual VF fan.
Click to expand...


VF4 Evo fixed the jaggies. I never played the arcade version so I'm not familiar with the downgrades.
 
I remember all sorts of crazy talk coming out C&VG back in the day, Saturn expansion units to play VF3, home VF3 units that hooked up to your TV, the game was going to be institution in and of itself. Unfortunately, the game got a bit of a reputation behind it, people said it was too hard, wasn't as flashy as Tekken either, so...

When VF3 released on the DC I remember playing around with the cinematic viewer and the stages a lot, peeking into every corner, looking for every last detail. Can't think of another fighting game that had such complex and exciting stages at the time, come to think of it, I can't think of one today!
 
Ninja Scooter said:
It was amazing to see this in arcades at the time, considering how primitive the home consoles (PSone and N64) were in comparison at the time. One of those "you had to be there" things.
Click to expand...

Definitely, and I hear ya. Huge step up compared to everything else at that time, including arcades, especially compared to VF2 and to think Sega actively tried to get a VF3 port done for the Saturn with that cartridge upgrade. Good times.
 
I remember that Tekken 3 was launched after VF 3 and looked like shit (of course, Model 3 >>>>>>> System 12 (?)

Virtua Fighter 3 was even more amazing because it was the ONLY arcade on 50" in my hometown, so, it was a really immersive experience. I love it!
 
Oh man, yes it is. It's so weird to see this game in motion these days. If only it was built on for VF4.
 
Winterfang said:
When did this game came out? It certainly doesn't hold a candle to Dead or Alive 2.
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Well, you would hope DoA2 looked better... since it came out 4 years later.

But like Model 2 before it Model 3 was king of its time, easily. Even the most expensive computers of the time couldn't even get close.

This game is second only to Daytona for me for having the most mind blowingly impressive graphics of all time.
 
Yup. I remember when this game was mind blowingly good looking.

(but then, I was recently musing over the first time I saw VF1 in a 7-11. That was mind blowing too.)
 
I remember seeing this for the first time when I was visiting Gameworks in Seattle so long ago. Pretty amazing at the time.
 
"Badass" isn't the word that comes to mind when I think of Kage's alternate look in the game.

Still, it was pretty impressive to have experienced the arcade game, even if I never got to grips with VF's system. Something about the buttons felt really subtle and resposive, so that I still remember the feeling, quite dufferent from anything I've had access to until then, or since.
 
Wow. Feels good to look back and see how good it was. Those stages almost remind me of Tekken 1 & 2 type stages, just imagined ahead of it's time with the way it looked.
 
Like many of you, this game blew me away graphically when it came out in a way that no other game has. Possibly weirdly, I remember Duke Nukem 3D doing something close to that for me as well.
 
I honestly wasn't impressed when I saw Virtua Fighter 3 for the first time. I think it's because my friend hyped it to the point where I was expecting "Toy Story" level visuals, and I was left severely underwhelmed. Plus I was running a 3dfx Voodoo1 at the time which shipped with this fighting tech demo called "Valley of Ra" (link below) which I thought was very comparable:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPA9nTWXxjE

Now Sega Super GT/Scud Race, that was an eye opener! I don't think any Model 3 game came close to looking as good as that game. Not even Daytona 2 that came afterwards.
 
Trojan X said:
After all these years, it's incredible how amazing this game looks. It's so ahead of its time and I still can't believe it's running well.

I've made a video of the game running on the model 3, check it out. In honesty, I feel that I have been enjoying this game more than Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown of late. How wild: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buuDqbouIJE
Click to expand...

That video looks too high resolution to be Model 3 (and the UI looks scaled), yet at the moment Supermodel doesn't run VF3 cleanly (I thought). Am I missing something? edit: a-ha! SVN builds.
 
To me VF3 was the biggest leap in graphics ever. I only got to play it in the arcade twice and was a bit let down by the rushjob that was the DC version. But I still played the hell out of it. I guess VF3 is the VF game I played the most. The only other fighter I probably played more was Fighters Megamix.
 
When this shit hit arcades I thought they had like some secret NASA technology or some shit. It looks so mindblowingly good. Too bad arcades and SGI died out.

I also feel like it sort of killed arcades. It was rich kid fodder at $1 per play. At that point I was like "I'll just play at home and when I'm at the mall I'll just watch other people play".
 
Ninja Scooter said:
It was amazing to see this in arcades at the time, considering how primitive the home consoles (PSone and N64) were in comparison at the time. One of those "you had to be there" things.
Click to expand...

I was there amigo, I was there. This game's graphics blew my mind as a kid.
 
Timedog said:
When this shit hit arcades I thought they had like some secret NASA technology or some shit.
Click to expand...
Considering that Sega's arcade hardware of the time was developed through a partnership with Lockheed Martin, you weren't too far off.
 
Trojan X said:
After all these years, it's incredible how amazing this game looks. It's so ahead of its time and I still can't believe it's running well.
Click to expand...
At the time, those graphics were the shit. I loved how the gameplay had evolved from VF2. I think it's my most played VF in the series.

Reiko said:
Yeah. The environments of VF4-VF5 are really bland. I miss the VF3 stages:(
Click to expand...

I agree. Dynamic stages were awesome. I was sad when they went back to square rings in VF4.

CrunchinJelly said:
I used to load up the river stage with the floating wood and little boat and have my character stand with one leg on the floating wood and one on the boat and just watched how the legs bobbed.
Click to expand...
I would pick Taka-arashi, stand on one particular corner of the boat, and then laugh as it would flip over and screw up the whole stage.
 
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