Virtua fighter 3
![virtua fighter 3 virtua fighter 3](https://happyxel.fr/retrogaming/1191-large_default/virtua-fighter-3tb-dreamcast.jpg)
Which explains why, a couple of years ago, I found myself following my own clumsily translated directions as I wandered the damp streets of Osaka looking for one of the city's only arcade shops.
#Virtua fighter 3 series#
Virtua Fighter 3 stands alone in the series in being built around four buttons. To play Virtua Fighter 3 properly, you'll need a Model 3 board of your own. It's always seemed perfect to me that Virtua Fighter 3 never really left the arcades like other Model 3 games it never saw a decent home port, even if the Dreamcast take on Virtua Fighter 3TB was a noble effort. Virtua Fighter 3 isn't just SEGA at its peak, either - it captures one of the last moments the arcade felt so relevant, and one of the last times when a Super Megalo 2 cabinet in London's Trocadero could feel like the most important place in the universe. It's ground they'd give up over time - by the time Virtua Fighter 4 came around on the NAOMI 2, those battlegrounds had seemingly moved elsewhere. This was the debut of the Model 3 board, breaking cover in spectacular fashion at Tokyo's AOU show in the early months of 1996 - one of those moments, of which the 90s had many, when we all asked ourselves whether game graphics could get much better - asserting that SEGA was at the cutting edge of technology. Why Virtua Fighter 3, then? Partly it's because it captures a moment in time, when SEGA was still at the peak of its power, and when its power was plain to see. Excuse the state of my cabinet - but shouldn't every arcade machine be a bit dog-eared? You could argue that Virtua Fighter 2 was the series at its most iconic, too, capturing the series at the height of its mainstream appeal. The original takes that title, shaking up the industry as it did with its military-spec hardware and the move into muscular 3D. It's not the best in AM2's series - Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown easily takes that crown, providing a crisp take on the no-frills pugilism that's as close to perfection as we'll get while we endure the indefinite wait for a follow-up - nor is it the most groundbreaking. For reasons entirely my own, it's Virtua Fighter 3 that's my personal pick. Maybe it's OutRun, in all its iconic glory, Super Monkey Ball with its minimalist brilliance or perhaps you could even look a little closer to the modern day and put Yakuza 0 forward as the best of the bunch. SEGA has just celebrated its 60th anniversary - happy birthday you mad, beautiful bastards - which seems as good a time as any to reflect on the company's finest.
![virtua fighter 3 virtua fighter 3](https://www.arcade-museum.com/images/112/1127390614.jpg)
To celebrate, we're republishing some older pieces on the series, including this piece from June last year. Editor's note: After an outrageously long hiatus, Sega's Virtua Fighter is back with the release of Ultimate Showdown on PlayStation this coming week.