After the world-wide success of the groundbreaking game that was Virtua Fighter, SEGA's crack AM2 department deliver the next revolution in the fighting genre, Virtua Fighter 2 (VF2).

The game redefined the already solid gameplay with more characters, play modes and new moves with much improved handling and control - VF2 is also credited for creating the next graphical revolution in both the arcades and on the Saturn.

Ultimately VF2 went on to be a world-wide success and became the best selling Saturn title ever. It remains one of the most impressive displays of Saturn programming there is and as well one of the best technical fighting games.

Virtua Fighter 2 European Case
		Case Quote "With over 2000 moves, 2 new characters and a team battle mode, the most eagerly awaited sequel ever is here! Running at twice the speed of the original, VF2's incredibly smooth graphics and fearsome gameplay are set to redefine the boundaries of home entertainment!" Click on the images for larger versions

HISTORY

VF2 was released to the Japanese arcades in 1994 and bought not only an improvement and expansion of the gameplay but also another breakthrough in graphics. Created at the time on SEGA's new Model 2 arcade board (home of other games such as SEGA Rally Championship), characters were highly detailed using over double the amount of polygons with better, smoother animation and moved at an ultra smooth 60 frames per second.

Model2a Arcade Board

News of the game's port to the Saturn came almost immediately on the back of the arcade release to much delight of Saturn owners.

The Saturn port of VF2 was first unveiled to the gaming press at the Omacha Toy show in July 1995. The watching audience were stunned by what they saw. Whilst the original VF had been criticised for being buggy and having some loss of graphics, Saturn VF2 was extremely accurate to the impressive arcade version.

The demo showed 2 characters; Pai and Shun (new character) performing martial arts moves about an arena running on real Saturn hardware at full screen and 60 frames per second utilising the Saturn's high resolution mode and all with no slowdown whatsoever.

SGL Article - Click for larger

Before this there were questions, concerns and even lies flying around as to whether the Saturn would be able to handle an arcade port of VF2 due to technical reasons. This was common in the gaming press of the era, yet this demo truly showed off the processing power of SEGA's 32-Bitter in a way that no other game had done yet.

Adjacent to this was the demonstration of the Saturn Graphics Library (SGL) - A collection of programming libraries designed to assist developers in exploiting the power the Saturn. Until this point the Saturn was notoriously difficult to program for and the quality of software had suffered.

Soon after, and just before Christmas of 1995, the home port of VF2 was released in Japan to much acclaim from critics and gamers alike. The port from the arcade was virtually perfect. Aside from a few graphical compromises (notably the 3D backgrounds were not fully 3D) it moved and more importantly played the same as the coin-op.

It eventually went on to sell over 1.7 million copies world-wide and becoming the Saturn's best selling game ever. In comparison, the original VF sold around half that figure.

Virtua Fighter 2 still stands as one of the most impressive Saturn titles ever made and considered to be a masterpiece of programming.

In 2012 as part of SEGA's Heritage collection, it was released on Xbox Live Arcade and PSN getting the high definition graphics makeover and online play with the usual rewards up for grabs with Achievements and Trophies.

Virtua Fighter 2 Videos
	Virtua Fighter 2 Opening Video		Virtua Fighter 2 Attract Video		Virtua Fighter 2.1 Attract Video

STORY

A year has passed since the first World Fighting Tournament (Virtua Fighter). Lau Chan emerged the victor. Each fighter who competed gained something. Their limits and shortcomings we made crystal clear. New friendships were made and intense rivalries were created. For all, fighting experience was gained before leaving the arena and going their separate ways.

The time of the second World Fighting Tournament has come and 10 cordial invitations have been issued. Could the sinister Judgement 6 cartel be behind all this? Whatever new moves and techniques these fighters have to try, the suspicion is that this time the stakes are much higher.

After a year of hard training, Akira Yuki is back eager to try new techniques in a decisive battle with new rival Wolf Hawkfield. Hong Kong film star Pai is back for another chance to defeat her father Lau Chan who returns to defend his title. Jeffry McWild, the Pancratium master fights to preserve his livelihood. The ninja, Kage-Maru is back on both official and family business. He seeks to break the cover and discover the truth behind the syndicate that controls the World Fighting Tournament. Jacky Bryant is on a goal to rescue his brainwashed sister, mentally reprogrammed to destroy him. The first newcomer, master of the Drunken style Kung-Fu, Shun-Di, a Herbal Doctor, arrives wanting to try his skills against the hottest, youngest fighters in the world, while the second new comer, Tourou-ken expert Lion Rafale, a high-school student, fights for his freedom.

Who will emerge victorious this time?

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is essentially the same as the original VF. You have to win a number of rounds in a match by means of KO or ring out within a time limit.

VF2 enhances this formula with 2 new characters, plenty of new moves for the returning characters and several new modes of play.

Virtua Fighter 2

The control system is the same as the original VF utilising the D-pad (or arcade stick) to move your character around the ring with Buttons A, B and C for actions. Buttons X, Y and Z can be reassigned for combinations. Different pad layouts can be quickly selected before starting a game. See cheats and tips section on how to do this.

Most of the moves are performed the same way as in VF and there are plenty of new ones. There are many guides to the characters moves easy to find online.

As before, on screen will be the energy bars of both characters, the time remaining in the round, how many match points you have won, total play time and the round you are on.

The Fighters

Two new characters have been added to the line-up; Shun-Di and Lion Rafale. This is the order in which they will appear in arcade mode.

Virtua Fighter 2 Characters
Round 1: Lau Chan	Round 2: Sarah Bryant	Round 3: Shun Di
Round 4: Pai Chan	Round 5: Lion Rafale	Round 6: Jeffrey McWild
Round 7: Kage Maru	Round 8: Jacky Bryant	Round 9: Wolf Hawkfield
Round 10: Akira Yuki	Bonus Round: Dural	Dural

Modes of play

VF2 offers 5 modes of play and a 'demo' mode. Each is selected from the title screen.

Arcade Mode

Play all 10 rounds as in the arcade.

During arcade mode you have free play and can continue as many times as you wish, however, you can not select a different character upon a continue.

A second player can interrupt an arcade game at any time. If this happens the game becomes a Vs competition. Once this ends and neither player chooses to continue the Vs mode the arcade game resumes from the round where the challenger entered.

Information and statistics about your performances can be viewed in the Backup Data under Options.

Vs Mode

Play a Vs game against another human player.

Ranking Mode

Benchmark your performance. The game plays through the same as arcade mode but you are given a data sheet on your overall performance.

Expert Mode

Play arcade mode but on an insane difficulty level. Your computer opponent will observe, learn and will counter any moves that you perform.

Team Battle Mode

Play battle tournaments between 2 teams of 5 fighters. Up to 10 players can participate. Rules are simple: the team with the most victories wins. Teams can be Player Vs CPU, Player Vs Player and CPU Vs CPU.

Watch Mode

Watch the game play on it's own. Good for seeing some of the abilities of the characters.

Options in this mode are:

Pressing Button X during watch mode allows you to change the camera angle.

You can select which characters will be fighting by pressing START when the selection box moves over the character you want. Player 1 is selected first.

Game Options

VF2 has plenty of options for the gameplay initially. More options for fun are opened up when you have completed the game under the Options + page.

Movements between the pages of options are done with the LEFT-TRIGGER and RIGHT-TRIGGER.

All data; records, expert mode learning and options settings require 180 blocks of internal memory in total.

Options

Life Gauge - increase or decrease the energy of each fighter. There is also a NO DAMAGE option to make an invincible fighter. This does not protect you from ring outs.

Match Point - how many points are needed to win a match.

Time Limit - the time limit of each round between 10 and 60 seconds with the choice of NO LIMIT.

Continue - Toggle continues (arcade and expert modes) ON or OFF. You continue from where you lost the match. You can not select a different character when continuing. Turned OFF you return to the title screen.

Enemy Level - the difficulty of the game (arcade mode). Choices are EASY, NORMAL and HARD.

Learning - For expert mode only. Allows the computer to learn and adapt to how you fight.

Button Reassignment - Manually reassign the functions of the buttons on the controllers. Useful for assigning combinations for Buttons X, Y and Z to perform more advanced moves. If 2 controllers are plugged in both must be set before exiting.

Backup Data - View all of the stored stats on the fighters. You can view:

Vs Records - Shows wins and losses for each player calculated into a percentage.

Time Records - Shows the times for each fighter.

Ranking Records - Shows the ranking for each fighter.

Learning Data - You can only delete the data for each fighter. Data can be cleared by pressing LEFT-SHIFT+X+Y+Z.

Selecting DEFAULT resets all options to their default settings.

More Options

Version - Select between Version 2.0 or Version 2.1 of the game. More information on the differences is below.

Sound Mode - Stereo or Mono sound.

BGM Mode - ORIGINAL uses music from the arcade machine and REMIXED are special Saturn only remixes.

Sound Tests (Sound, Voice and Music) - Play the various audio components in the game.

Options +

These are unlocked after you have completed the game. This can be done on any difficulty level.

Stage Select - Select a stage to play on. Dural's stage is also available.

Stage Size - Choices are 4, 8, 14 and 42 metres in size.

Replay Time - How long replays last. Select between 3 seconds, 6 seconds, the entire set or NO REPLAY.

BGM Volume - Select between 1 (quietest) and 5 (loudest).

Slow Mode: On or Off. Play the game in slow motion (except for Ranking Mode). A slow motion game always takes place on Dural's underwater stage.

VIRTUA FIGHTER VERSION 2.1

The Saturn conversion includes the Version 2.1 update from the Japanese arcades which you can activate via the More Options page.

This update has several tweaks to the gameplay. The changes are as follows:

Addition of Expert Mode
Jacky's crescent and sweep attack levels altered (for height/blocking).
Akira's long range dashing elbow corrected to dashing elbow with change in foot position.
Shun'ss long range sweep is adjusted to sweep without change in foot position.
Wolf has punches and elbow attacks
Certain moves (such as Akira's Punch/Kick combo) no longer knock an opponent down.
Backing away from opponents is more difficult as the pause between each step is longer.
The version number of the game is also displayed on the title screen and on the loading screens between rounds.

SCREENSHOTS / ARENAS

Each of the characters background story gives them a specific arena to brawl in.

Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn) Screenshots

CHEATS AND TIPS

Play as Dural

At the character select screen press DOWN, UP, RIGHT, LEFT+A.

Play as Gold Dural

At the character select screen press DOWN, UP, LEFT, RIGHT+A.

Change Character Costume

On the character select screen press UP just before selecting your character.

Slow Replays

How down Buttons A+B+C during the Knock Out Replays.

Choose Victory Pose

During the knock out replay hold down either A, B or C to manually select a victory pose.

Quickly Change control pad layout

On the character select screen hold either LEFT-TRIGGER or RIGHT-TRIGGER and use D-Pad LEFT or RIGHT to select a pad layout.

Remove "Pause" label

Pause the game press X+Y+Z to get a clear screen.

Sarah VF1 Music

Just before the match begins hold RIGHT-SHIFT on Controller 1.

Jacky VF1 Music

Just before the match begins hold RIGHT-SHIFT on Controller 2.

Chicago Stage for Jacky and Sarah

Play the game as either character. When they encounter each other the stage will be a street scene. Look for the Sonic painted on the wall!

Alternative costumes in game demos

Change the version of the game to 2.1 in the Options.

Moves for Dural

Press FORWARD+PUNCH then UPPERBACK+KICK. This is an elbow followed kick-flip combo. Very powerful.

Press PUNCH, PUNCH, FORWARD+PUNCH then BACK+KICK. This is an elbow followed by flip-kick.

Press FORWARD, FORWARD+DEFEND+KICK for a quick flurry of air kicks.

Press FORWARD, FORWARD, DEFEND+PUNCH+KICK for a rolling dive kick with a very long range. Always surprises!

Jeffry's Teleport

To perform this move select Jeffry and Shun. Make Shun sit down, then do Jeffry's semi power bomb move. He can teleport to Shun from any distance!

Secret Ending / Dural Movie

The of Dural underwater is shown when the game is completed in Expert Mode.

VF2 with Stunner/Virtua Cop Gun

Boot VF2 with the Stunner game gun in controller port 2 to hear a remix of the old VF tune as opposed to VF2 during play.

Dancing Pai - Shake it baby!

Select Pai. When she smiles hold LEFT-SHIFT+RIGHT-SHIFT. As the round begins and the announcer says "fight" release them.

Watch the Credits

During the opening demo hold down all 6 buttons A+B+C+X+Y+Z.

Slow Motion Name Entry

After you have completed the game, just before the name entry screen hold LEFT-SHIFT+RIGHT-SHIFT.

Fight the Name Entry Character (Shun Di)

After you have completed the game, just before the name entry screen hold A+Z+UP. The alphabet letter will attack as Shun-Di.

Fight the Name Entry Character (Dural)

After you have completed the game, just before the name entry screen hold X+Y+Z+LEFT-SHIFT+RIGHT-SHIFT. The alphabet character will attack as Dural.

OTHER VERSIONS AND UPDATES

Original Arcade Version

Virtua Fighter 2 Cabinet

Graphically the arcade version is ahead of the Saturn due to the extra power of the MODEL 2 board. It features 3D backgrounds for extra depth.

Virtua Fighter 2 Arcade

Eventually the MODEL 2 series of boards became one of SEGA's most successful arcade boards ever hosting titles such as Virtua Cop and SEGA Rally. For more details about the specifications checkout System16.com.

PC Version

The PC version of Virtua Fighter 2 was released in 1996. It is somewhat scarce to locate today.

Virtua Fighter 2 (PC)


PC


Model 2 Graphics

It is a faithful conversion of the arcade game even if playing on a keyboard can be less intuitive than playing with a controller. It has the option to switch to the slightly enhanced Version 2.1.

Mega Drive/Genesis Version

A 2D version was created for the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1996. Some of the arcade graphics were recreated in basic form along with some sound samples. Strangely the 2 new characters; Shun and Lion, have been excluded from this version.

It has been included in the SEGA Mega Drive Collection for the PS2 and PSP and the SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection for Xbox 360 and PS3.

SEGA Ages Volume #16

VF2 has been revived and released in 2004 for the PS2. It is essentially a conversion of the Saturn original of VF 2.1.

As with the majority of the SEGA Ages releases they have only been released in Japan.

Virtua Fighter 2 (Sega Ages)

Reviews suggest that the original Saturn version is still better home version if you are not privileged enough to have access to the actual arcade machine.

SEQUELS

Virtua Fighter 3

The direct sequel was Virtua Fighter 3. This was released in the arcades in 1996. This was quickly followed by Virtua Fighter 3tb released in 1997 which was also ported to the Dreamcast as a launch title.

Virtua Fighter 3tb (Dreamcast)

For more info on the other sequels in the franchise, checkout the Virtua Fighter Feature.

Spin-Offs

Before VF3, the cast of VF2 appeared in Virtua Fighter Kids and Fighters Megamix which also featured characters from Fighting Vipers. Both titles were released on the Saturn.

Virtua Fighter Kids (Saturn)

Virtua Fighter Kids (Saturn)

EMULATOR COMPATIBILITY

Arcade version - This game can not be played by the emulators at present. (Feb 12).

Saturn version - The game executes using the SSF emulator however there are speed and graphical issues.

Mega Drive version - The game is perfectly emulated using the KEGA Fusion or Gens emulators. These can download them from the Mega Drive/Genesis Emulators page.

ROMs of these games may be found on various emulation websites.

MISC INFO

International Cases
It is rumoured that the Saturn version of Dead or Alive used a licensed version of the VF2 engine. That also is one of the few games to use the Saturn high resolution mode 704x480 (the highest for a console at the time) and to brilliant effect as does VF2.
More information about the SGL can be found here. http://www.rockin-b.de/saturn-sglrep.html
If you can not be bothered to play the game through to see the secret Dural video then you can view it by clicking Dural below. (Webm)
The VF2 arcade game can be seen in the video to "Ready to Go", a single from the UK Britpop band Republica. One of my all time favourites. Check it out on Youtube NOW!.