Virtua Fighter (VF) is a series of 3D fighting games
created in 1993 by Sega studio AM2 and designer Yu Suzuki.
Virtua Fighter is often considered to be
the godfather of 3D fighting games, with each iteration being noted for advancing the graphical and technical aspects of games in the genre. Even to this day, many 3D fighting game series such as
Tekken and Dead or Alive were influenced by Virtua Fighter. And while, sales-wise, the series has often fallen behind the other titles (partly due to being released on underperforming consoles Sega Saturn and Dreamcast), the main games have always remained critically-acclaimed titles.
In particular, its fans note its
more realistic, "tournament rules"-style gameplay (for instance, a loss can occur when a character is knocked out of bounds), which differentiated the first iteration from other fighting games at that time. It is also applauded for its depth, as each character has plenty of moves and strategies to learn, and that each character plays differently from each other. Additionally,
the game is also known for its balance across all characters, such that a good user of one character can have a fair match against another good user of any other character.
The success of the Virtua Fighter series resulted in
Guinness World Records awarding the series 7 world records in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. These records include, "First Polygon Based Fighting Game", "First 3D Fighting Game", and "First Fighting Game for a 32-bit Console".
In 1998, the series was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution for contributions in the field of Art and Entertainment, and
became a part of the Smithsonian Institution's Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology Innovation. The Virtua Fighter 3 arcade cabinets are currently kept at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
In December 2006,
IGN ranked Virtua Fighter as the 25th greatest game series of all time, opining that "no other 3D fighter has equaled VF in terms of difficulty and depth."
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