Virtua Fighter 3tb
Publisher - SEGA
Producer - Yu Suzuki
Supervisor - Toshihiro Nagoshi
Director - Daichi Katagiri
Program Director - Tetsuya Kaku
Design Director - Kazuhiro Izaki
Composers - Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Fumio Ito, Hidenori Syoji
Genre - Fighting
Dreamcast Release Dates - November 27, 1998 (Japan); October 14, 1999 (Europe), October 18, 1999 (North America)
Additional Releases - SEGA Model 3 Arcade (1996)
Current Average Price - $40
Virtua Fighter 3 was released in 1996 to arcades. It is the third release in SEGA’s illustrious 3D fighting series, Virtua Fighter. Like its two predecessors, 1993’s Virtua Fighter and 1994’s Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Fighter 3 was developed by SEGA AM2 under direction and leadership of Yu Suzuki and Toshihiro Nagoshi. It was another strong entry in the series and the first game to run on SEGA’s then-new Model 3 arcade board.
Virtua Fighter 3 was, like the two previous Virtua Fighter arcade games, a major hit. It sold 30,000 cabinets worldwide and was the overall highest-grossing arcade game of 1997. A SEGA Saturn port was planned, but ultimately cancelled in order to shift development to the Dreamcast.
Gameplay and Innovations
Virtua Fighter 3 was a major accomplishment when it released in 1996. Utilizing the brand-new SEGA Model 3 arcade hardware, AM2 was able to realize numerous graphical flourishes. The game’s characters featured unprecedented detail which included moving eyeballs which would track opponents, flexing muscles, and more robust clothing animation. Computer and Video Games magazine described the game as “the most astounding display of video game graphic muscle ever in the history of this industry.”
The fighting arenas featured slopes and undulations, and for the first time in the series, players could dodge and move in three dimensions (this added a layer of strategy onto an already technical fighting game - positioning the characters in higher or lower parts of the stage greatly changed the fighting dynamics).
Two new characters appear in the game - Aoi and Taka Arashi. Aoi, a female Japanese martial artist, and Taka Arashi, a male sumo wrestler, were created in an effort to bring more Japanese style martial arts into the game, which up to the time had been dominated by Chinese martial art styles.
A second version introduced a team battle mechanic, thus becoming Virtua Fighter 3tb. This version of the game allows the players to fight in team battles. The chosen fighters of each team fight each other one at a time. It is this version which would be ported to the Dreamcast.
Dreamcast Version
The Dreamcast version of Virtua Fighter 3tb was created by Genki with supervision by AM2.
In Japan, Virtua Fighter 3tb was released as a launch title and became one of Japan’s best-selling Dreamcast games. Initially planned as a launch game for the North American Dreamcast release, it was slightly delayed. The game was rated very positively by western critics in all of the most popular magazines (the lowest score it received was 8/10), but despite this fact Virtua Fighter 3tb did not sell as well in the west as it had in Japan. As late as 2020, Japanese arcades have widely begun hosting extremely popular Virtua Fighter 3tb tournaments on a near-monthly basis.