[Sega Saturn] Jacky cheeses his way through Expert Mode (Virtua Fighter 2)
0"I'm faster than lightning!"
Yeah, no kidding.
And he would've done it without losing a round had he not gotten VF2'd with the Somersault Kick in Jacky's stage! (That was some 55% health in a single hit, wow)
Review time? I don't know if I'd even get an opportunity to talk about VF2 otherwise...
Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn is great! One of the best games to come out in the entire 5th generation of consoles. The conversion from the Model 2 Arcade version is excellent. The graphics took a noticeable hit, since its arcade counterpart was running on an absolute monolith of hardware, but it still looks extremely faithful to that original version and is one of the better looking games on the Saturn (and on that generation period). The amazing fully 3D backgrounds from the Model 2 version are gone, but thankfully the rock solid 60FPS is still here. Everything is here. Other than some occasional sound issues (that happen even on real hardware by the way... in fact it's sometimes worse on hardware) and some slightly strange interactions with the ring out mechanic, this is a perfect port.
Too perfect. In fact, Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn is extremely light on content. You have the Arcade Mode, Expert Mode and Ranking Mode taken straight from the arcade original (though wasn't Expert + Ranking Mode a thing there too? I wonder if you can access it here) and the only new bit of content you have at first is Team Battle Mode, which is actually really neat: you and your opponent pick 5 different characters and you have to battle it out. If a character loses a fight, they're out and the next one comes into play, until either team has all their fighters defeated. This works somewhat similarly to how Virtua Fighter 3tb would work later on in the series, the biggest difference here is that Team Battle Mode is affected by the settings in Options (just like all modes except Ranking) thus you can set it up in such a way where use each individual fighter for more than just one round before they're eliminated. Oh yeah, there's Watch Mode, too, in case you run a retro videogame store and want to leave a CRT busy or something... or you just want to have some background noise while you study, you do you.
As you play the game, you can unlock additional gameplay options such as ring size and different styles of replay. Admittedly these are really fun! Combining them with the various choices of health bar size can turn what would be an otherwise rather serious competitive fighting game into nice wholesome casual fun. Gameplay wise, however, as nice as the game still plays, it has shown its age in several ways if you've played literally any other fighting game since. It's not as smooth to play as any newer fighting game (not that you can't get used to it), the three-dimensional mechanics that are supposed to set this game apart from its 2D fighting contemporaries are arguably underutilised and sensible character balance is completely out of the window. Casting your mind back to 1994/95 standards, though, it's easy to see how this game was the best thing ever released back then.
That's all fun, but, that's also it. One new game mode, customisable health bars and ring sizes. No story mode, no competitive campaign mode, not even a dedicated training mode! What this means is that, as good of a port as this is, if you have access to the arcade version, there is no reason why you shouldn't just play that instead. 10 years ago, the Saturn version was still the only realistic way most people had of playing VF2 at home. But nowadays, the arcade version is very easily emulatable or you can buy it from XBLA/PSN for not much money whatsoever and there are tutorials out there to get the PC version working on OSs newer than Windows 95/98. As Saturn consoles in fully working order for a reasonable price inch ever closer to unobtainium, there's just no reason to go out of your way to seek out this version specifically if you just want to play the game for its gameplay. Of course, if you already have a Saturn, I don't need to recommend this game to you since you're basically guaranteed to already have it. It is THE smash hit title for the console. For good reason!
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