The Game Awards is usually hailed as the 2nd Christmas before Christmas for gamers, next to the Summer Games Fest. Many trailers come out of the VGA. Looks like Sega is bringing something very special for this year’s showing. Speculation points to the godfather of 3D fighting games – Virtua Fighter making a return.
In King of Fighters fashion, FGC content creators Maximilan, CuriousJoi, and UnRoolie, have received a letter from Sega. “New Era. New Energy. Make sure to tune in to The Game Awards December 7th.”, it said.
I got one too. Curious, have these gone out to others that are NOT huge fighting game creators? https://t.co/v6aOjeJTvr pic.twitter.com/Nqommjigkj
— Maximilian Dood (@maximilian_) December 2, 2023
Twitter Brodoof pointed out that the font matched the font used to announce Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown – the sort-of remastering of Final Showdown – back in 2021. Ultimate Showdown was a product of AM2 and Like A Dragon producers Ryu Ga Gotoko. Ultimate Showdown did do better than expectations set, according to Sega themselves.
A Long Time Coming
Fans have been hurting for a new entry in the technically grounded 3D fighting game, including the producer of Tekken, Katsuhiro Harada. It would be a good time to go ahead with VF6. No Pachinkos, mobile RPGs, no spin-off RPGs, or beat-em-ups, allowed. After Dead Or Alive 6 came and went, and Soulcalibur 6 lost focus, it feels like the 3D Fighter scene needs that special something to come from Sega.
In a sense, things might be lining up for that outside of the evidence. Virtua Fighter was released in October 1993. So, we’re literally 30 years past its’ debut in arcades. Sega hasn’t really pulled anything off for the series to celebrate as much, minus Like A Dragon and Judgement ports. In VF4:Evolution, a mode dedicated to its’ roots was included which reskinned all the fighters to match the original game with low-res polygon versions. There is even a stage that resembles one of the first Virtua Fighter stages, looping Jacky’s original theme. Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown included the same said skins for all characters. Both games included soundtracks from the original game arranged and arcade style.
As for what we should expect for VF, one can only hope we see something VF-like on December 7th, 2023.
