Virtua Fighter
Logo used since 2024
Genre	Fighting
Developers	Sega AM2 Genki Aspect Tose Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio
Publisher	Sega
Creator	Yu Suzuki
Platforms	Arcade,Sega Saturn,32X,Microsoft Windows,Mega Drive,Game Gear,Master System,Game.com,R-Zone,Dreamcast,PlayStation 2,GameCube,PlayStation 3,Virtual Console,Xbox 360,mobile,PlayStation 4,PlayStation 5,Xbox Series X/S,Nintendo Switch 2
First release	Virtua Fighter October 1993
Latest release	Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. January 2025
Spin-offs	Fighters Megamix Virtua Quest Anime series

Virtua Fighter^{[nb 1]} is a series offighting games created bySega AM2 and designerYu Suzuki. The originalVirtua Fighter was released in December 1993^[1] and has received four main sequels and several spin-offs. The highly influential firstVirtua Fighter game is widely recognized as the first3D fighting game released.

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The defaultgameplay system of theVirtua Fighter series involves two combatants needing to win two of three rounds, with each round being 30 seconds long or more. Combatants utilize various attacks in an attempt to deplete the other fighter's stamina gauge and deal a knockout (K.O.), winning a round. If a character is knocked out (or falls out) of the ring, their opponent wins the round in a Ring Out. An extra round is necessary if a double knockout (both players knocking each other out at the same time) occurs in a previous round and the match is tied one round each. In this round, players fight on a small stage wherein one hit is enough to knock the other out and achieve victory.

The basic control scheme uses an 8-way control stick and three buttons (Punch, Kick, Guard). Through various timings, positions, and button combinations, players input normal and special moves for each character. This allows extensive lists of moves to exist for a given character within the limited control scheme. Traditionally, in thesingle-player mode, the player runs a gauntlet of characters in the game (which may include one'sdoppelgänger) all the way to the finalboss.

The following is a list of games in theVirtua Fighter series:

The brainchild ofSega AM2'sYu Suzuki,Virtua Fighter was released in 1993 as anarcade game using hardware jointly developed by aerospace simulation technology by the company that is now known asLockheed Martin and Sega's most prominent and well known studioAM2, originally crafted for the arcade system dubbed theModel 1.^[8] It is considered the first polygon-based fighting game. It introducedthe eight initial fighters as well as the boss, Dural. Sony developers have confirmed that the game inspired Sony to create the first PlayStation console and to focus more on 3D games, more so than the main competitor in Japan, theSega Saturn.

Virtua Fighter 2 was released in November 1994, adding two new fighters: Shun Di and Lion Rafale. It was built using theModel 2 hardware,rendering characters and backgrounds withfilteredtexture mapping andmotion capture.^[9] A slightly tweaked upgrade,Virtua Fighter 2.1, followed soon after.

Virtua Fighter 3 came out in 1996, with the introduction of Taka-Arashi and Aoi Umenokoji. Aside from improving the graphics via use of theModel 3 (such asmipmapping,multi-layer anti-aliasing,trilinear filtering andspecular highlighting), the game also introduced undulations in some stages and a fourth button, Dodge.Virtua Fighter 3tb in 1997 was the first major update in series history, implementing tournament battles featuring more than two characters (though not simultaneously as in theDead or Alive games andTekken Tag Tournament).

Virtua Fighter 4, which introduced Vanessa Lewis and Lei-Fei and removed Taka-Arashi, was released on theNAOMI 2 hardware in 2001 instead of hardware from a joint collaboration with Lockheed Martin. The game also removed the uneven battlegrounds and the Dodge button from the previous game. The title is consistently popular in its home arcade market.Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution, released in 2002, was the first update to add new characters, these being Brad Burns and Goh Hinogami.Virtua Fighter 4: Final Tuned, an upgrade toEvolution, was released in the arcades in 2004. In Japan,Virtua Fighter 4 was famous for spearheading and opening the market for internet functionality in arcades. VF.NET started in Japan in 2001, and since companies have created their own arcade networks,E-Amusement byKonami,NESiCAxLive byTaito andSquare Enix, andALL.Net by Sega.

Virtua Fighter 5 was released in Japan on July 12, 2006, for Sega'sLindbergh arcade board and introduced yet two more new characters, Eileen and El Blaze. Similar to its predecessor, two revisions were later released.Virtua Fighter 5 R, released on July 24, 2008, saw the return of Taka-Arashi while introducing a new fighter, Jean Kujo.Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown was released in arcades on July 29, 2010.Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown (known in Japan asVirtua Fighter eSports) was released for Sega ALLs cabinet on June 2, 2021, a day after PlayStation 4 version's release.

The firstVirtua Fighter game was ported to the Saturn in 1994 (1995 outside Japan), just months before fellow 3D-fighterTekken was released. The console port, which was nearly identical to the arcade game, sold at a nearly 1:1 ratio with the Saturn hardware at launch.^[10] The port ofVirtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn for Christmas 1995 was considered faithful to the arcade original. While the game's 3D backgrounds were now rendered in 2D, resulting in some scenery such as the bridge in Shun Di's river stage being removed, the remainder of the game was kept intact. It became the top-selling Saturn game in Japan. Ports of the originalVirtua Fighter andVirtua Fighter 2 with enhanced graphics were also released for thePC.Virtua Fighter 2 was remade as a 2D fighter for theMega Drive/Genesis in 1996, omitting the characters Shun and Lion, and later re-released on thePlayStation 2 as a part of theSega Ages series.Yakuza 5 was released in 2012 in Japan and in 2015 worldwide and featuresVirtua Fighter 2 as a mini-game. The only port ofVirtua Fighter 3 was for theSega Dreamcast byGenki (instead of AM2) withVirtua Fighter 3tb in 1998 for the Japanese release of the console.

In a reverse of the usual development cycle for the series, an update of the originalVirtua Fighter calledVirtua Fighter Remix was released for the Saturn and later ported to the arcade.

Virtua Fighter Mini, based on the anime series, was created for the Game Gear and released in North America and Europe asVirtua Fighter Animation. The game was later ported to the Master System byTec Toy and released only in Brazil. Brazil itself was a market where the series was very popular.^[11]

Following Sega's exit from the hardware market in mid-2001,Virtua Fighter 4 was ported by Sega to the PlayStation 2 in 2002. Outside of a slight downgrade in graphics, the port of the game was considered well done. This port was followed byVirtua Fighter 4: Evolution, an update that added two new characters as well as a host of game balancing tweaks, in 2003.Evolution was immediately released under the PlayStation 2's "Greatest Hits" label in the United States, which lowered its initial sticker price.

With the 2003 PlayStation 2 release ofVirtua Fighter 4: Evolution arriving in time for the series' tenth anniversary, aremake ofVirtua Fighter,Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary, was released exclusively on the PlayStation 2. While the music, stages and low-polygon visual style were retained from the first game, the character roster, animations, mechanics and movesets were taken fromEvolution. In the previous PS2 release ofVirtua Fighter 4, a button code would make the player's character look like aVF1 model. In Japan, the game was included as part of a box set with a book titledVirtua Fighter 10th Anniversary: Memory of a Decade and a DVD. The box set was released in November 2003 and was published byEnterbrain.^[12] In North America, the game was included within the home version ofEvolution, and in Europe it was only available as a promotional item; it was not sold at retail.

A port ofVirtua Fighter 5 was released for thePlayStation 3 in Japan and North America in February 2007, and March 2007 in Europe. The PlayStation 3 port is considered extremely faithful to the arcade original, due in part to the arcade hardware (based onSega Lindbergh platform) and PlayStation 3 hardware sharing NVidia-provided GPUs of comparable capability. A port for theXbox 360 was released in October 2007 in Japan and North America, and December 2007 in Europe, and contains the additions of online fighting viaXbox Live, improved graphics, and gameplay balances from the newer revision of the arcade game. For years, the designers have held strong on their refusal to add an online mode to console versions of the games; because the gameplay relies so much on timing, any lag would ruin the experience.^[13] Eventually, with the Xbox 360 release ofVF5, Sega decided to add online capabilities via Xbox Live.Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown was released as a downloadable title for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in June 2012, with online play available in both versions. An updated version ofVirtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown namedVersion B was released in Japanese arcades in 2015.Yakuza 6: The Song of Life was released forPlayStation 4 in 2016 in Japan and 2018 worldwide and the game featuresVirtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown Version B as a mini-game, making the release ofYakuza 6 also the PlayStation 4 debut for theVirtua Fighter series.Virtua Fighter Ultimate Showdown (known asVirtua Fighter eSports in Japan), a remake which also serves as a final update version of the fifth game's sub-series was co-developed with Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, and released in both PlayStation 4 and Arcade versions in the first two days of June 2021, respectively, with its night generation console titleVirtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. based on recent update of the previous, in additions torollback netcode and crossplay released in January 2025 for Windows before being set to be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2.

AtThe Game Awards 2024, SEGA and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio announced anewVirtua Fighter. A digital event called Virtua Fighter Direct happening later that same night revealed more about the game in development, including a full look at the models of Akira and a character named Stella, followed by Wolf and an unidentified male character in EVO Japan 2025.^{[citation needed]} According to Famitsu interview with Ryu ga Gotoku Studio representative Yokoyama and producer Yamada, the newVirtua Fighter is in talk to have a story mode, which would mark the first time in the series. Additionally, the newVirtua Fighter is confirmed to be designed for home releases, with Windows version is mentioned to be one of the planned ports. According to the interview, it is revealed that a Ryu ga Gotoku studio member, Seiji Aoki had been appointed to solely produce re-released versions of previousVirtua Fighter games, as he is not involved in the developing sixthVirtua Fighter game.^[14]

Due to the success ofVirtua Fighter 2, asuper deformed version calledVirtua Fighter Kids was released for the Sega Saturn and arcades in 1996. 1996 also saw the release ofFighters Megamix for the Sega Saturn, a crossover that pitted the cast ofVirtua Fighter 2 against the cast ofFighting Vipers as well as other characters in AM2-developed games.Megamix served as a home preview toVirtua Fighter 3 in a few ways, as the game featured the dodge ability found inVF3 and theVirtua Fighter characters had their moves updated to those found inVF3. Some stages and music fromVF3 are also in the game. TheVirtua Fighter Kids versions ofAkira andSarah appear as hidden playable characters in the game; the characterSiba, who was omitted from the firstVirtua Fighter also appears as a hidden playable character. The wrestling video gameAll-Japan Pro Wrestling Featuring Virtua was released for the Saturn in 1997 and ported to arcades later that year.^[15] Released only in Japan, it features Jeffrey and Wolf in addition to an assortment of Japanese wrestlers as playable characters.^[16]

In 1996, AM2 began developing a SaturnRPG based on the series, titledVirtua Fighter RPG: Akira's Story, with Akira as the hero.^[17] Development moved to the Dreamcast, theVirtua Fighter connection was dropped^[18] and the game becameShenmue, released in 1999.^[17]Virtua Quest, a simplifiedrole-playing video game (which was also known asVirtua Fighter RPG) with new characters aimed at the children's market, was released for theGameCube in 2004 and the PlayStation 2 in 2005. The Virtua Fighters had their incarnations fromVirtua Fighter 4.

During the late 2000s, both Sega andNamco showed interest in a possible cross over betweenVirtua Fighter andTekken.^[19] This crossover would combine all the characters and fighting styles from both games, but any other inclusions are unknown at the moment. Prior to that, both franchises were represented as Mii Brawler costumes in theNintendo crossoverSuper Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U, in whichRyu from theStreet Fighter series first playable too, whereas Akira himself (based on 10th Anniversary version) physically appeared in the sequelSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate as an assist trophy character whereKazuya Mishima fromTekken, includingKen Masters as Ryu's echo fighter first playable too.

A 35 episodes-long anime television seriesVirtua Fighter was produced byTōkyō Movie Shinsha, originally airing onTV Tokyo between 1995 and 1996. In 1995,Shogakukan began publishing aVirtua Fighter 2manga, with creative oversight from Sega AM2 to ensure the characters were portrayed consistently with their original vision.^[20] The games' manga adaptation was written by Kyōichi Nanatsuki and illustrated byYoshihide Fujiwara starting in 1997. In Japan,Virtua Fighter CG Portrait Series, wherein each character in the series had their own Saturn CD showcasing various poses of the fighter, was released around the same time as well. People who collected all the discs could send in their proof of purchases to get a special Portrait CD of Dural. In 2014, Sega formed the production company Stories International for film and TV projects based on their games withVirtua Fighter as an animated project.^[21][22]

The firstVirtua Fightermerchandise was a set of dolls of the firstVirtua Fighter cast which Sega produced for their UFO Catchers (a model ofclaw crane). These proved so popular that supplies ran out almost immediately, so Sega made additional batches and began producing otherVirtua Fighter merchandise to put in the UFO Catchers.^[20] When these also proved successful, Sega realized thatVirtua Fighter merchandise had mainstream potential, and began licensing the property to merchandise producers such asBandai.^[20]

Sega has also released soundtrack CDs for the games, and even an album of original theme music for the characters calledDancing Shadows.^[20]

In Sega's music video gameProject DIVA 2nd,Vocaloid Megurine Luka can obtain aSarah Bryant outfit for gameplay. Jacky Bryant and Akira Yuki appear inSonic & Sega All-Stars Racing as partners competing against other Sega characters in races. Akira Yuki, Sarah Bryant and Pai Chan, appear as guest characters inTecmo Koei'sDead or Alive 5,^[26][27] followed by Jacky Bryant inDead or Alive 5 Ultimate, marking the first timeVirtua Fighter collaborated with a non-Sega fighting game series and for the series to be featured in a tag-team fighting game. Akira Yuki, Pai Chan and Dural appear in the crossover RPGProject X Zone, which features characters fromCapcom,Namco Bandai Games, and Sega. Akira Yuki, Pai Chan and Dural return inProject X Zone 2 along with Kage-Maru. InDengeki Bunko Fighting Climax, Akira Yuki and Pai Chan appears as a playable guest boss where Akira is playable and Pai as assist, though they became regulars in theIgnition update. InSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U andSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate,Mii Brawler costumes based on Jacky Bryant's modern appearance and Akira Yuki's first appearance were released as downloadable content. Akira would also appear inUltimate as an assist trophy in his appearance inVirtua Fighter 10th Anniversary (a polygonal form from the first game with both voice lines and a move set fromVirtua Fighter 4 Evolution).

Virtua Fighter 2,2.1,3tb, andVirtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown have been near fully-recreated within theYakuza series of games, as both a playable game inside the in-game arcades and a separate 1 versus 1 multiplayer minigame.^[28] Within the game files ofYakuza: Like a Dragon andYakuza 6, a near full version ofVirtua Fighter 5 exists.^[29]

The originalVirtua Fighter sold more than 40,000arcade units worldwide by 1996,^[30] with each unit costing between$15,000 (equivalent to $33,000 in 2024)^[31] and £14,000 /$21,000 (equivalent to $46,000 in 2024).^[32]Virtua Fighter 2 also sold more than 40,000 arcade units worldwide, adding up to more than 80,000 unit sales of both games by 1996.^[33]Virtua Fighter andVirtua Fighter 2 became Sega's best-selling arcade games of all time, surpassingOut Run (1986),^[34] which itself had sold 30,000 arcade cabinets by 1994.^[35]Virtua Fighter 3 sold a further 30,000arcade cabinets by 1997,^[36] adding up to 110,000 arcade unit sales for the three games combined by 1997.

In 1994,Virtua Fighter was the year's highest-grossingarcade game in Japan,^[37] one of the year's top five highest-grossing arcadevideo games in the United States,^[38] and one of the year's most popularcoin-ops in the United Kingdom.^[31] In 1995,Virtua Fighter 2 was the year's highest-grossing arcade game in Japan,^[39][40] and one of the year's top ten best-selling arcade games in the United States.^[41][42]

On the Sega Saturn,Virtua Fighter andVirtua Fighter 2 combined had sold more than3 million copies worldwide by 1996.^[33]Virtua Fighter andVirtua Fighter Remix sold a combined 1,067,036 copies in Japan.^[43]Virtua Fighter 2 sold1.7 million copies in Japan,^[44] and more than 500,000 bundled copies in the United States,^[45] for a combined2.2 million copies sold in Japan and the United States. On the Sega Dreamcast,Virtua Fighter 3tb sold 330,631 copies in Japan^[46] and 96,390 copies in the United States,^[47] for a combined 427,021 copies sold in Japan and the United States.

On the PlayStation 2,Virtua Fighter 4 sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide by 2002.^[48] On the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3,Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown reached over 300,000 global downloads worldwide across both platforms in 2012. On the PlayStation 4, the limitedfree-to-play offer ofVirtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown reached over 10 million global downloads worldwide in 2021.^[49][50]

As of 2023, the series has sold over 5.5 million units worldwide.^[51] The series sales and free-to-play downloads ofVirtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown combined totaled over 18 million units.^[52][53][50]

Virtua Fighter is often considered to be the grandfather of 3D fighting games, with each iteration being noted for advancing the graphical and technical aspects of games in the genre. Many 3D fighting game series such asTekken andDead or Alive were heavily influenced byVirtua Fighter, and the originalDead or Alive ran on the Model 2 hardware. In 1998, the series was recognized by theSmithsonian 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.^[8][54] Its arcade cabinets are kept at the Smithsonian'sNational Museum of American History, whereVirtua Fighter is the only video game on permanent display.^[55] In 1999,Next Generation listed theVirtua Fighter series as number 8 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting that, "Virtua Fighter is the most elegant fighting game ever created. With only two attack buttons, the game still offers an astonishingly wide range of martial art styles."^[56]

Virtua Fighter played a crucial role in popularizing3D polygon graphics.^{[57][58][59][60]} The success of theVirtua Fighter series resulted inGuinness World Records awarding the series seven world records inGuinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008, including "First Polygon Based Fighting Game", "First 3D Fighting Game", and "First Fighting Game for a 32-bit Console".1UP listedVirtua Fighter as one of the 50 most important games of all time, crediting it for creating the 3D fighting game genre, and more generally, demonstrating the potential of 3D polygon human characters (as the first to implement them in a useful way), showing the potential of realistic gameplay (introducing a characterphysics system and realistic character animations for the time), and introducing fighting game concepts such as the ring-out and the block button.^[58]Virtua Fighter 2 on the Sega Model 2 introduced the use oftexture-mapped 3D characters,^[61] and motion capture animation technology.^[62]Virtua Fighter 3 on the Sega Model 3 further advanced real-time graphics technology, withComputer and Video Games in 1996 comparing it toCGI and referring to it as "the most astounding display ofvideo game graphic muscle ever in the history of this industry."^[63] In 1997,Next Generation stated thatVirtua Fighter had supplantedStreet Fighter as the premier fighting game series.^[64]

Some of theSony Computer Entertainment (SCE) staff involved in the creation of the originalPlayStation video game console creditVirtua Fighter as inspiration for the PlayStation's3D graphics hardware. According to SCE'sShigeo Maruyama, the PlayStation was originally being considered as a 2D-focused hardware, and it was not until the release ofVirtua Fighter that they decided to design the PlayStation as a 3D-focused hardware.^[65]Toby Gard also citedVirtua Fighter as an influence on the use of polygonal characters inTomb Raider and the creation ofLara Croft.^[66]John Romero also citedVirtua Fighter as a major influence on the creation of 3Dfirst-person shooterQuake.^[67][68]Team Ico'sFumito Ueda also citedVirtua Fighter as an influence on his animation work.^[69]

A late 1995 article inNext Generation declared that "TheVirtua Fighter series has been, and will continue to be, the yardstick by which all next generation arcade and console fighting games will be measured for a long time coming."^[70] According toEurogamer: "One of Yu Suzuki's most enduring creations once christened every round of new arcade hardware, was a pioneer in 3D graphics and helped establish online fighting. All the while, beneath those achievements emerged a game of exceptional depth and nuance."^[71]1UP opined: "Due to its innovation,Virtua Fighter not only influenced competitors' games -- it basically created a genre. Technically, every 3D fighter that came after it owesVirtua Fighter for establishing that a 3D fighter could work. Even today,Tekken still takes inspiration from Sega's series."^[72]Game Informer's Andy McNamara wrote: "It has always been my opinion that theVirtua Fighter series is the most intense and balanced of all the 3D fighters on the market. Its control scheme is intuitive, its pacing perfect, and its depth unmatched."^[73] in 2006,IGN rankedVirtua Fighter as the 25th greatest game series of all time, explaining that "no other 3D fighter has equaledVF in terms of difficulty and depth."^[74]

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