Last September, it was revealed that Virtua Racing would be joining the Sega Ages line-up on Switch. We haven't heard a great deal about it since then, but some more details have now been shared which are sure to get fans excited for its release.
The news comes from the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu (thanks, Gematsu), confirming that the game is set to launch on the eShop in Japan this spring. Interestingly, the release will support online races, which will actually play out as one-on-one battles. Your opponent’s status will reportedly be displayed via picture-in-picture.
Arguably even more interestingly, though, is the news that you'll be able to race with seven of your friends in local splitscreen. You'll have the option to set either five-lap or 20-lap race rules, with all players racing on the same screen. If you thought having four racers on one screen was pushing it, wait until you see this new layout.
If you opt to go for more than four players (so let's say five), your screen will look like this:
Push it all the way to eight, and you'll get this (we hope you've got a decently sized TV):
We'll make sure to keep an eye out for any more news on Sega Ages Virtua Racing as it comes but, until then, make sure to let us know what you think about these multiplayer options in the comments below.
[source gematsu.com]
Comments 69
I knew nothing about Virtua Racing on Switch! Darn, I'm so happy, this will definitely be a must buy for me.
oh, okay Sega you got me.
Any word on a Uk release date , I really hope they don’t remove the online races when it gets a European release Sega have history like when they removed the online races from Daytona USA 2001
Perfect. Now bring Saturn Bomberman and its 10 player madness.
Let’s get to the Dreamcast games
This is taking ages to come out....
Still not the 1 April? Wow!
Is it possible to connect more than four controllers to one switch? How will this work?
Day one !!! Now bring us all the model 1, 2, 3 arcade goodness.
8 Players split-screen, is that even possible? Anyways I'm getting this regardless as I enjoy the arcade original and still had my 32X cartridge for the Sega Genesis add-on.
Assuming the original was 640x480, and this version runs at 1920x1080, you'll only be at 3/4 of the original resolution, so not bad if you have a big TV.
@infernogott Don't you own Super Smash Bros. Ultimate? When you enter multiplayer mode there will be options to allow for more than four controllers if the game supports it. If the game doesn't support it, four is all you'll get. Only thing is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate doesn't had split screens so I don't know how Sega would handle 8-Player Virtua Racing split screens here. I hope the view perspectives aren't too limited. Having more players involve is great but if that means having lower framerates and less view perspective then four players is enough for me.
Yeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss give me this
@Medic_alert depends on whether you appreciate different graphical styles as art or just label them with time periods i guess.
@retro_player_22 Yes, I do. But I never tried this, since I never had this many people over
This will definitely be my first AGES purchase. Hopefully not the last either/ keep them coming!
Would’ve bought others but that Genesis collection kind of canabalized the sales, yknow?
Glorious!
My body has been ready for over 25 years.
@Gs69 @Medic_alert Well it will be three months or so after the japanese one just like all the other releases to date. So get it from there at launch.
@Medic_alert @Medic_alert @Medic_alert At the games release this was the absolute cutting edge, so this was 100% percent a design choice. This was the graphical style that the platform could produce. They didn't make it but in their minds hated it because they knew five years down the road they could make the wheels look more realsitic. If they had wanted to they could of scaled things back and not gone for this at all.
@infernogott @retro_player_22
Some games also do it by accepting four sets of Joy-Con, but then remapping the controls in such a way that people can hold one Joy-Con sideways each and technically play with eight players.
Party Golf does this, for example 🙂
Gain Ground and Puyo Puyo had to be released on February in the West, there was a post about this but not about the obvious delay.
Anyway, Virtua Racing with so many players? I hope it's not what we see online, because in tabletop mode Mario Kart 8 with 2 players gets difficult to play, let alone 4, and 8 for Virtua Racing could be awful.
could i get daytona?
also could namco please release an arcade perfect ridge racer?
that's is all.
@ryancraddock Yeah but still Party Golf doesn't had split screens. When a game had many split screens for say 4 in the case of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, framerates had to be drop to 30fps to keep the game running smooth, with Virtua Racing I just hope 8 Players split screens doesn't hamper the framerates too much or slow down the action. I would assume the 8 Player split screen mode would only work best on dock mode perhaps.
Wow. Looks like a showcase game for my 92"
8 players on my projector....no problem 😀
@retro_player_22 Oh yeah, I was only referring to @infernogott's question about how it would support more than four controllers.
In terms of splitscreen though, yeah, I'd have thought that the 8-player stuff would either be restricted to docked mode only, or at the very least it will be suggested that docked is the best way to play. It'll be an interesting one for sure!
@infernogott According to Nintendo's website you can connect 8 Devices with it's bluetooth connection. If you use pro controllers or joycons seperated you can get 8.
This is amazing. Insta buy for this guy
NOW you have me interested.
@retro_player_22 I doubt it would be a problem on even the gamecube. The model 1 arcade board this game was built on only could push about 200,000 polygon. Multiply that by 8 and that is still only 1.6 Million polygons and even the gamecube could do that easily.
@YANDMAN wonder why it takes them so long I’m guessing they have an English language option already in the game and it’s not like years ago where we had different regions with different tv standards
The game's original resolution is 496x384. Enough to do two rows of 4 screens on a 1080p display at native arcade resolution with a little extra on the vertical. And considering the relatively low spec of the SEGA Model 1 hardware (180,000 polys/sec or 6,000 polys/frame, which Virtua Racing doesn't come close to normally, at 30FPS at the original spec; which means 12,000p polys/frame at 60FPS for SEGA AGES on Switch, or 96,000 polys/frame for 8 screens or 5,760,000 flat-shaded polys/sec max) 8-players actually doesn't seem that huge of a push for today's hardware. http://system16.com/hardware.php?id=712
@smashboy2000 Have any Saturn games EVER been redone/re-released? I'm asking because I'm a big Saturn fan and kind of annoyed we never got VC Saturn games.
Can't help but think, this would have been terrific on the 3DS.
Oh wow this is a pretty big deal for me, I had this game on my Genesis and I remember how incredible looking it was for the time.
@RandomNerds I can only think of Radiant Silvergun and Guardian Heros on the Xbox 360...
I'd get this if I had a Switch, the Ages collections were great on PS3 and Xbox along with releases like Daytona and Afterburner Climax. I would have liked to see the new Ages games on the PS4 (as I own the console).
@RandomNerds Night into dreams got a remake on ps2 in japan, which was then ported over to Xbox 360 and Ps3 later on.
Now to find seven friends...
@RandomNerds As others say above, Radiant Silvergun, Nights into Dreams, Guardian Heroes, but also Fighting Vipers and Virtua Fighter 2 (on PS3/360) have been re-released.
It's a hard period to re-release today because :
1/ Sega Saturn was a very hard machine to develop on and you can't just take a game and re-release it as easy as you can with a PS1 game or an old PC game. You really have to re-write the code.
2/ It's a machine that didn't sell very well : only 9.5 millions units in the world, far less than the Wii U or the PS Vita ! So maybe the nostalgia is very high for people who owned it (you, me, ...) but we're not that much in the world :/
3/ The graphics from this period are very hard to watch today, as the PS1 games today. I guess 2D games like Saturn Bomberman are still ok, but 3D games nope. They have to do real remakes like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro or Nights into Dreams, ... and because of point number 2, it's not a very safe economic choice for developpers.
That's why we don't see many games from the Saturn era...
The best way to play Saturn games today is to replace the CD drive of the machine by an SD card reader : you can play any game without restriction, perfectly emulated because you play on a real Sega Saturn, without the noise of the Saturn drive, and without any regional restriction.
Them local 8- player races at the local coffee shop:
Virtua Racing is coming to the Switch!
Oh my Giddy Aunt! That's going to be a day one purchase!
Oh my lord, I think I need
Thank you Sega! Day 1!
Looking forward to this, I just hope it is not the PS2 handling.
Hopefully Daytona, Sega Rally follow
@smashboy2000 FV and VF2 on PS3 are arcade versions. Also I found the saturn almost completely silent myself, not like the Dreamcast!
My favourite ever arcade game, this looks incredible. My only worry is the online play limited to you against only one other person? Or am I reading it wrong? Because I don't have any gamer friends in my city I'd be playing online only multiplayer. Bit disappointing it's not 8 or 12 players online like Mario Kart.
@Ristar24 You're right for the arcade versions, my mystake !
Saturn is very loud when it access CDs.
@smashboy2000 hmm, mine isnt loud at all, either of the two Saturn consoles I have, plus no fan, so quieter to me than the PS4... as I say, dreamcast, thats something else, very loud drive in my experience. Perhaps units vary.
If they'll do DAYYYYYTONNNNAAAAAA like this, I'll buy it day one!
I need this in my life!
More 8 player madness?
Normally, I wouldn't be interested in a game like this, but I'm sold now.
Wow, this really is the way to do retro games!
@Gs69 they put a lot of work in optimizing these even adding in modes that fix the reg gamemode in some cases. Unlike the Gen Collection. Add in the additional approvals and thats where the delays come in.
TIME BONUS!
Day one for me this.
This is one of the reasons why I love my Switch. Revisit childhood classics.
@SoIDecidedTo If you have a PS3 or 360, the great Daytona port is still available to buy...
All these games should be online, just like old xbox live arcade games were back in the day.
8 players in Smash... 9 players in Runbow... 10 players in Saturn Bomberman... but an 8 player SPLIT SCREEN game?! I want this for my Switch!
This is pretty neat. I like that they included this.
@Tandy255 Haha, yeah, I know that feeling.
Doesn’t seem like this and Gain Ground and Just the Sega Ages line In general is coming real real slow??
@RandomNerds nights into dreams was remastered for PS3 and Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 version you can play on Xbox One via BC! That’s the only one that comes to mind but I could be wrong.
@Ristar24 darn forgot about those 2 yup and Daytona also! I could only remember Nights. ☺️
@joey302 Yes. I bought Alex Kidd on the japanese eShop, because the rest of the world is way behind and I'm tired of waiting. Doesn't really matter since the japanese releases are in english.
@NintendoFan4Lyf Yeah but you had to take into considering those 8 screens will constantly be changing perspective and in motion at all time during gameplay. This isn't a direct port of the Genesis version ya know, it's an optimize arcade revamp.
@infernogott Yes, that’s why Smash supports 8-way battles
@infernogott wow that’s right we never got Alex Kidd yet either!
So Alex Kidd
Virtua Racing
Gain Ground all are late here in the US!
Virtua Racing hasn't been released, yet, but it will probably be late as well. Don't really understand why the games all have to be this late, since they already are available in english in Japan.
@SoIDecidedTo @Ristar24
It’s backward compatible on XB1 as well
@Ristar24 I only have the switch and Wii U right now. I've thought about other systems, but with such limited time to play, Switch fits most of my wants. Thanks for letting me know though! I loved the theme song!
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