Topic: After over 30 years, an official handheld Virtua Fighter

I have been entertained this week by the new Switch 2 release of Yakuza Kiwami 2, especially having fond memories of Shenmue but never having played Yakuza. It feels to me like "Shenmue with a personality".

However, I didn't buy it for that reason. I bought it because, as far as I can see, this is the first time we have had an official handheld console port of a Virtua Fighter game (no, we're not counting the 2D Genesis, Game Gear or Game.com versions!).

I was a "Sega Kid" all the way through to Dreamcast. While I'd say I prefer the Tekken series overall, the Saturn port of Virtua Fighter 2 was one of a small number of games on the platform that I personally think looked better than pretty much anything on Playstation. The others being Last Bronx, Panzer Dragoon Saga and Sonic R.

As Sega transitioned from platform owner to software publisher, my hopes grew, at first that we'd see some kind of new 2D handheld port (think Tekken Advance), then later a full-on handheld version (think Tekken on PSP) of at least one entry in the Virtua Fighter series. In adult life I've had very little time to invest in sit-down play sessions. Being able to master the complex move sets in fighting games on the London Underground was a Godsend.

And yet the years went by and no such thing appeared. The closest we got was the underwhelming 2D Megadrive/Genesis port, which Sega seemed obsessed with dumping onto as many console and mobile platforms as humanly possible. Eventually, handheld PC and mobile devices became powerful enough to run the games through emulation, and then last year we finally got a PC port of Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O., which you could then play on a handheld gaming PC. Still, I'm sat here scratching my head. Sega, in all this time did it literally never make business sense to release a nice, straightforward, plug in and play handheld console port of this highly respected game?

Now we have Yakuza Kiwami 2 and I have a permanent save game stashed in the menu where I'm just stood in front of the cabinet ready to play. It still feels redundant and silly but still, better than it's ever been before for us handheld gamers. Also it's Virtua Fighter 2 which I kind of think is where the series peaked.

I think I remember reading that, in Japan, the home port of a fighting game is often seen more as a practice tool for the arcade. In that context it makes sense that it would seem like a strange idea to Yu Suzuki and AM2 to port the games to anything that you wouldn't plug an arcade stick into.

Still though, over thirty years without this port which I always really wanted and to my intuition would have made sense sales-wise. It feels like another in a long list of baffling, self sabotaging decisions that Sega have made over the years.

Of course, coming up will be VF5 and VF6, but we don't have a release date for either of Switch 2 yet. The cynic in me thinks that Sega realized that if they delayed VF5 on Switch 2, fools like me would immediately buy Yakuza to plug the gap with the included VF2 port. But really, an M2 Sega Ages standalone version with optional tweaks, maybe even a widescreen mode? That would have been impossible would it? Adding a few 32x games including VF1 to Sega Megadrive/Genesis online?

Has anyone else shared this frustration? Anyway, I'm grateful now that it's coming to an end.

Still.... 30 years!!!!

I'm so looking forward to VF on Switch 2. I sold my Saturn a few years ago and I've been craving to jump back into it!

@Model2Port is it like in Shenmu, where you need in game currency to play? I didn't know it's included in the game, that's really cool. I had VF4 on the PS3, and loved it - 2 was also great, but I never bought it.

Yes, it requires in-game Yen. You usually have thousands to hand and it's 100 per credit so not a huge problem if you use a disposable save and just pump all your money into it.

Makes sense - one of these days I’ll get around to playing a yakuza game