The following is a list of games in the
Virtua Fighter series:
Arcade fighting games The brainchild of
Sega AM2's
Yu Suzuki,
Virtua Fighter was released in 1993 as an
arcade game using hardware jointly developed by aerospace simulation technology by the company that is now known as
Lockheed Martin and Sega's most prominent and well known studio
AM2, originally crafted for the arcade system dubbed the
Model 1. 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 the
Model 3 (such as
mipmapping,
multi-layer anti-aliasing,
trilinear filtering and
specular 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 the
Dead or Alive games and
Tekken Tag Tournament).
Virtua Fighter 4, which introduced Vanessa Lewis and Lei-Fei and removed Taka-Arashi, was released on the
NAOMI 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 to
Evolution, 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 by
Konami,
NESiCAxLive by
Taito and
Square Enix, and
ALL.Net by Sega.
Virtua Fighter 5 was released in Japan on July 12, 2006, for Sega's
Lindbergh 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 as
Virtua Fighter eSports) was released for Sega ALLs cabinet on June 2, 2021, a day after PlayStation 4 version's release.
Console fighting games '' on the
32X The first
Virtua Fighter game was ported to the Saturn in 1994 (1995 outside Japan), just months before fellow 3D-fighter
Tekken 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. The port of
Virtua 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 original
Virtua Fighter and
Virtua Fighter 2 with enhanced graphics were also released for the
PC.
Virtua Fighter 2 was remade as a 2D fighter for the
Mega Drive/Genesis in 1996, omitting the characters Shun and Lion, and later re-released on the
PlayStation 2 as a part of the
Sega Ages series.
Yakuza 5 was released in 2012 in Japan and in 2015 worldwide and features
Virtua Fighter 2 as a mini-game. The only port of
Virtua Fighter 3 was for the
Sega Dreamcast by
Genki (instead of AM2) with
Virtua Fighter 3tb in 1998 for the Japanese release of the console. '' on the
Master System In a reverse of the usual development cycle for the series, an update of the original
Virtua Fighter called
Virtua 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 as
Virtua Fighter Animation. The game was later ported to the Master System by
Tec Toy and released only in Brazil. Brazil itself was a market where the series was very popular. 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 by
Virtua 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 of
Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution arriving in time for the series' tenth anniversary, a
remake of
Virtua 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 from
Evolution. In the previous PS2 release of
Virtua Fighter 4, a button code would make the player's character look like a
VF1 model. In Japan, the game was included as part of a box set with a book titled
Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary: Memory of a Decade and a DVD. The box set was released in November 2003 and was published by
Enterbrain. In North America, the game was included within the home version of
Evolution, and in Europe it was only available as a promotional item; it was not sold at retail. A port of
Virtua Fighter 5 was released for the
PlayStation 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 on
Sega Lindbergh platform) and PlayStation 3 hardware sharing NVidia-provided GPUs of comparable capability. A port for the
Xbox 360 was released in October 2007 in Japan and North America, and December 2007 in Europe, and contains the additions of online fighting via
Xbox 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. Eventually, with the Xbox 360 release of
VF5, 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 of
Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown named
Version B was released in Japanese arcades in 2015.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life was released for
PlayStation 4 in 2016 in Japan and 2018 worldwide and the game features
Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown Version B as a mini-game, making the release of
Yakuza 6 also the PlayStation 4 debut for the
Virtua Fighter series.
Virtua Fighter Ultimate Showdown (known as
Virtua 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 title
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. based on recent update of the previous, in additions to
rollback 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. At
The Game Awards 2024, SEGA and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio announced a
new Virtua 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. According to Famitsu interview with Ryu ga Gotoku Studio representative Yokoyama and producer Yamada, the new
Virtua Fighter is in talk to have a story mode, which would mark the first time in the series. Additionally, the new
Virtua 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 previous
Virtua Fighter games, as he is not involved in the developing sixth
Virtua Fighter game.
Spin-offs and adaptations Due to the success of
Virtua Fighter 2, a
super deformed version called
Virtua Fighter Kids was released for the Sega Saturn and arcades in 1996. 1996 also saw the release of
Fighters Megamix for the Sega Saturn, a crossover that pitted the cast of
Virtua Fighter 2 against the cast of
Fighting Vipers as well as other characters in AM2-developed games.
Megamix served as a home preview to
Virtua Fighter 3 in a few ways, as the game featured the dodge ability found in
VF3 and the
Virtua Fighter characters had their moves updated to those found in
VF3. Some stages and music from
VF3 are also in the game. The
Virtua Fighter Kids versions of
Akira and
Sarah appear as hidden playable characters in the game; the character
Siba, who was omitted from the first
Virtua Fighter also appears as a hidden playable character. The wrestling video game
All-Japan Pro Wrestling Featuring Virtua was released for the Saturn in 1997 and ported to arcades later that year. Released only in Japan, it features Jeffrey and Wolf in addition to an assortment of Japanese wrestlers as playable characters. In 1996, AM2 began developing a Saturn
RPG, ''Virtua Fighter RPG: Akira's Story
, with Akira as the hero. Development moved to the Dreamcast, the Virtua Fighter
connection was dropped and the game became Shenmue, released in 1999. 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 the Nintendo crossover Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U, in which Ryu from the Street Fighter series first playable too, whereas Akira himself (based on 10th Anniversary version) physically appeared in the sequel Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as an assist trophy character where Kazuya Mishima from Tekken'', including
Ken Masters as Ryu's echo fighter first playable too.
Other media A 35 episodes-long anime television series
Virtua Fighter was produced by
Tōkyō Movie Shinsha, originally airing on
TV Tokyo between 1995 and 1996. In 1995,
Shogakukan began publishing a
Virtua Fighter 2 manga, with creative oversight from Sega AM2 to ensure the characters were portrayed consistently with their original vision. The first
Virtua Fighter merchandise was a set of dolls of the first
Virtua Fighter cast which Sega produced for their UFO Catchers (a model of
claw crane). These proved so popular that supplies ran out almost immediately, so Sega made additional batches and began producing other
Virtua Fighter merchandise to put in the UFO Catchers. When these also proved successful, Sega realized that
Virtua Fighter merchandise had mainstream potential, and began licensing the property to merchandise producers such as
Bandai. Sega has also released soundtrack CDs for the games, and an album of original theme music for the characters called
Dancing Shadows. ==Characters==