Virtua Fighter 3

Virtua Fighter 3 built on the groundbreaking series of 3D fighting games from Sega AM2 and arrived in arcade halls in 1996 on what was then Sega's most powerful arcade hardware, the Model 3. At the time, it was the technologically most advanced fighting game on the market - the new hardware allowed for more detailed character models, smoother animations, and above all uneven, sloped arena terrain that fundamentally influenced movement and combat tactics, a novelty for the fighting game genre.

Gameplay built on the elaborate system of evasion, counters and chained strikes that the Virtua Fighter series had introduced back in the first installment and that this installment further experimented with - players had to account for the fact that the slope of the terrain underfoot changed the reach of strikes and the speed of character movement, and thus had to adapt their tactics to the specific arena. The fighter roster drew on previous installments and expanded it with new characters with their own styles and special abilities that took advantage of the newly designed combat environments.

The Model 3 was in 1996 one of the most powerful arcade systems ever, and Virtua Fighter 3 showed off this technology in full - for many players, it was the first encounter with such smooth 3D graphics in a fighting game. The installment thus earned a reputation as a title that showed where the genre would head in the following years, also thanks to its emphasis on strategic depth rather than mere flashiness.

The introduction of sloped and uneven surfaces meant that players couldn't rely on combos learned from previous installments without adjustment - the same attack could land differently on a slope than on flat ground. This element later became an inspiration for other fighting games as well, and Virtua Fighter 3 is thus among the titles that showed that the combat environment can be just as important as the characters themselves.

Why play it: Virtua Fighter 3 will appeal to players interested in the history of 3D fighting games - it's a title that, in its time, pushed the technical and gameplay boundaries of the genre by introducing variable terrain. Today it functions more as a historically significant stop on the road to modern 3D fighting games than as a choice for active competitive play, but for understanding the genre's roots it still has plenty to offer.