Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

It's no secret that Virtua Fighter came before Tekken -- so saying that Sarah is the clone of Nina is right dead wrong! Virtua Fighter started the 3D fighting game genre but what came first or what's new doesn't always mean it's the best. Back then, there were two games that actually competed for arcade liner ups namely Tekken and Virtua Fighter. Both Tekken and Virtua Fighter had no character endings for the arcade games -- all the while Tekken had character endings for most of its run! I keep hearing praise of how "deep" Virtua Fighter is and how accessible to deep Tekken becomes. I remembered reading in a Playstation Magazine article where Edward Boon of Netherrealm Studios expressed he prefers Tekken over Virtua Fighter. Virtua Fighter like Tekken had its mechanics on pre-programmed combos. However, the controls were somewhat more basic with just the Punch, Kick and Guard buttons while Tekken took a one button per limb control for intuitive learning pr...

Tekken and Virtua Fighter frequently enter into the fan wars. I just thought I'll do a detailed comparison of the basics, plots and so on so people can understand the differences: Virtua Fighter has the basic Punch, Kick and Guard button (which for me, I prefer blocking by holding back but that didn't stop me from playing MK!) while Tekken has a button for each limb namely the left punch, right punch, left kick, right kick buttons. Virtua Fighter sounds more accessible than usual while Tekken is accessible but goes pretty deep. For Tekken the whole limb for each button is different for each character depending on fighting style rather than just merely hitting with which limb (this was copied into MK 2011). Virtua Fighter provides some fun combos but Tekken really is more than just a game of rock/paper/scissors, it actually gets deeper after some time of being accessible. Tekken is pretty popular for that! Tekken usually modifies Virtua Fighter, then they end up copying each...

Back then I only played Virtua Fighter at the arcade and at some friend's house while I played Tekken 1-3 on the Playstation 1 back then. So my impressions were simple on both games- Virtua Fighter can be fun but Tekken for me had more interesting gameplay and storyline. Both games feature mostly realistic moveset while having a sci-fi story. But I'll just probably think of what I really thought why I think Tekken beats Virtua Fighter. Tekken aside from its great fighting game also has for me, has more reasons why you should finish the game. Okay, Tekken 1 was pretty lacking back then, well you can't blame it, it was more or less a gamble. But you get to really unlock cool character endings which Virtua Fighter doesn't have which annoys me. I thought that Virtua Fighter had harder controls compared to even the first Tekken game. Tekken usually gets itself more bursting with cool content than Virtua Fighter for me. Virtua Fighter is pretty bare including its stor...

Tekken and Virtua Fighter seem to copy from each other. Okay I'm more of a Tekken fan and I admit that Nina came AFTER Sarah Bryant but I'd like to present some similar characters: Akira Yuki and Jin Kazama - Too self-explanatory. Wolf Hawkfield, El Blaze, King I and King II - They're all wrestlers. Duh. Sarah Bryant and Nina Williams - Both are amnesiac blond women. Wang Jinrei and Shun Di - Both are old men who are masters of martial arts. Aoi Umenokoji and Asuka Kazam a- Both are daughters of dojo masters. Taka-Arashi and Ganryu - This is where Virtua Fighter gets an idea from Tekken. Both are sumo wrestlers. However Ganryu made more appearances than Taka-Arashi.

Okay this is NOT a fighting game. I'm doing an entry to actually try and compare both games, which I think is better. I remembered playing both games at the arcade, long before I got a Playstation (the first hi-tech system I owned after by NES which I no longer have :-P). However after I got my Playstation 1 (woo hoo, but it was also another reason why my grades were poor back then, I studied in a high standard school during that time), I started playing Tekken at home and realized how deep Tekken was. So I began to look at it more than just the fact that Tekken has better graphics and fluid animation, even when it was just a baby franchise. Not only with the graphics, it was also with the characters. Tekken has a cast of more interesting characters than Virtua Fighter including the final boss characters. Anytime, Heihachi Mishima the main antagonist can beat Dural up! Music too is a key factor in games. The wrong music can spell a bad direction in everything! The sur...