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Virtua Fighter 4 Information

© Ryan Newman

Welp, it has been confirmed. Virtua Fighter 4 has indeed been in testing in some arcades in the US. The testing areas are in California and are almost always doubled with Capcom vs SNK 2 (meaning they are very close to each other). Since both games still aren't finished and have yet to have an official release in arcades in Japan, it is very exciting to see them here in the states so far ahead of their scheduled releases. While I'm not sure with Capcom vs SNK 2 is suppose to be finished, Virtua Fighter 4 is slated to have a mainstream release in Japan around November. In anticipation of its upcoming release and to celebrate some lucky gamers this side of the world getting a chance to play it, I decided I should jot down some info about it:

Characters
Akira Yuki (first appeared in Virtua Fighter 1)
Jacky Bryant (first appeared in Virtua Fighter 1)
Sarah Bryant (first appeared in Virtua Fighter 1)
Lau Chan (first appeared in Virtua Fighter 1)
Pai Chan (first appeared in Virtua Fighter 1)
Wolf Hawkfield (first appeared in Virtua Fighter 1)
Jeffry McWild (first appeared in Virtua Fighter 1)
Kagu-Maru (first appeared in Virtua Fighter 1)
Lion Rafale (first appeared in Virtua Fighter 2)
Shun-Di (first appeared in Virtua Fighter 2)
Aoi Umenokouji (first appeared in Virtua Fighter 3)

Lei-Fei (NEW)
Vanessa Lewis (NEW)

As you can see, a certain sumo wrestler from 3 did not make his way back, but he is being replaced with two new characters. Lei-Fei is a Shaolin Monk, and by watching movies of matches with him in them, he is a very dangerous one at that. Vanessa Lewis is a police officer and is said to be much more violent than her other female counterparts. Of course, the classic characters are all back in some newfound glory as the mannequin-esque look of 3 has been replaced with a new sleek and glossy coat.

Another change is the levels. It hasn't been concrete yet, but it seems that the 3D interactive environments of 3 are being replaced with the more flat and speedy levels of 2. There will also be more walls so that combatants can now juggle each other in corners and against said walls much in the same vein as in Fighting Vipers (another oldie that made a less than stellar come back on the Dreamcast due to an aging port with no extras). While the videos I have seen show no interactive environments, there certainly might be some in the finished product as Yu Suzuki has stated that the game is only 70-80% complete and there are some other features in store (such as the card-system they are still working out, much like the VMU slots in arcade cabinets in Japan for part 3). They have also, from what I have seen, littered the levels with a ton of nice little extras like falling leaves and snow that crumbles when stepped on and flies around when a kick is done, these also help to give the levels more life.