Virtua Fighter cameos hit Smash Bros on Wii U and 3DS

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While the big news is that Smash Bros added two new DLC characters that include Roy (Fire Emblem) and Ryu (from Street Fighter), there were also other characters announced as Mii Fighters, including SEGA favorites Jacky and Akira from Virtua Fighter. That isn’t all that hit the market, you can also pick up Megaman.EXE (Mega Man Battle Network), Zero (Mega Man X), Isabelle (Animal Crossing), Inkling boy/girl (Splatoon), and even Heihachi (Tekken).

Each ‘custom Mii fighter’ will cost you .75 cents per fighter, if you want them on both 3DS and Wii U it will cost you only $1.15 each. If you get them all bundled for one version its $6, but if you get them for both 3DS and Wii U its $9.20. Not bad at all.

Anyone purchasing any of these pieces of DLC? Any other SEGA characters you want to see represented in Smash Bros?

Akira and Jacky Mii outfits for Smash Bros 4 leaked

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Twitter exploded with news of a Smash Bros leak early this morning. While most of the attention is being lavished on the two new characters this leak unveiled, there’s much more to it than them: Mii skins of the Virtua Fighter characters Akira and Jacky (as well as Tekken’s Heihachi, which is the outfit on the left).

What’s really interesting about Akira’s outfit is that it is literally his model from the first game, complete with the old school, flat-shaded, segmented polygonal limbs. Jacky, on the other hand, seems to based off of his appearance from Virtua Fighter 5.

Of course, it should be noted that these outfits have not technically been confirmed by Nintendo, but given the size and breadth of this leak, not to mention the simultaneous release of the above in-game outfits and in-game victory movies and renders of the leaked characters that are obviously real, this confirmation is likely only a matter of waiting for tomorrow’s Smash Bros Direct.

One interesting implication of these Mii outfits is that it means SEGA’s crossover with Smash Bros no longer ends with Sonic. Could another all-new fighter be in the cards? We’ll just have to see.

These assets were found on RandomTBush‘s twitter.

 

Project x Zone 2: Brave New World trailer shows off new Shinobi and Yakuza crossover

Famitsu.com has now officially spilled the beans on the new upcoming Project x Zone 2: Brave New World video game coming to the Nintendo 3DS this fall worldwide! The game shows off some new crossover characters that will be brand new including SEGA fan favorites (listed below):

List of franchises/characters confirmed:

SEGA:

  • Shinobi (PS2): Hotsuma Hotsuma
  • Yakuza Dead Souls: Kazuma Kiryu and Majima Goro
  • Virtua Fighter: Yuki Akira and Kage-Maru
  • Sakura Wars: Ichiro Ogami and Erica Fontaine

Capcom:

  • Resident Evil: Revelations: Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine
  • Resident Evil 6: Leon S. Kennedy
  • Devil May Cry: Dante and Virgil
  • Mega Man X: X and Zero
  • Strider: Flying Dragon

Namco-Bandai:

  • Tales of Vespera: Yuri Lowell and Flynn Shifo
  • Tekken: Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima
  • .hack//: Kite and Haseo
  • Soul Calibur V: Natsu

Obviously some of the characters listed are returning from the previous game. To see all the tie-ins in the last Project x Zone, here is a complete list. Hit the jump to see screens.

Update: Replaced the Japanese trailer with the English one released by Namco-Bandai USA. Meaning that yes, its going to come West this fall!

Download the Dead or Alive 5 Last Round texture mod for the ultimate Shenmue fight

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Reddit user Esppiral
has posted the following texture modifications for the PC release of Dead or Alive 5 Last Round. Sadly modders haven’t figured out how to swap models (yet?), so the user went in and used a base model and changed the textures to make them look like Shenmue characters. He not only created Ryo (using Jacky as a base model) and Lan Di (using Akira as a base model) but also included the famous dojo.

Download the mods here:

If you bought the game on Steam (or any other service) and want to learn how to install texture mods, hit the jump.

Swingin’ Report Show #75: Interview with Lisle Wilkerson – Shenmue II, Virtua Fighter and Crazy Taxi voice actress

We celebrate 75 episodes in style on this week’s Swingin’ Report Show podcast! Joining us for an interview is Lisle Wilkerson, best known to SEGA fans for her voice work on Shenmue II, Virtua Fighter and Crazy Taxi. Learn what it’s like growing up in Japan and recording for some of SEGA’s greatest Dreamcast and arcade titles. Lisle also tells us about her correspondence work and her acting work on Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation with Bill Murray.

Then, George and Barry discuss the recent news of SEGA of America’s restructuring, dissecting SEGA Sammy’s official document to figure out what exactly we can expect in the future from SEGA. So what are you doing still reading this? We have a special guest and big SEGA news! Click play and enjoy our 75th show!

Don’t forget to follow Lisle Wilkerson on Twitter and Facebook!

[Download] [RSS] [iTunes] [Archive]

Classic SEGA Ads: Tiger Electronics puts the “L” in Virtua Fighter

If you thought Virtua Fighter in arcades and on the SEGA Saturn was as real as it could get, Tiger Electronics asks you to think again! Released in 1995, Tiger’s R-Zone (not to be confused with Pizza Hut’s P’Zone) was a portable headset and attached controller that promised a virtual reality experience, but ended up just delivering a headache. Unlike other Tiger Electronic LCD games, R-Zone took cartridges.

Each cartridge contained a transparent LCD display, projecting the game onto a mirrored surface placed just inches from the players eye. As was the norm for VR at the time, red was the color of choice. Leeching off of popular franchises to survive, the R-Zone featured Men in Black, Jurassic Park, Batman, Star Wars, and SEGA’s own Virtua Fighter. Don’t let the ad above deceive you, despite being right in your face, R-Zone’s Virtua Fighter was as far from virtual Virtua Fighter as one could get. Wait… did that kid say “brain chop”?!?

The Weekly Five: Virtua Fighter Facts

Welcome to another unexciting episode of The Weekly Five where we create top five list on all things SEGA. I’m your host George and this week we will be talking about Virtua Fighter facts. This is a weird thing to do considering anything can be a fact, so I’ll try to keep it interesting. Who knows, maybe you’ll learn something new.

This will also be my last AM2 related Weekly Five for the rest of the year, so I hope you guys enjoy it! Let’s dive right in.

Tuesday Tunes: Get moving with Virtua Fighter’s pumping soundtrack

Virtua Fighter was a ground breaking game for its time and was going up against some of the biggest fighting games made in that era. SEGA needed the whole game to be excellent and in my opinion they got a great complementary soundtrack to go with the revolutionary gameplay.

The first theme we are looking at is Akira’s Theme, this one is more up beat than they would later use. This one doesn’t seem like a theme for a character usually shown meditating and honing his martial arts skills. This is just a good action track, that gets the blood flowing. Its what I would love to hear when I’m in a middle of a fight and any move I make can win or lose the match. Great track, but as Akira’s theme, probably not. Seems the developers agreed as they would give him a more epic tune in Virtua Fighter 2.

Ready, GO – It’s Virtua Fighter week!

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As SEGA-AM2 Month enters the final week, we thought it would be fitting to shine the spotlight on the developer’s longest running and most influential series – Virtua Fighter. One of SEGA-AM2’s defining traits is their ability to create “pure” gaming experiences. Looking at their catalog, they seem to have a penchant for taking a simple concept – be it fighting, racing, flying, or shooting – and translating it to a near-perfect 3D arcade experience. I hesitate to call SEGA-AM2’s games simulations, as gameplay is simple enough for any player and often AM2 titles have a bit of an elastic reality. Virtua Fighter didn’t have any gimmicks – there were no fatalities, weapons, adjustable bouncing breasts, or cutscenes. Players simply chose their fighter, each with their own defining style and moves, and fought. This why the term “pure” feels like the best way to describe their many games, and why the Virtua Fighter series is the purest fighting game franchise to ever exist.

The Weekly Five: How SEGA-AM2 changed video gaming

Welcome to our new video series The Weekly Five, a top five list covering a wide range of SEGA topics. We are celebrating The Year of Developers over at SEGAbits.com, that means that each month throughout the year we will be covering notable notable SEGA developers. This month is all about a developer that is close to my heart, SEGA-AM2. What better way to kick off the new series than to discuss five ways SEGA-AM2 changed video gaming.