Just a warning. The games we'll be looking at have not been announced by Sega for release on the PlayStation just yet, and they may never be. All images and video are pulled from the Saturn versions (yes, we felt sorry for our Saturn systems and wanted to give them one last go at glory).
Be sure and check out our previous articles:
This week, we present AM2 gone mad! Big heads and high voices infected Japan's most popular fighter in 1996, and the result was Virtua Fighter Kids.
|
So what's next? Namie Amuro in digital dancing? The ultimate cross over battle in Fighters Megamix? Yeah yeah yeah¿ those would all come in time. But first, AM2 decided to show us their very Japanesey humor through the Sega Saturn original title Virtua Fighter Kids.
Take Virtua Fighter 2, including all the characters, moves, background graphics and voices. Remodel all the characters into big-headed, big-eyed kiddy counterparts. Create new facial animation routines and apply them to the big heads and big eyes of the remodeled characters. Redo all backgrounds in pastel colors, complete with smiley faces and fruits - the very essence of fruitiness. Apply one part helium to all voices, including that of the announcer. Pack it up and sell it to the hordes of AM2 fanatics worldwide.
Such was the charming little title known as Virtua Fighter Kids, which hit the Japanese and American Saturn in mid 1996. This big-headed fighter took all the gameplay of its older brother and added tons of humor. Just seeing the big headed versions of your favorite and usually stiff Virtua Fighter characters was enough to keep you laughing and playing for numerous rounds, and the high-pitched voices at the end of each battle, actually just the VF2 samples re-recorded, still bring a smile to this day.
AM2 added one very cool thing to VF Kids that had been lacking in VF2: endings. Beat the game with any character, and you were treated to an often hilarious (and sometimes downright odd) full motion video ending sequence. The endings didn't really have much to do with the fighting (see Pai's ending below for an example), but they were worth the price of admission alone. Best of all, you could totally cheat in order to access these -- just set your life to maximum (not invincible!) and your opponent's to minimum, and breeze through the single player mode with all ten characters.
All the fighters in kiddie form.
Actual gameplay changes were, admittedly, minor, resulting in an experience so similar to Virtua Fighter II that the game saw a good deal of criticism. Gamers who didn't like the ring outs of VFII could increase the size of the rings. A combo-maker feature allowed you to save up to twenty combos to memory and assign them to a single button press. Finally, the game could be played in normal mode, complete with all the stringent VF2 gameplay, or Kids mode, where random special moves magically appeared with each punch, kick and block (useful for making the little cousins think they're fighting gods).
Aside from these two areas, this was a pure cosmetic upgrade to VFII. In addition to the newly modeled characters and redrawn backgrounds, AM2 tweaked their Saturn graphics engine just a bit and gave us one last go at super high-res before Fighting Vipers brought us back down to Earth. The floors in VF Kids were clean as can be, making use of the Saturn VDP-II chip as it was meant to be used. The backgrounds, which were still flat, now had multiple layers of parallax, allowing for a greater feeling of depth. AM2 also for the first time experimented with animated textures, giving the characters moving facial features -- these techniques were practice for Virtua Fighter 3, which would follow in the next year.
In the end, many questioned the need for a Virtua Fighter Kids at all. Saturn owners already had access to what was arguably the best fighter ever, Virtua Fighter 2, and this update didn't really change anything gameplay-wise. Of course, this isn't much concern for PlayStation owners who haven't received a single version of the long-heralded series.
We'll be honest. We aren't too interested in seeing Virtua Fighter 2 brought down to 32-bit console level once again, backgrounds missing -- we'd much rather see a Model 2 collection on one of the newer systems. A port of Virtua Fighter Kids, however, which started off on the Saturn complete with flat backgrounds and 32-bit level graphics, would be welcome indeed, and would bring a few laughs to the PlayStation in its final few years.
-- Anoop Gantayat, Contributor
VF Kids Media Collection