Fighting Games Friday: Let Team Ninja Handle Virtua Fighter

The current state of Virtua Fighter couldn’t be direr. It’s sobering to remember when the series was not only one of Sega’s key franchise (indicated by how it survived the post-Dreamcast world), but one of the biggest fighting game brands around. It went toe to toe with Tekken at one point, especially in Japan. Yet, it couldn’t keep up as the worldwide market for fighters shifted from arcades to consoles, especially in the west. People buying fighters in droves demanded more from them, including more robust stories and plenty of modes besides online play. Sega was not willing to go that route.

The console version of Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown was a good package, yes, but Sega only released it digitally for good reason. They never released data showing how it sold, but their lack of action with the franchise since suggests it was far from a runaway hit. This is a dead franchise, outside its characters occasionally cameoing in other titles.

Fighting games, however, remain popular, especially those in established franchises. The earliest points in new console generations tend to make for good times to revive franchises thanks to audiences tending to feel more experimental with software purchases during the period, so there isn’t a better time to bring it back. Sega has been focused on reviving franchises in the last few years, even letting other developers and publishers handle them. Virtua Fighter could be among those, and I know the perfect developer that could handle it: Team Ninja.

I’m serious about this suggestion, and it’s nothing crazy. Team Ninja’s Dead or Alive fighting series notably resembles Virtua Fighter. Both rely on four main buttons, including three for attacks and one for guarding. The biggest difference is that DoA is faster paced and places further emphasis on countering attacks. Later games in both franchises further emphasized their differences, with DoA games relying more on juggle combos (though not to Tekken’s extent) while the Virtua Fighter series, particularly as of Virtua Fighter 5 R and Final Showdown, focused on corner combos.

The DoA series also has considerably more fanservice, maybe what fighting game players and observers know it best for, along with its ardent fans to an often-annoying degree. This, you should note, is not a gameplay feature.

Team Ninja could perhaps use the work at the moment because the status of the DoA franchise as a fighting game series seems, well, dead. Dead or Alive 5, the first title made following director and co-creator Tomonobu Itagaki high-profile departure in 2008, was a good success, and was supported for a little over five years across three versions with a constant stream of costume downloadable content and occasional character releases. This could not be said of Dead or Alive 6, criticized shortly after release for feeling too similar to its predecessor, with divisive new gameplay features. By the time those features were adjusted in a subsequent patch, it was too late to save its reputation. The game receiving characters who were largely identical to their DoA5 counterparts as paid DLC sure didn’t help. Support for the game was ended in April, just a hair over a year after release.

Not that Dead or Alive as an overall franchise is dead. It lives on as a free-to-play beach volleyball series through Venus Vacation, which heavily focuses on the fanservice. Just check out the newest character added, though I’d look around and make sure no one’s eavesdropping on you before clicking that link.

The DoA series has experienced a few gameplay flubs, but the good has outweighed the bad over the years. The developer is more than equipped to handle a VF revival. Nothing shows this more than the DoA5 games actually including four VF characters as guests, including Akira Yuki, Pai Chan, Sarah Bryant, and Jackie Bryant. (I used images from those games for this post for a reason.) VF’s characters have a history of not displaying much of their personalities during battle, and the games have always lacked story-based modes. Team Ninja could address both those features.

A majority of the marketing campaign for DoA6 showed how the team wanted to get away from the fanservice-driven DoA fighting game series, with the female characters having more modest default outfits. VF hasn’t lacked fanservice, but it had the least of any 3D fighting game when it was alive. They can continue supporting Venus Vacation, and potentially release it worldwide, for the horny folks out there.

What might prevent this plan happening is how the experiment would be more expensive than other efforts that have involved Sega lending their franchises. This wouldn’t be a 2D hand-drawn or 2.5D effort like Streets of Rage 4, Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, or the upcoming Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX. It would be a fully-featured 3D game with a nearly-AAA budget. This also isn’t a widely-shared idea, at least right now.

The Dead or Alive team has always strived for their franchise to be on par with Virtua Fighter. It would be an honor if they could handle a revival of their so-called “daddy” franchise themselves, and they’ve proven they would be capable of handling it. I’d like to see it happen, assuming Team Ninja isn’t busy with unannounced projects.