In case you missed it, final night time was the kick off present for CES 2025, a large tech occasion wherein the largest corporations within the trade exhibit all method of fancy {hardware} that has been cooking behind the scenes. And whereas there have been a great deal of thrilling reveals price testing, my terminally in poor health preventing recreation participant mind has clearly been fixated on the transient glimpse at Virtua Fighter 6 throughout NVIDIA’s presentation.
To boil down the entire speak into pure, Virtua Fighter ridden goodness, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang took the stage in the course of the NVIDIA keynote and briefly took the viewers by means of the historical past of the corporate. He reveals that again in 1993 NVIDIA kicked off its journey with the NV1, which was first utilized by SEGA for its Virtua Fighter Remix. He then quick forwards to 1999 and the invention of the GPU, tying the facility of the GPU with a “utterly cinematic” Virtua Fighter 6 snippet.
This brief Virtua Fighter 6 video would then be uploaded to YouTube on its lonesome, which we’ll hyperlink beneath. It is price noting right away that the clip shouldn’t be precise gameplay footage, as an alternative a “pre-development idea video”. So all the pieces you see should not be taken as a one-to-one depiction of the ultimate recreation, VF6 producer and recreation designer Riichiro Yamada said this outright on Twitter in reference to Akira’s mannequin. As a substitute, take it as a pitch, a fast peak of what we are able to count on.
First off, if it wasn’t clear from post-reveal interviews like this excellent piece by Saito Moge at Famitsu, Virtua Fighter 6 is true to its roots. We see naught however martial arts fight – two guys dodging, kicking, and punching one another’s lights out. It is all very choreographed, clearly meant to emulate the type of preventing you’d see in a martial arts movie, or perhaps a actual combat between two expert fighters. That is precisely what Virtua Fighter was made for, a comparatively practical depiction of melee fight the place rivals within the style take a extra fantastical method.
Now, given it is a proof-of-concept, it is extremely unlikely that is what the sport will appear like when two actual gamers are mashing buttons on-line, however as a tone setter it does its job. We even see Akira in his shirtless participant 2 colors get despatched flying right into a pile of packing containers, which after all shatter into piles of wooden. Good.
The factor that stood out to me, apart from the visible high quality at play right here, is the dearth of visible muddle. You get two well being bars, that is it. No EX meter, no random bars or Mountain Dew Baja Blast tremendous gauges. It is barebones, placing the preventing itself entrance and centre. If that is what we are able to count on from Virtua Fighter 6 when it truly comes out, it will be an exquisite resolution. One which proves the builders at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios perceive what’s necessary in Virtua Fighter – one thing you’d count on from the group that saved the sequence alive within the many arcades unfold across the Yakuza/Like A Dragon sequence.
The counter argument right here is that the video is meant to showcase the fight itself, how fluid it’s, and put the “cinematic” circulation of the sport in full show. As such, there is not any purpose why extra display muddle could be current. In actual fact, if there was any, stripping it again so the CES viewers might get a transparent have a look at the sport is smart. This can be a good level! Judging from different video games, you will in all probability see your opponents account identify, possibly their rank when you’re enjoying a aggressive recreation mode. However taking a look at prior Virtua Fighter video games, in addition to considering that Famitsu interview wherein the devs state “it is not about making the sport extra flashy”, I believe it is affordable to imagine that is largely what a match in Virtua Fighter 6 will appear like.
In the end it is such a refreshing sneak peak as a result of so many preventing video games today have leaned into that flashiness, that need to offer gamers ample choices outdoors of primary assaults. It is spectacular to observe in distinction to video games like Road Fighter 6 and Tekken 8. However much more than that, it is a robust argument that you do not want all that additional junk to make a combat compelling to play and watch.
There is a purpose that explosive, impactful martial arts motion pictures are nonetheless beloved, why down-to-earth motion media with out big dragons connected to 15-second lengthy supers, 5 automotive collisions on the freeway, and FADC 60 hit combos nonetheless have an viewers. Zooming the digital camera into Akira as he sends the opposite fighter hovering right into a pile of packing containers, which cathartically erupt, is all you want if given the right animation work. Once we lastly get to play Virtua Fighter 6, it will be even higher to drag it off so long as the sport design group makes that large punch really feel as heavy and impactful because it appears to be like. That is what making a great preventing recreation is all about on the finish of the day.
It is a tiny gameplay reveal, however one which has made me very hopeful. It is one factor to listen to that the devs have a ardour for Virtua Fighter, however seeing this brief video on show provides benefit to these statements. If I wasn’t eager to get my arms on VIrtua Fighter 6 earlier than, I actually am now. And so must you!