It's been over a month since the US Dreamcast hit store shelves, and Sega's flagship 3D fighter is finally about to make an appearance. While I don't expect Virtua Fighter 3tb to outsell Namco's amazing Soul Calibur, I do believe it is a "better" game in many ways. Even though games such as Soul Calibur and Tekken 3 are both deep and extremely playable, neither has reached the depth that Virtua Fighter 3tb exhibits. I will use the best analogy I can think of to describe the difference. Tekken 3 and Soul Calibur are like the game Checkers; Somewhat easy to pick up, though still requiring plenty of strategy to master. Battles are quicker, and usually much more hyper. Virtua Fighter 3tb is more like Chess; More difficult to get into and requires a sometimes ridiculous amount of strategy to master. Battles are slower, longer, and frequently end up being a psychological contest. Because of this, it's a lot easier to hate VF then it is to like the others. Anyway, enough of the "Theory of Virtua Fighter" and onto the rest of the review.

Graphically, the US version of Virtua Fighter 3tb for the Dreamcast is about 95% arcade perfect. There are a few minor differences that casual gamers will most likely not even notice. The character models are missing some polys around the shoulder and hip joints. A few of the stages are constructed differently and are also missing various polygons. Some of the clothing doesn't animate as much as it should. Certain textures on a few of the backgrounds repeat too often. The sky bitmap is missing too much color. A few small environmental effects are absent. I think that's about it. The US version actually fixes a couple of glitches found in the Japanese VF3tb. The shadows, which severly broke up on diagonal and uneven surfaces, now for the most part, do not. Also, the split second of slowdown that occured when the pre-fight camera zoomed in from far distances has been fixed. Both are minor issues, but it was still nice to see them addressed.

In general, I find Virtua Fighter 3tb's large, realistic stages/environments to be much preferred over the flat old style geometric ring. Fighting on a sandy island surrounded by crashing waves or in a subway station, complete with steps and trains passing by, just cannot be compared to. I have always loved the various VF characters, and it was nice to see them rendered in a more realistic fashion. The only problem is, up close, they look quite distubingly like mannequins. The animation is good, though not on par with the beautifully smooth motion capturing of Soul Calibur.

Aurally, Virtua Fighter 3tb is showing it's age. The music is sort of just there, and none of it is particularly exciting or horrible. The sound effects still consist of the same "huh"s, "hah"s and "swooshes" found in the series, and some voices, while crystal clear, sound funny. Sarah's emotionless win taunts come to mind.

The lack of any real 2-player Vs mode was a major complaint that many had with the Japanese version of the game. Sega of America thankfully came through, and added 2 new modes: Normal Vs Mode, and Team Batle Vs Mode. The only difference between the two being the ability to pick single or multiple characters. Both new modes allow you to freely choose characters, as well as a stage, before every match. I also noticed that in general the menu screens have been cleaned up and reformatted a bit. Sega also spent a little time improving the Training Mode. While not as complete as the one found in Soul Calibur, or Sega's own Fighters Megamix, it is certainly better than the Japanese version of VF3tb. You can now set the dummy character to perform a variety of offensive and defensive moves and postures, which definitely helps you to practice counters, complicated throws and combos.

Just as I did when the Saturn versions of VF were released, I have quickly adapted to the Dreamcast control pad. And believe it or not, I have no problems using it. The US DC d-pad is about 1/8" taller than the Japanese version and I find the change to be for the better. Corners are easier to hit, and I have had a fairly easy time pulling off SPoDs and such. One thing that drove me crazy at first, was the way that the buttons were mapped. I found having Guard set as 'A', as it is by default, really annoying. I prefer Guard to be the left most button (X), then Punch (A) and kick (B) in a row in that order. Then the left trigger as Evade, the right as P+K+G and 'Y' as K+G. So all my buttons were remapped to just that.