Sega surprised long-suffering Virtua Fighter fans in December with the announcement of a new Virtua Fighter project — otherwise (unofficially) known as Virtua Fighter 6 — but kept details about its new fighting game under wraps. Now, thanks to a showing a Nvidia’s CES 2025 press conference, we have a better sense of what Virtua Fighter 6 will look like.
Developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and Sega showed off what they called a “special preview of the concept video” for the new Virtua Fighter. Sega cautioned that the footage was created before official development began, and that “actual gameplay and characters may differ from what is shown.” What is shown is impressive, albeit limited. We see two versions of Virtua Fighter mainstay Akira Yuki squaring off against each other, looking varying degrees of disheveled.
What’s impressive about the footage is how smooth and natural the animation looks. The Virtua Fighter series has always been a looker, as an early adopter of advanced 3D graphics. But the realism behind Akira’s punches and kicks are astounding. Characters dodge and block strikes in a natural, dynamic fashion; we only see a few of Akira’s blows landing, but they do so with an impressive weight. It’s noticeably different from the floatier, flurry-of-strikes combat of current VF games, including the most recent release, Virtua Fighter 5 REVO. Whether the final game will look like this footage remains to be seen, but RGG Studio has definitely set a high bar.
Virtua Fighter 6 looks graphically dazzling in other ways. The stage on which the Akiras fight is packed with detail. Both fighters kick up grime and dirt, leaving footprints in the street, and smash through objects in the environment believably. Like the developer’s Judgment and Like A Dragon games, expect to fight in vibrant, action-packed settings whenever VF6 comes around.
Riichiro Yamada, producer and game designer on the new Virtua Fighter, said on social media that the concept video was “created in about a month” and that Akira’s design is a prototype. But the footage certainly looks like it could fulfill Yamada’s desire “to provide players with a new experience.”
Virtua Fighter 6 doesn’t yet have a release date or platforms. But don’t count on it any time soon.
