I discovered these screenshots at the IGN message boards, and they come from a person who says they were given to him by someone who worked at Sega years ago. So, here were are, folks - screenshots from the Sega Saturn version of Virtua Fighter 3.
VF3 was, according to reports at the time, very far along and near completion before Sega abruptly cancelled the project in order to focus all their attenion on their new console, which became the Dreamcast. Oddly enough, Sega didn't even handle the DC port of Virtua Fighter 3, instead passing it off to Genki, without even being given proper development tools or a final hardware spec. Again, this is absolutely baffling that Sega would treat its consoles and its biggest franchise - in Japan, at least, where VF still reign supreme - with such carelessness.
Saturn VF3 used a special cartridge which contained extra memory and boosted the power of the system. You can see the results for yourselves. Core was even interested in making Tomb Raider 2 for the Saturn (as they had for the original), using the "Black Box" cart.
Perhaps market conditions by 1997 meant it was too late for Saturn to go anywhere in the US, where it was mercilessly killed before its time, but I'm reminded of Donkey Kong Country, which similarly pushed the Super Nintendo to unseen heights, after that console war was seemingly over. You can just imagine what attention Saturn VF3 would have generated.
Just put these screenshots on the shelf next to that Shenmue footage and weep.
2 comments:
Great find, great post great site!
Wow, I always thought this was just a rumor, but there it is! Looks mighty impressive, I wonder if some video footage will be leaked..
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