Much of my initial ambivalence about Virtua Fighter was simply how weird the 3D figures looked in comparison to the lavish 2D pixel art of the best Capcom and Neo Geo fighters of the time. Even the digitized sprites of Mortal Kombat seemed "more realistic", but the framerate and physics{1} in Virtua Fighter were dang impressive.

Virtua Racing on the other hand, being largely absent of human models{2} was quite impressive in it's time. As a racing game, I feel the flat shaded polygon aesthetic simply holds up better, similar to how Star Wars and Shadow Squadron likewise remain perfectly acceptable, if simple, artistic representations of space fighters.{3}

Where does that leave us with the home ports? Well, during the 16/32-bit era there were three ports of Virtua Racing. The SVP powered Genesis game, the 32X Deluxe version, and the Saturn release which was so overwhelmingly desired in the west, Sega pawned off the North American release on Time Warner Interactive. Yes, that was sarcasm. The Genesis release was very well regarded, but $100 at launch! The Deluxe port was likewise very well regarded, even more so than the Genesis version, but was released for yet another doomed Sega add-on (yadSa) that cost $160 itself with the games initially costing $70.

{2} Yeah, yeah, road crew is there and they are not particularly human looking, but move well enough.

{3} SNES fans are screaming Star Fox right now and while I think the game is very, very, very overrated, the graphics still look okay (minus the framerate perhaps) and the sprite touches, such as the character portraits, really help flesh out the character of the game. Having stated such generally pleasant thoughts, Soul Star on the Sega CD is by far the more graphically impressive behind the back, 16-bit space shooter. However, like its SNES brethren, the game itself is merely okay.

One well regarded port already in the books, how would Sega give their fans a follow up on the new hotness…err…high powered 32-bit add-on? Another Model 1 Arcade port, that's how!

A few things to keep in mind, as with Virtua Fighter on the 32X, many people likewise considered Virtua Racing Deluxe to be the best 16/32-bit port of this fine arcade racer. Does the 32X offer an arcade exact experience in the home? No, of course not. There are clear graphical downgrades which render this port inferior. Yet, as good as the Genesis offering proved to be, the 32X is a clear step up, graphically, aurally, and even gameplay has been improved.