Virtua Fighter 3 was yet another successful game in the franchise and although it was originally supposed to be released on the Sega Saturn, it was ultimately moved to the Dreamcast instead. With the home release delayed, Sega opted to enhance the base arcade game by adding a "team battle" mode, hence the "tb" suffix. The Dreamcast port would finally arrive in 1999, though for some strange reason it wasn't a launch title in North America like it was in Europe and Japan...though it did arrive about a month later.

There's not much to say here since this is more or less the same thing as Virtua Fighter 3, which itself was awfully similar to Virtua Fighter 2. That's not necessarily a bad thing since these games are generally pretty solid, even if there's little innovation between the first three entries. Virtua Fighter 3 is a noticeable step up in terms of graphical prowess and the Dreamcast port looks great even in 2023. The controls are more responsive and less float-y compared to the Saturn version of Virtua Fighter 2 and everything works well here.

Perhaps the biggest issue with Virtua Fighter 3tb has nothing to do with the game itself, but rather the glut of awesome fighting games that the Dreamcast library has in it. I love this game, but it's hard to choose it over Soulcalibur or Dead or Alive 2. Then you have the amazing 2D greatness of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and the criminally underrated Power Stone games. Virtua Fighter 3tb may lack some of the flash that these other titles have, but it's still worth playing if you enjoy fighting games.

Played On: Sega Dreamcast
Completion Date: 2/9/23
Time: 30 minutes
Rating: 8/10