Platform	PlayStation 2
Available	May 29th (Japan)
Price	Y6,800
Genre	3D Mech Action
Developer	Hitmaker
Publisher	SEGA

Cue last yearfs Tokyo Game Show. SEGA announce that the next Virtual On game, dubbed gDennousenki Virtual On Marzh, will be an exclusive PlayStation2 release. Surprising information indeed, considering the franchisefs arcade heritage (on SEGA hardware no less). To make matters equally as vexing, Marz would not ship with a TwinStick peripheral.

Well, Marz is very much upon us. The final game will be released at the end of this month. These impressions are based upon a (pretty final) beta of the game.

Before I go into any detail about Marz, it is important that I inform the reader about various aspects of Virtual On and the most recent arcade incarnation, Virtual On Force.

The crux of Virtual Onfs game design is that of vector based dash attacks and close combat moves within a fixed arena. More specifically the dash attacks are pivoted around your opponent, in that you are locked onto your target, and the ensuing high-speed tactical ballet is very much a hallmark of the series. It is important to mention at this juncture that the game is very focused on destroying your opponent through a series of regimented dash attacks. Whilst the arenas play a huge role within the game, they are contained and concisely designed. This is simply because the game is challenging enough without making the player having to traverse a huge map.

As for the series itself, Virtual On Marz is the fourth entry into the franchise. The original gDennousenki Virtual Onh was released on Model 2 arcade hardware back in 1995, and consequently wowed punters with its smooth textured graphics as well as its extreme game speed. The game was ported to both the Sega Saturn and the PC. In 1998 a sequel was released, gDennousenki Virtual On Oratorio Tangramh, originally housed on Model 3 arcade hardware this incarnation underwent many version upgrades as well as a Dreamcast port. This was the last truly decent Virtual On game to come out of SEGA AM3. Admittedly Juro Watari (the series creator and producer) stayed with the franchise but the majority of the coding staff moved onto other jobs.

In 2001 the newly formed Hitmaker took over reigns of the series. gDennousenki Virtual On Forceh was a very large shift in focus for the franchise. It was four player. To facilitate this new dynamic, the dash attacks and general movement around the arena was modified. To clarify, you the player could move considerably quicker than the projectiles that were fired upon you. Instantly this negated almost any of the tactics and strategy that made Virtual On so special. Moreover the general game speed and controls responsivity was considerably lower than in previous incarnations, again not all that great considering the franchisefs historically high-speed nature. It is also important to mention that Virtual On Force runs on four Hikaru boards.

Virtual On Marz is a mission based port of Virtual On Force. Graphically the shift from four high-powered arcade boards to the PlayStation2 really shows. Force had jerky character animations and cheap graphics as it was, but Marz is far worse (to put it into perspective the Dreamcast port of Virtual On Oratorio Tangram, which is four years old no less, looks and plays considerably better). Following on from this is that Forcefs subpar handling is still very much present too. If this wasnft enough to damn the game, Juro Watari did not produce Marz either; he merely oversaw the gamefs creation (as well as writing the, admittedly rather solid, script and story). His lack of control over the project very much shows.

The game is split into three modes. Dramatic mode, challenge mode and versus. Challenge mode is a very rough port of the singleplayer Force missions, and versus is again pretty much Force-lite multiplayer. It is also important to note that Marzfs versus mode is four player (same as Force), however two of those players can only be AI controlled. This means that the maximum number of human players can only be two.

The dramatic mode is the principal focus of Marz, and its main purpose is to clarify a lot of the Virtual On franchisefs exceptionally complex narrative (for anyone that has followed gOne Man Rescueh and gFragmentary Passageh they should know exactly what I am on about). Admittedly much of Marzfs plot is executed in a particularly cheesy fashion, but the actual content communicated is pretty impressive regardless (letfs hope that it survives the English translation). Set over seven episodes with multiple missions contained therein. The game is centered around the Virtuaroid (or VR) battalion, called gMarzh. The majority of the dramatic mode has the player traverse large maps and destroy various enemy VRfs, gun emplacements, supply trucks and boss entities (many of which have been lifted from older games in the series, the return of Z-Gradt is one such example). To make matters easier the player can obtain grepair disksh to replenish health (something very new to the series, considering its arcade deathmatch roots). The level design varies from being concise and well suited to the game (mainly because some of the arenas are lifted from Force), to huge sprawling and utterly vast valley based landscapes. The latter being the vast majority of the game.

Unfortunately trying to traverse a huge map with an avatar that can only really dash around a locked-on target can be a tad frustrating. What normally follows is the odd misdirected dash followed by manual turning (something VRfs are not great at) and then topped off by a very slow walk until you get within range of your target. If this wasnft farcical enough, many of the latter levels require the player to attempt insane bouts of platform jumping (something that Virtual Onfs game mechanics are patently unsuited for).

Once the combat kicks in though, Marz is very much a solid game. Ill-suited level design and sub-par graphics donft really matter when Virtual Onfs visceral game mechanics are laid bare. The depth of gameplay is still very much apparent, despite Marzfs Force heritage. The only final point of contention is that of the control interface.

The original Virtual On utilised a TwinStick control interface. To the uninitiated, the controls were somewhat complex but they allowed the player, once mastered, to unlock swathes of combat intricacy. Virtual On Marz does not utilise a TwinStick setup, instead the Dual Shock pad emulates it. In that either the analogue L3/R3 sticks or D-pad/action buttons act as the gsticksh, whereas L1/R1 act as the turbo buttons and L2/R2 act as the weapon triggers. Admittedly these are not the only control setups available (there are a total of four pre-set configurations as well as the option of configuring your own), but the emulated TwinStick setup suits Marz best. Regardless of this, much of the more advanced close combat and complex manoeuvring is made unnecessarily tricky (as well as very uncomfortable) on the pad. Admittedly the absence of the TwinSticks does make Marz much more of an inclusive game, something that Hitmaker was aiming for, but the depth and intricacy of the seriesf gameplay has been somewhat sacrificed with the loss of the TwinSticks.

To clarify, if you are a staunch fan of the series you will be disappointed with Marz. For newer players, however, Marz is considerably more forgiving (the historically brutal learning curve has been softened somewhat). Whilst the games industry is obviously here to make money, Virtual On Marz is very much a cash cow. Using the Virtual On franchisefs name to earn some (much needed) cash for Hitmaker and SEGA. Despite being a particularly solid game (more so than Hideo Kojimafs gAnubish and Takarafs never ending series of gJ-Phoenixh games) Marz is still the weakest entry into the Virtual On canon.

It will be interesting to see how Marz fares both in Japan (where its main popularity lies) and in the West. Especially considering that in the case of the latter, how Marz will be represented in terms of advertising. Historically SEGA have had the reputation for doing pretty dire campaignsc





Yes, that really was the poster for the first game!

-Hideto Sakaguchi
EMail hidetosakaguchi