Dead or Alive producer talks of Virtua Fighter 4 and Tekken 4, slamming Namco
Battle for real as Tecmo man unleashes shocking attack on competitors
In a recent interview, Tomonobu Itagaki, lead producer at Tecmo for the Xbox title Dead or Alive 3, made some interesting comments about the game’s two main competitors, Sega’s Virtua Fighter 4 and Namco’s Tekken 4.
When asked what he thought of the competition, and which is the better game, Itagaki made some astonishing remarks. “Well, Virtua Fighter 4 is the better game to me - I would pay money to actually buy Virtua Fighter 4. Tekken 4, even if someone paid me, I wouldn't play it! Let me explain my reasons why.”
Cripes! We never expected that!
“Sega, of course, their infrastructure allows them to support hardware and software exceptionally. Virtua Fighter 4, as a fighting game, is a good game and my overall respect for it, in its detail and the overall gameplay, is high though I feel Virtua Fighter 4 plays a bit too identical to its previous versions. The hardcore gamers will realise that the card system idea originally came from Dead Or Alive 2: Hardcore's User Profile System. I really don't care about Sega using my idea especially with a company that has a good infrastructure that allows them to provide this for the gamer. I think it's a good thing - it's a game that the players out there need. Of course, I'm referring to the arcade version and I'm not sure if the US version or console version have the same things. I respect the overall content of the game from the outside though from the inside, the game isn't really up to par. The game was made very conservatively and it's kinda old. But again, I can excuse that because the game carries tradition. In terms of the actual gameplay, they failed with VF3 so they went back to VF2 and used that as guide for VF4. From that perspective, I'm a little bit disappointed in VF4.”
He goes on, “The content for Tekken 4, the inside, is very incomplete and as everyone knows, Tekken is a 2D game. So the fact that everyone has been saying that, they're not really happy about that. For that reason, they've tried to change that feeling with Tekken 4 and truly make it 3D. But I can see that it's a failure. Would you like to hear why?”
Why, yes we do! “As one of the major developers that are trying to make the fighting genre grow in the industry, to see a game like Tekken 4 is a major disappointment; a game like Tekken 4 will "stunt the growth" of this genre as a whole. If Namco is serious about making a 3D game, they need to redo their game from scratch and if they're not willing to do that, they should go back to doing 2D games. Which reminds me (starts laughing), I guess they're bringing out Tekken on the GBA and it's looking pretty good on that system.”
There’s only one way to settle this. Real fighting! If these guys spend their time sitting around developing the best way to employ violence, surely they must fancy themselves in the ring. If we can organise it, you will be the first to know.
When asked what he thought of the competition, and which is the better game, Itagaki made some astonishing remarks. “Well, Virtua Fighter 4 is the better game to me - I would pay money to actually buy Virtua Fighter 4. Tekken 4, even if someone paid me, I wouldn't play it! Let me explain my reasons why.”
Cripes! We never expected that!
“Sega, of course, their infrastructure allows them to support hardware and software exceptionally. Virtua Fighter 4, as a fighting game, is a good game and my overall respect for it, in its detail and the overall gameplay, is high though I feel Virtua Fighter 4 plays a bit too identical to its previous versions. The hardcore gamers will realise that the card system idea originally came from Dead Or Alive 2: Hardcore's User Profile System. I really don't care about Sega using my idea especially with a company that has a good infrastructure that allows them to provide this for the gamer. I think it's a good thing - it's a game that the players out there need. Of course, I'm referring to the arcade version and I'm not sure if the US version or console version have the same things. I respect the overall content of the game from the outside though from the inside, the game isn't really up to par. The game was made very conservatively and it's kinda old. But again, I can excuse that because the game carries tradition. In terms of the actual gameplay, they failed with VF3 so they went back to VF2 and used that as guide for VF4. From that perspective, I'm a little bit disappointed in VF4.”
He goes on, “The content for Tekken 4, the inside, is very incomplete and as everyone knows, Tekken is a 2D game. So the fact that everyone has been saying that, they're not really happy about that. For that reason, they've tried to change that feeling with Tekken 4 and truly make it 3D. But I can see that it's a failure. Would you like to hear why?”
Why, yes we do! “As one of the major developers that are trying to make the fighting genre grow in the industry, to see a game like Tekken 4 is a major disappointment; a game like Tekken 4 will "stunt the growth" of this genre as a whole. If Namco is serious about making a 3D game, they need to redo their game from scratch and if they're not willing to do that, they should go back to doing 2D games. Which reminds me (starts laughing), I guess they're bringing out Tekken on the GBA and it's looking pretty good on that system.”
There’s only one way to settle this. Real fighting! If these guys spend their time sitting around developing the best way to employ violence, surely they must fancy themselves in the ring. If we can organise it, you will be the first to know.
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