Virtua Striker

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Virtua Striker
System(s): Sega Model 2B CRX, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Publisher: Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Sega Corporation
Developer: Sega AM2 Sega R&D2
Genre: Sports
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1995-05 ¥? ? US 1995 $? ? UK 1995 £? ? JP ▼ 2013-02-13 ¥762 (800)762 (800) NPJB-00320 JP ▼ 2013-02-13 800MSP800 JP ▼ (Otameshiban) 2013-02-13 FREEfree

Virtua Striker (バーチャストライカー) is an arcade football game developed by Sega AM2. Like Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter, Virtua Cop and later Virtua Tennis, it is part of the Virtua series, and the first in the set of Virtua Striker games. Virtua Striker was released in 1995 for Sega Model 2B CRX hardware and is widely considered to be the first 3D football game ever to be released.

Unlike other games which contain the Virtua name, Virtua Striker was not ported to home consoles when it was new. It would not be made officially available to home users until nearly twenty years later, when an enhanced version was released for the Japanese PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in early 2013.

Sega Logistics Service announced it would end service on the arcade machines on March 31, 2017.

Gameplay

Teams

	Denmark
	England
	France
	Spain
	Italy
	Nigeria
	Sweden
	Germany
	Netherlands
	Bulgaria
	Saudi Arabia
	Korea
	Japan
	U.S.A.
	Mexico
	Colombia
	Brazil
	Argentina
	F-C Sega

History

Development

Virtua Striker was effectively conceived by Yu Suzuki, who knew that longtime collaborator Satoshi Mifune was a fan of football. Suzuki believed Sega had a chance to secure the video game football market and make a profit in Europe, where the genre usually had success. Mifune was against the idea, viewing football as just a hobby of his, instead developing racing games such as GP Rider and F1 Exhaust Note throughout his career. However, by early 1994, he felt that vehicle-based games were oversaturating the market, so took up Suzuki's offer to pivot genres. It ended up as a stressful development for him which faced cancellation several times, and Mifune threatened to never make a football game again if it flopped.

Of the 12-person development team under his direction, 4 of the developers had previously worked with Satoshi Mifune on F1 Super Lap. The game was created in a branch office at Sega AM2, separate from the team developing Daytona USA. One Daytona USA developer, graphic designer Hiroyuki Nakagomi, joined the Virtua Striker team fairly early on as the only other pre-established football fan.

Development began on the Model 1 board, which proved challenging with rendering 22 players on the screen at the same time. After doing extensive sales research, Mifune was able to increase the projected sales twofold, honing in on the game's 2-player competitive appeal. The technical difficulties were then alleviated by switching to the more powerful Model 2 board, but the sales department still expected the game would underperform and AM2 would be better off cancelling it. Mifune, who had been planning to begin location testing 2 months when he received the information, persisted and was able to get Yu Suzuki to ask the whole team if they wanted to continue until the location test or drop it then and there. The team decided to keep making the game and managed to score a location test at Ikebukuro GiGO, which proved successful enough to continue development.

The game was rumoured to exist for some time before being officially announced at AOU Show 1995.

Location testing

Location tests

Venue	Start date	End date	Comments
Ikebukuro GiGO

The location testing took place over 9 days.

Achievements

Main article: Virtua Striker/Achievements.

Production credits

Main article: Virtua Striker/Production credits.

Magazine articles

Main article: Virtua Striker/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Model2 US Flyer Page1

Model2 US Flyer Page2

Model2 JP Flyer Page1

Model2 JP Flyer Page2

Photo gallery

• 

  Upright cabinet

• 

  Deluxe cabinet

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Games World: The Magazine (UK) 87 №11, p85

	87
Based on 1 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Computer & Video Games (UK) 94 Next Generation (US) 75

	85
Based on 2 reviews

Virtua Striker

External links

• Virtua Striker on Xbox Marketplace: JP
• Virtua Striker on PlayStation.com: JP
• Virtua Striker on PlayStation Store: JP
• Video Game Storytellers Part 5: The Journey of Satoshi Mifune and Hiroyuki Nakagomi, the Creators of Virtua Striker article by Fumio Kurokawa at 4Gamer.net (Japanese)

References

Virtua Striker series
Virtua Striker (1994) | Virtua Striker 2 (Version '98 | '99 | 2000 | 2000.1) (1997-2000) | Virtua Striker 3 (Ver. 2002) (2001-2002) | Virtua Striker 4 (Ver. 2006) (2005-2006)
Virtua Striker related media
	Virtua Striker & Virtua Striker 2 (1997)
	Virtua Striker 2 Version '98 Official Guide (1998) | Virtua Striker 2 Ver. 2000.1 Kanzen Kouryaku Guide (2000) | Virtua Striker 3 Ver. 2002 Road to International Cup Kyuukyoku Guide (2002)