Sega stunned fans last year when the gaming juggernaut announced an enhanced remake ofVirtua Fighter 5would be coming to modern consoles with the reveal ofVirtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdownas a PS4 exclusive. The franchise had not seen a new release aside from mobile-only games since 2010’sVirtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, with the arcade game later being ported to home consoles and eventually being made backwards compatible on new Xbox consoles. Now, the 3D fighting game recently announced a new crossover honoring another legendary fighting game franchise.
The newest entry in one of gaming’s original 3D fighting games has seen plenty of new content since its release with theVirtua Fighter 5remake seeing DLC not only honoring the franchise’s history, but paying homage to Ryu ga Gotoku Studio’s namesake.Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown’s “Legendary Pack” offers fans cosmetics and music based on olderVirtua Fightergames, and a recent collaboration saw a plethora of cosmetics from theYakuzafranchise added to the game. Now,Virtua Fighterwill be paying homage to another fighting game titan as Sega announcedTekkenskins will be coming toUltimate Showdown.
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Sega officially announced the skins based onTekken 7duringVirtua Fighter 5’s Challenge Cup stream with a short trailer introducing some of the new costumes. The trailer shows off skins for Akira and Lau with the two characters donning outfits inspired by a pair ofTekken’s most iconic fighters, Kazuya and Heihachi. While only the two costumes were officially revealed during the announcement, the scope of the game’s past expansions should suggest plenty more fighters to be featured inVirtua Fighter 5. No official release date was given for the collaboration.
A collaboration betweenTekkenandVirtua Fighterseems like a match made in heaven as the upcoming DLC will merge two of the pioneers of 3D fighting games. WhileVirtua Fighterhas been largely dormant in recent years,Tekken 7has been a mainstay at major tournaments like EVO since its release in 2015 and sawfour seasons worth of DLCadding a wide variety of new characters. Meanwhile,Virtua Fighter 5had only seen updated versions of the 2006 game untilUltimate Showdownreleased as an enhanced remaster.
Sega’s renewed focus onVirtua Fighterwith the release ofUltimate Showdownhas caused many fans to wonder what’s next for the long-running series. With the last main-seriesVirtua Fightergame releasing sixteen years ago, producer Seiji Aoki has previously expressed hisdesire to make a sixthVirtua Fighterstating that the future of the franchise would largely be dependent on the success ofUltimate Showdown. The collaboration withTekkenandVirtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown’s budding esports scene should bode well for the franchise’s future prospects.
