Fighting Wu-shu: VF4's predecessor?

After years of searching in Japan, I was finally able to acquire the Fighting Wu-shu 2nd! arcade board and the components needed to run it on my cabinet. I've been playing it for a few days now, consulted old issues of Gamest and have found that it's surprisingly similar to many of the new aspects seen in Virtua Fighter 4.

First though, some history on this game. Back when Sega showed off VF3 and Model 3, Konami and IBM went to work on a board with similar specs called Cobra. The flagship title would be this fighter and would go against Sega's money maker. I believe when it was finally finished, VF3tb was already going to hit the market. The board was the first game I saw that implemented the new JAMMA standard, JVS, and requires 3 power supplies to run in addition to needing a monitor that can sync to 24kHz. The first version of the game was at an American arcade show and failed to impress operators so I thought it was never released overseas but I have read a report that someone played it at Walmart of all places.



The game uses a system very similar to VF with just G, P, K as buttons and many of the same mechanics such as not being able to throw a staggered opponent. Hit flashes for normal and counter hit are here as well as wall & terrain effects. There are open/closed stance situations and also weight classes that look like a copy of VF's. For example, Tsubaki is an Aikido girl that also happens to be the lightest in the game. Crouch dashing is not in the game but you can do something similar to the box step by canceling dashing with evades and vice versa. Dashing can also be guard canceled. What's interesting is that the evade was implemented as a joystick tap (up or down) like in VF4. Also, every character has a high and mid sabaki. There are moves which also cause the kuzure down situation and some stagger situations are struggled in the same fashion as VF. Tech rolls are present here as well. Not only are game system aspects from this title are in VF4 but also character design. FW's Sho Fu is a Shaolin monk much like Lei Fei and has many of the same moves, which makes sense, but it is still strange to see.



Fighting Wu-shu pretty much flopped in Japan since VF3 owned the fighting game scene and I guess it really didn't offer more depth than AM2's game. All of the fighters are Asian and only 2 have names people in America could pronounce so that limited its overseas appeal. Perhaps other VFDC members in Asia can shed some light on this game in their respective area.

 

Wow. i also remember read articles in the past about this fighter, however I had no idea it resembled VF4 so much. What made you track this down Shou?

 

Wow, interesting..I would love to see if I can find this game ROM to play.

 

Ive played it, they have it at DIsney quest!!

 

Boring, charmles, limited scope and depth are all words you can associate with fighting wu shu.
Oh BTW the fact that the board initially cost 30k didnt help matters for the chances of survival of this game.

 

Was this the game that was orginally to be called "Kumite"? Or did that turn into G.A.S.P.?

 

No, gasp was released on the n64 and it was also known as a different american name. It had a create a fighter option in it, but it was very poor. Actually the game overall was very poor.

Kumite was the one that was cancelled that was supposed to resemble a ultimate fighter championship type game that was as realistic as possible. This game came out in the arcades with limited pizzaze and you can still play it as Jedi Fei mentioned at Disney quest. I don't think they ever fixed the second side's stick to this day.

 

This was the game that was supposed to justify the existance of the Cobra board. Unfortunately, Konami couldn't make an interesting one-on-one fighter to save their lives, so it bombed horribly. It goes down in history with Buriki One and Psychic Force 2012 as awful fighting games that were supposed to save hardware that was doomed from the start.

The idea that Sega would want to rip off elements of this game for VF4 is ridiculous. Everything you speak of - tech rolling, weight classes, new staggers, and whatnot - was present in Fighting Vipers 2, and mades its way into VF4 from there. It's safe to say that many ideas in VF4 are extensions of those in FV2, along with those that Kataoka/Katagiri simply couldn't use in the previous title. VF3 and FV2 are the only real predecessors to VF4.

 

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
What made you track this down Shou?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm into arcade boards and fighters. This was one of those games I saw in Gamest and never had the chance to play so that's why I went after it.

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
The idea that Sega would want to rip off elements of this game for VF4 is ridiculous.

[/ QUOTE ]

I never said AM2 did copy the game, merely that there are similarities and Fighting Wu-shu was released before Fighting Vipers 2. If anything, FW is in the middle of DOA and VF from what I read in Gamest and seen myself. It's surprisingly far better than any other Konami fighting effort.

 

Those screens do look rather like doa/2. Is the game fun? Anyway, congrats on the find.

 

No its not, its a festering piece of cut up foreskin.
That said, I recently had the opportunity to get my ass kicked by heruru at FV2 and play against some other good(good is a relative term here, no one compares to heruru at FV2) Japanese players and I was surprised that I still can kck ass at it and how wel it stood the test of time.
The game is still surprisingly playable and can provide for heated matches of skill yet since VF4 most other fighters including VF3 seem so tired.

 

While I'm the first to defend sega's ability to make pretty original characters, and I don't think they need help from anyone to create a good fighting game... that lei fei is startlingly similar... the togalike pec exposure, the leather cord + legwarmers, the oranginess and baldness... and 2P lei has those leather studded bracelets.

 

[ QUOTE ]
While I'm the first to defend sega's ability to make pretty original characters, and I don't think they need help from anyone to create a good fighting game... that lei fei is startlingly similar... the togalike pec exposure, the leather cord + legwarmers, the oranginess and baldness... and 2P lei has those leather studded bracelets.


[/ QUOTE ]

That might have more to do with the fact that them monks actually dress that way then it is Sega taking it from this festering pusshole.