Virtua Fighter fans may have noticed some rumblings online recently of a new Discord group and regular online stream known as the Virtua Revival. The group is a great opportunity to dive into Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown, whether you're a returning veteran who wants to get some more regular games, or a brand new player hoping to learn the ropes.

Virtuafighter.com has spoken to the man hosting the weekly streams and the discord community manager to get some more details on this budding new community.

​

Known by the handle, or nom de guerre of 'ThePoopTickler', he's the current host of Virtua Revival's weekly stream and room matches as well as the manager of the Virtua Revival Discord.

Based in Europe, players can join the room at 9PM GMT every Saturday evening. In between you can join the Discord Chat at the link below:
https://discord.gg/YHrX37d

Or catch the stream weekly at:
https://www.twitch.tv/virtuarevival

We asked this gentleman to shed some light on this group;

What exactly is Virtua Revival, and what's the goal with this community?

ThePoopTickler: Virtua Revival is a Discord server where we play Virtua Fighter and share all kinds of content and the goal of the server is to simply get people to start playing Virtua Fighter again, and start sharing Virtua Fighter content, stuff like fan art, streams, videos and more. I guess in regards to that first goal, you could say we've succeeded since we now play VF on a regular basis but there's always more players to meet and play against!

Where did the idea for Virtua Revival come from?
ThePoopTickler: The idea for Virtua Revival wasn't originally mine. It was once owned by a guy who called himself Sector 7 Justice on PSN (he was a Taka-Arashi player). I was there since the beginning and originally it was a small server where a few French players got together. Eventually Justice retired from head of the server and he handed it over to me and I made quite a few changes to the place; the rules were changed slightly, some text channels were removed, others renamed and some new channels added, such as the New to Virtua Fighter channel, a small guide that'll hopefully help newer players get their foot through the door. An automatic role giving system was also implemented thanks to one of our server members, we've got some VF related emotes, we started streaming relatively recently and we have a Twitter account now. Jeez, there's been so many changes it's almost hard to find aspects of the old server! Out of all of the changes, I'd say that the stream was the biggest change as it's got us all meeting up at a regular time, which sure beats the sporadic times of before, and the capture card that I got took a nice chunk out of my wallet.



How long have you been playing Virtua Fighter?
ThePoopTickler: I haven't been playing Virtua Fighter for that long really. VF was always a series I was interested in, but never got around to playing. When Yakuza 5 dropped and it came with VF2, I just wanted to play more of it, it was just that addicting, even though it was just arcade mode. Just the idea of pushing further forwards was enthralling enough to keep bringing me back. Then a friend of mine (who's now a part of the server mind you) brought over Virtua Fighter 5 vanilla one day and that was it. I was sold on VF that day. The simplicity of the base system, the bright colours, the music, the cheesy characters, all of it came to a head. Later I grabbed Final Showdown without a second thought and I even got my hands on some of the older games too. What's crazy is I went from someone who only played Tekken to someone who would stream Virtua Fighter on a regular basis. Sure that change took place over many years but it still feels like yesterday when I first played VF. Is this what feeling old feels like?

What's the next step for Virtua Revival?
ThePoopTickler: Outside of the continuous goal of getting together with more people to play on a regular basis, the next step for us right now is the elusive eight man lobby, something we've been slowly creeping towards for quite some time now. (It's so close I can see it already!) Once we hit that milestone, I'll try to host a tournament. I'm sure that'll be a blast with the group! Maybe we could even host regular tournaments? Who knows? I'd love to do that too. Outside of that, another goal I would have is to play with the Xbox crowd. I have the game on PS3, but not on 360 so that means playing with the 360 crowd, much less streaming our sessions, is out of the picture for now. This doesn't mean I'm never going to play on 360 though, or that I would abandon the PS3 crowd if I got on board with XBL! I just want to play with as many people as possible. Maybe, if we get the elusive eight man lobby on 360, I would host a 360 tournament too!

How can Virtua Fighter fans get involved, and how can they help grow the Virtua Revival!?
ThePoopTickler: If you want to get involved, you can always join the Discord group! Whether you're as green as grass or forged in the flames of battle, there's always a place for you in our server! You can check out or participate in the stream too! Every Saturday at around 9:00 PM GMT (or BST in the summertime) we start our regular stream, although we have had a few black market streams at other unannounced times too, so be sure to follow! With us now being affiliates on Twitch, you can also subscribe and gain access to our emote too. You can also follow us on Twitter too, where we announce our streams and post some funky things from our server and you can subscribe to out YouTube channel in case you miss our streams.


Check out their previous streams at their YouTube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxmf3Em9lU8eHTBGAcqpAPA




While we all await potential news of a new installment of Virtua Fighter, it's always important to keep supporting the game we already have. If you're a fan of VF and want to play more of the game, please do check out the Virtua Discord and your local communities to keep the game flourishing!