Gaming Target - Dreamcast: Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram

Written by Eric Terrell on July 11, 2000

Reivew: If you plan on mastering this game I suggest you bring a lunch and call your momma cause VOOT is taking your ass to school!

Virtual On 2 is the sequel to the cult hit Virtual On and saw limited release in the U.S. arcades. A mech game worthy of Sega's name on it has finally hit the Dreamcast with a splash but will the twinsticks hamper this game? Or will it stand on it's own feet? We shall soon see...

The game's visuals are very impressive. The mechs are full of detail and the framerate is 60 FPS! No, that was not a misprint, I did say 60 FPS and it definitely shows in this game. It's ultra smooth and fast in the visual department and with a game like this it has to be. It definitely does the job with visuals.

The audio is pretty darn good and exactly arcade perfect, right down to that robots voice before every round. The missile sounds are GREAT, and that is what you will hear most of the game anyway. If I had a huge floating land mine that was about to hit a 500-foot mech I am quite sure that is what it would sound like. Audio is 2 thumbs up from me!

Now, the gameplay presented here is tremendous. This is the Virtua Fighter of mech games folks! This game involves strategy and skill in buckets. I have been playing this game non-stop and its no button masher (believe me, I tried...) I have had my ass handed to me more times than you could say "boy is GT the best site on the net! "If you plan on mastering this game I suggest you bring a lunch and call your momma cause VOOT is taking your ass to school! Now on to the tough part, the control...I know im rating the home version but I have to mention the twinsticks. These twin joysticks are what the arcades used to control these mechs are the only way to control the machines with ease. The U.S. release lacked the twinsticks, which, in my mind, hurt the control very much. Activision did as good of a job as they could TRYING to make the controls work as best as possible for a game meant for twinsticks. I heard that twinsticks are on the way via a third party company but that has yet to be realized. The control for the home version is VERY awkward for hard-core VOOT arcade fanatics who are used to the traditional set-up but for those who never played it that much in the arcades the learning curve is a bit long but once you master it the rewards are tremendous.

As for the features, they do lack a bit but this is an arcade perfect masterpiece. Even though I would of liked to have seen more extra's I remind myself that it is 60 FPS and that lets me sleep at night. It features 2-player multiplayer and it does support the LAN once it comes out here in the U.S.

When looking for some replay in the game, I'm sorry to say, there is no real extras. If you plan on actually becoming good at the game, the replay value is fantastic. Great computer AI, will keep you on your toes at all times. This is the Virtua Fighter of mech games, and the replay is in actually becoming better in the game. That might sound weak to you, but play a VOOT master one of these days and you'll see what im talking about!