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Virtua Fighter CG Portrait Series Vol. 2: Jacky Bryant (Saturn)

Virtua Fighter CG Portrait Series Vol. 2: Jacky Bryant review

Game: Virtua Fighter CG Portrait Series Vol. 2: Jacky Bryant
Platform: Saturn
Genre: Casual (Other)
Developer: SEGA

Staff review by Gary Hartley

May 03, 2009

Complaining that the Virtua Fighter CG Portrait Series is pointless may come across as redundant. Released in Japan only, these releases are nothing more than a few CGI sculpted screens set against the SEGA Saturn's struggling capabilities and capped up with generic J-pop. There's eleven in total, each featuring a cast member from the founding 3D fighter. But if most of these entries are pointless, then Jacky Bryant’s chapter takes pointlessness in such a new direction that it makes all others look like poignant and unforgettable slices of digital art.

I’ll quickly point out that they’re not, but they at least serve as a look into the lives of the people they portray, be it Jeffry’s battle against a man-eating shark or a glimpse at Sarah wearing very few clothes, there was always something of the actual character personified in the collection of still frames. Even if it’s only to remind us that Lion Rafele is ridiculously camp or that or that the mysterious Kage Maru, a man that dresses and acts like a secretive ninja is, in fact, a ninja.

It could be argued that Jacky has the most versatile persona of all his warrior brethren, giving SEGA much more to work with when providing a series of snapshots that highlight chosen pockets of his life. Pre-Virtua Fighter, Jacky was an Indy 5000 racer who was so good that even his most heated rivals respected him with the cornball nickname “The Blue Flash”. He's considered one of the best drivers in the world. In Virtua Fighter CG Portrait Series Vol 2, you see a few frames of Jacky looking at a shiny red car that he has inexplicably parked right next to a swimming pool. He does later S-L-O-W-L-Y drive down a motorway.

Jacky is also a master of Jeet Kune Do, the martial arts developed and made famous by a certain Bruce Lee. The actual games draw on his chosen techniques masterfully, making him rely heavily on chaining together powerful and smoothly-interlinking combos. With all these skills under his belt at such a young age, it’s not surprising that he’s cocky and brass, bordering on arrogant.

Virtua Fighter CG Portrait Series Vol 2 highlights these traits by showing Jacky playing with a Dalmation, going grocery shopping and entering a deserted bar to play a rousing game of pool. By himself.

Once he leaves the empty bar, he hangs around by parked cars and tries to look cool. He does a very poor job of it, not helped even slightly by his disappointing backing track sporting the head-scratchily odd name of “Believe in Love!”. The only thing Jacky seemingly believes in is owning fast cars that he barely drives, complete solitude, spotty dogs, and awful hair.

Even the quality of the pictures seem to have taken a nosedive from the previous chapter where his sister frolics around a pool after actually practising her martial arts abilities. Maybe he got duped by an unimaginative design team or perhaps SEGA is making a play at establishing Jacky’s cocksure attitude as something that ensures he lives within a pocket of solitude. Maybe this is a warning; perhaps it’s SEGA's way of telling you that if you’re full of yourself, you leave no room for others and are doomed to exist a shallow, lonely life where even kicking nightspots like bars will empty as soon as you enter them, leaving only an open pool table and several hours of solitude to chase away.

That or, even in such a pointless title, the developers have completely missed the point.

More Reviews by Gary Hartley
	Labyrinth X (Xbox 360) Trial and error so tedious, it even takes the gleam off barely-covered anime tits.
	Spec Ops: The Line (PlayStation 3) Come suffer alongside me. You'll thank me for it.
	Super Black Bass 3D (3DS) Too clusmy to be a sim. Too slow to be arcade. Too ugly to get a second look.

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