Retro Gaming Australia

You’d think in this day and age of digital goods and globalisation that everything would get released everywhere.

‘Fraid not.

Sega has decided not to release the Model 2 Collection games Cyber Troopers: Virtual-On and Virtua Striker outside of Japan, where they will be available together for ¥880 on PSN and 400 points on Xbox Live Arcade.

Of course you can get around that buy registering a Japanese account for either service and then buying region specific points. Something we should write a guide on one of these days.

In light of the recent announcement of Virtual On for PSN and Xbox Live Arcade, peripheral producer Hori has announced that they will be releasing a limited run of twin stick controllers for use with the game.

The twin sticks are designed to mimic the control scheme of the original arcade game. Sega released its own official version for the Saturn and Dreamcast in conjunction with their ports of Virtual On and Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram respectively.

Of course, authenticity doesn’t come cheap – Hori’s twin sticks will set you back 30,000 yen, or about $AU375.

As part of their evergrowing focus on digital distribution, Sega has announced that it will be bringing a collection of Model 2 arcade games to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN in the coming months.

The slate of titles, dubbed the “Model 2 Collection”, includes Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Striker, Sonic the Fighters, Fighting Vipers and Virtual On.

Word on the street is that these titles will boast improvements like online play and in the case of Sonic the Fighters, extra playable characters. We’ll have to wait and see. I doubt we’ll see Pepsiman in Fighting Vipers, but one can always hope.