With Soulcalibur 4 and the upcoming Street Fighter IV the home consoles can already celebrate the year 2008 to be an the upside for fighting games after a long time. What's missing from this ensemble is Virtua Fighter 5: Revolution that was only released for the Japanese arcades in July this year. Kikizo and the German games magazine Man!ac (issue 11/08) recently interviewed the development director of AM2 Makoto Osaki about the newest installment in the Virtua Fighter franchise. And you know what: a home console version isn't unlikely if you are in for the game.

While Soulcalibur, or Dead or Alive always stood for simplicity and accessibility, Virtua Fighter always hit the other end of the line: complexity, authenticity, depth, and game balance are the trademarks of every Virtua Fighter installment. With VF5R AM-2 won't change the core principles but adds another touch to it. Before fans of the series were used to a rather "mild" balancing. But now AM-2 aims for a more destructive balancing where every character of the VF cast is in possession of some "powerful, hard-hitting attacks" giving them the "potential to inflict a lot of damage on each other." Rounds can be over so much quicker now (especially in some of those new cagey arenas with plenty of wall-hit opportunities for maximum effect).

A home console version for VF5R seems to be in sight as well. Makoto at least sees it a possibility:

Makoto wants requests as proof? Let's get to it! If you want to express your desire to play VF5R on your home console, then you can only do so by filling out the opinion form here on SEGA's Japanese website. That's right. Sadly so, it's in Japanese. If you--just like us--belong to the percentage that doesn't quite understand Japanese so well (yet), then just follow the example in our teaser image: first the email address, then the topic (preferrably about VF5R), and last but not least a little comment about it. (If you have come this far, then you really, really want it, right?) Then just hit the yellow button that leads you to the preview of your opinion. If you're fine with it, hit the right yellow button and the message gets sent. Voilá.

So much for community support by Japanese publishers for the western audience ... We have done our part of the deal. SEGA AM-2, it's your turn now.