AOU 2001: New Virtua Fighter 4 characters

The first bit of news to come out of the ongoing AOU 2001 Amusement Expo is regarding AM2's latest game in the Virtua Fighter series. As expected, Sega is demonstrating the game on the show floor in non-playable video form, but the company did reveal some specific details. Virtua Fighter 4 will introduce two new characters to the existing lineup of familiar fighters. Although their names were not revealed, one of the characters is female and the other is male.

The male character shown in the clip looks like a traditional Chinese Buddhist monk. He is bald and has a long robe draped over his body. He is relatively young and is proficient in the martial arts style of, Rakan Ken. This fighting style is one of the disciplines that have been passed down for many generations as part of the general Shaolin teachings. Unfortunately, the female character was not shown and Sega did not discuss any specifics regarding this second VF4 fighter. Of course, each of these new characters will have their own fighting arena. As expected, the Chinese monk fights in an old Buddhist monastery.

Features specific to the Naomi 2 arcade version of Virtua Fighter 4 include the ability to save and transport ones win/loss records and other game data from one arcade machine to another through the use of the magnetic card. Other features include the ability to share data with cell phones, and an external saving device, which could very well be the PlayStation 2 memory card.