The control scheme, if you have the twinsticks (or a twinstick setup), is dead on. There are plenty of small details that can be learned over time, and tons of room for players to create their own techniques and 'style'. A 'newbie' at this game has absolutely NO chance of winning against an expert, and watching two great players fight is nothing short of breathtaking. The more you play it, the better you can get. Not only is it one of the most original fighting games ever made, but, like any other good fighting game, it is also VERY complex. Also, there is a great close combat system, which allows for some incredible fights. There are three weapons per VR, and it's possible to shoot countless variations of each. Each VR can sidestep, crouch, dash, and jump, among other things. You basically select a VR to pilot, and enter a small arena with one other mech. Granted, it's probably nine-tenths fighting game and one-tenth shooter, but that's not quite apparent at first. The gameplay is, as I said earlier, a mix of a third person shooter and a fighting game. Of course, the most remarkable aspect of this game is the gameplay. There are some songs, however, that really stand out, such as 'Into Blue Sky' (Temjin's stage), and 'Everything Merges with the Night' (Dorkas's stage). It's all mostly of the J-popish sort, with some 'heavier' songs in there. The music is good, yet not what I'd call 'classic'.

Also, The announcer sounds like Macintosh Simpletext speak, and fits well with the game. I have noticed that the sound is somewhat inferior to the Saturn and Model 2 versions (in the sense that sometimes it doesn't play certain sounds), but it's hardly even noticeable. In fact, it's possible to tell what VR's are being used in a match simply by listening to the sound effects, which is saying something. The sound effects all sound as you'd expect them to, and they are very plentiful. The sound is what you'd expect from SEGA, which isn't exactly bad, yet it isn't exactly ground-breaking. It is, graphically, the closest to the Model 2 version, and it's nice to see the somewhat better looking arenas and VR's after playing the Saturn version so long. Graphically, this port is one of SEGA's better Model 2-to-PC ports created. Textured, transparent explosions, weapon trails, and projectiles are plentiful. I've heard that the game runs pretty bad on older PC's, and it was running poor on mine, until I switched the 'motion type' option from 'fast' to 'smooth'. The VR's ('mechs' that the characters pilot) are nice looking, and all have great animations. The arenas are somewhat simplistic, but well textured with beautiful backgrounds. The graphics are excellent, considering the time it was released. Granted, I only really thought of it as a fun diversion, just for dashing about and shooting your opponent. I liked that is was an unlikely mix of a third person shooter and a fighting game, a bunch of agile mechs beating the parts out of each other, and incredible visuals, among other reasons.

When I first played Virtual On in 1996 or so, I fell in love with it. It was later ported (very well, I might add) to the SEGA Saturn, which is the first version of the game I was exposed to. Also, it had a very unique control scheme, which used a strange dual joystick setup (not to say it was the first game to do so). The game was (and still is) very innovative, especially in terms of gameplay. The basic idea was mech fighting, although it wasn't exactly the most traditional fighting game ever created. an appropriate name, if you ask me), and first released in arcades during 1996, using SEGA's Model 2 hardware (the hardware behind other excellent SEGA games such as Virtua Cop 2, Daytona USA, Fighting Vipers*, and Virtua Fighter 2).

Virtual On Cybertroopers (which I will now refer to as VOOM, as it's sometimes called Virtual On: Operation Moongate) was developed by SEGA's Am3 team (now known as Hitmaker.

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