The first dedicated console release of Virtual On and also the first console Virtual On game to lack a dedicated twinstick peripheral. For all intents and purposes Marz was an unofficial port of Force (despite being designated as MSBS 8.5), which meant all the gameplay problems of that title were transplanted to an unsuspecting audience in the comfort of their own homes.

Marz also focused massively on the huge narrative that had been building up in the background of the previous arcade games. Sidestories such as One Man Rescue, set between OMG and Oratan, and Fragmentary Passage, covering the events from Oratan leading up to Force, were finally resolved.

  

VO sidestories One Man Rescue and Fragmentary Passage.

As such, the game was monolithic in size and had a large roster of unlockable VRs. Unfortunately the four player aspect of Force, arguably the arcade game’s only redeeming feature, was neutered in the versus portion of Marz. The PlayStation 2 could only cope with two human controlled VRs, which meant the remaining two had to be handled by the game’s rather poor AI.

Thankfully, Marz only had one version and its lacklustre sales helped to close what had once been a vibrant series of human versus arcade games.

Conclusion from the 9th Plant…

Whilst Virtual On has fallen from its once lofty perch there have been several contenders for the crown, games like G-Rev’s Senkou no Ronde do possess many similar gameplay traits especially in regards to the dashing and close combat mechanics. However, for those awaiting another Virtual On arcade game, the series’ future remains unknown.

With the critical and commercial failures of both Force and Marz, Sega are reluctant to pursue the franchise directly. As such, Banpresto’s Super Robot Wars games have been allowed to feature VRs from Virtual On. It could be argued that this is a means to gauge the series’ now latent popularity, but that would be probably one conjecture too far on the part of a hopeful fan.

ollie barder, Virtually Off.

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