Virtua Fighter was the first fighting game to use fully 3D polygonal characters and arenas.
Sega released Virtua Fighter in arcades in 1993. Yu Suzuki and Sega AM2 developed it for the Model 1 arcade hardware. Instead of presenting fighters as two-dimensional sprites, the game represented its characters with polygons and allowed movement around a three-dimensional ring. This technical approach became one of the defining developments in fighting-game history.
Virtua Fighter’s combat was deliberately grounded in martial-arts techniques and timing. It had fewer characters and less elaborate presentation than many later fighting games, but its precise systems made it influential among competitive players and designers. The game later appeared on the Sega Saturn in Japan in 1994.
Tekken and other major 3D fighters followed soon afterward, which can cause confusion about chronology. Virtua Fighter was not merely an early 3D fighting game; it is specifically recognized for pioneering polygon-based 3D fighting-game presentation.