This is a debate that has raged on for a good portion of the '90s and even in the 2000s. Sometimes, you had a third blip in Dead or Alive, and sometimes Soul Calibur (and it's predecessor, Soul Edge) was thrown in the mix, but ultimately, when it comes to martial arts 3-D fighting, it's all about Tekken or Virtua Fighter.

My personal choice has been thrown into the Virtua Fighter camp ever since Virtua Fighter 4. Most of you who are familiar with one generally know why they prefer it over the other, so my comparison will be quite brief. However, there is a reason in choosing these two particular games to compare as both are quite solid 3-D fighting games offering lately great single player modes and a good level of customization for your favorite fighter.

4-button layout vs. 3-button layout

Before explaining why one is better than the other, I should explain the button layouts of each game. Tekken has a four button layout which goes like this : Left and right punch on top, left and right kick on the bottom. Virtua Fighter has a three button layout, one for guarding, one for punches and one for kicks. In order to guard in Tekken, you must hold the joystick back.

Both are comparable and simple in their implementation. A neophyte would have no problem deciding which button to use if he wants to perform a particular action. He has to make an additional decision in Tekken (do I want to throw a left or right punch?) but nonetheless, it remains intuitive and that is one of the many strengths of both games.

In order to block in Tekken, you must use the joystick, which feels awkward in a 3-D fighter as it pigeonholes you into stepping back if your opponent isn't attacking, whereas in Virtua Fighter, you can generally press the joystick in any direction with guard, and it won't affect (well, other than down, as that will have you guard low) how you move as you are guarding. Even in the Soul Calibur series, also made by Namco Bandai, they use a guard button mechanism. I also prefer it to Tekken. Coincidence? Very likely, but I will not get into this here. After all, this is Tekken vs. Virtua Fighter, and not Tekken vs. the World.

Fantastic-realism vs. Quasi-realism

I do not consider Virtua Fighter to be complete realism. The extremely high jumps on down attacks and Dural prevent me from doing so. Still, it is not quite at the level of Tekken in terms of fantastic, with fighting robots, kangaroos, bears, cyborgs and devils going around the world, fighting. This turns me off of Tekken, personally, although I will admit I like Paul and Steve. 

Virtua Fighter has one fighter that's completely out of place – Dural, and she's not selectable in normal play. The other fighters, even if they represent styles we've never really heard of (like Lau Chan's Koen-Ken which according to the VFWiki, is an off-shoot of shaolin kung-fu, take it with a grain of salt, however), have a style of their own which anyone who is knowledgeable in that art would recognize with two notable exceptions in Sarah Bryant (listed as Martial Arts, yet resembles Tae Kwon Do) and Jeffry McWild (listed as Pancratium, yet mixes it with pro wrestling maneuvers).

For example, if you pick Brad Burns, who's listed as practicing kickboxing, expect to see a lot of punches, kicks and elbows. Whereas if you pick Wolf, expect to see moves you've probably seen on Monday Night RAW. In short, I find that Tekken has characters, where Virtua Fighter has fighters.

Conclusion

There are a lot of reasons as to why one may prefer the other. I personally like Virtua Fighter's system and strategies more than Tekken's hard-hitting combos, for example, but I wanted to keep it simple for those who weren't familiar with the 3-D fighters mentioned.

I said there was a reason why I compared these two, and it's not because these two are rivals when it comes to modern-setting 3-D fighters. It's because if you are not frequenting arcades, the choice has already been made for you : Sega has shown no intention of porting, much less translating, their updates to Virtua Fighter 5 (R and Final Showdown) on consoles, meaning we're missing out on extra characters and content. That's the only thing I find Tekken has over Virtua Fighter, and some would say the most important thing : We can play it.