The Virtua Fighter soundtracks get nowhere near the recognition they deserve among game music lovers. Virtua Fighter 1's soundtrack is nothing short of a masterpiece, and Virtua Fighter 2's score is wonderful as well, though it pales in comparison to VF1. The music to those two games, along with numerous other Sega arcade titles, were composed by someone whose talent is extraordinary but is relatively unknown here in America - Takenobu Mitsuyoshi. Takenobu is in charge of Sega's sound team "B-Univ" (Baby Universe), which specializes in Sega arcade game music.

For VF3, could they create a soundtrack with the richness and diversity of VF1 and the exciting "Over the Top Techno-Blast" in VF2, and still manage to create something unique and new to display the sound power of the Model 3? Yes! Mitsuyoshi's talent shows all through this album. The feel of the music is completely different from that of either of the previous VFs, making the VF3 soundtrack stand out on its own.

The music tracks are full of variety, ranging from a new take on traditional-sounding Japanese music (Aoi's track), a deep tribal-sounding groove track (Jeffry), some fast-paced guitar rock (Jacky), and much, much more. Each track has something about it to like. In fact, there's not any track on here that I truly dislike. There are even eight "bonus tracks" on the CD not present in the actual game. They aren't as good as the in-game music, but they're certainly worth a listen nonetheless.

Overall, this CD is a must-buy for fans of Sega, Mitsuyoshi-san, or B-Univ, and I'm willing to bet a lot of other game music fans will enjoy it immensely as well. If you're not familar with Mitsuyoshi and his musical works, this is the perfect place to start.