Virtua Fighter, Virtua Fighter 2 and NINKU: Three Japanese Saturn Fighters and Their Codes

On 22 November 1994, the day the Sega Saturn went on sale in Japan, Sega released バーチャファイター, its home version of Sega AM2’s arcade fighter Virtua Fighter. A year later, on 1 December 1995, Virtua Fighter 2 became the first Saturn game to sell a million copies in Japan. Two months after that, on 2 February 1996, Sega published NINKU -忍空- ～強気な奴等の大激突!～, a fighting game based on the NINKU anime that, as far as we can find, was only ever sold in Japan.

All three are Japanese discs with a GS- code, and all three are cheap today. This guide lists the three codes, explains what a Western Saturn needs before it will play a Japanese disc, and shows which searches find each game: the code for the two Virtua Fighters, the Japanese title for NINKU.

• Virtua Fighter: バーチャファイター, Sega, 22 November 1994 — GS-9001
• Virtua Fighter 2: バーチャファイター2, Sega, 1 December 1995 — GS-9079 (the 1997 budget reissue is GS-9146)
• NINKU: NINKU -忍空- ～強気な奴等の大激突!～ (Ninku: Tsuyokina Yatsura no Daigekitotsu!), Sega, 2 February 1996 — GS-9036, Japan only
• Region: a Japanese disc will not start on a North American or European Saturn without a converter cartridge
• In the catalog: GS-9001, GS-9079 and GS-9036 each find their row (GS-9036 since 13 October 2026)

Will a Japanese Saturn disc play on your console?

Not on its own. As Sega Retro puts it, the Saturn “is region-locked, meaning that games can only be played on hardware from the same region”. The usual answer is a converter cartridge: English Wikipedia notes that the Saturn’s cartridge slot “can also be used for cartridges that allow imported games to run”. European players have a second catch. Sega Retro says games designed for 60 Hz NTSC televisions run at 83.3% of their correct speed on the 50 Hz televisions used in PAL territories.

The titles are the same in every region, so the code is the quickest way to tell a Japanese copy from a Western one. The three Japanese discs here all use GS- codes. The North American Virtua Fighter is 81005 and the European one MK81005-50; for Virtua Fighter 2 they are 81014 and MK81014-50.

Virtua Fighter (GS-9001): the launch-day port

Virtua Fighter went on sale on the same day as the Japanese Saturn itself, and it was not a smooth conversion. Sega Retro says the port was “rushed to market with severe graphical and technical issues”: “polygon counts are significantly lower, five-second load times interrupt fights and the screen resolution is reduced”.

Sega followed it with Virtua Fighter Remix, whose fighters Sega Retro describes as “completely texture-mapped”. In Japan it was not a free upgrade: according to Japanese Wikipedia it was sold with the console from 16 June 1995 and on its own from 14 July 1995. In North America, Sega gave it “to all registered Sega Saturn owners at no additional cost”. Remix is a separate disc with its own code, GS-9039, so a listing titled “Virtua Fighter Remix” is not GS-9001.

You do not need to read Japanese to get into it. In a gameplay capture of GS-9001 published by satakore, the options screen is in English — LIFE GAUGE, MATCH POINT, TIME LIMIT, ENEMY LEVEL.

Virtua Fighter 2 (GS-9079): the first Saturn million-seller

The sequel was a far better port. English Wikipedia’s Saturn article says it runs “at 60 frames per second at a high resolution”, and Japanese Wikipedia gives the Saturn version 60 frames against the arcade’s 57.5. Famitsu calls it the Saturn’s first million-seller (セガサターン初のミリオンセール). The final total depends on the source: 1.7 million in Japan according to English Wikipedia and Sega Retro, 1.3 million as of the end of 2022 according to Japanese Wikipedia, which cites the CESA Games White Paper.

Other discs carry the same title. In April 1997 Sega reissued the game at a budget price in its Sega Saturn Collection line, as GS-9146; Suruga-ya lists it as バーチャファイター 2 サタコレシリーズ. There is also a not-for-sale sample disc (見本盤), and a Korean release with the code GS-9507J. The links in this guide point at the regular 1995 edition, GS-9079. The Cutting Room Floor notes that even the Japanese version labels its button setup in English, “Key Assign”.

NINKU (GS-9036): a Japan-only anime fighter

NINKU -忍空- ～強気な奴等の大激突!～ is, in MobyGames’ words, “a one-on-one fighting game based on the manga and anime series Ninku”, with “eight playable characters from the series”. Sega published it and SIMS developed it. The anime, made by Studio Pierrot from Koji Kiriyama’s manga, was on air in Japan from January 1995 to February 1996.

No release outside Japan has turned up: satakore lists it as a “Japanese Exclusive”, and the back of the box reads “For sale and use only in Japan.” Other NINKU games came out in 1995 — two on Game Boy and one on PlayStation from Tomy, three on Game Gear from Sega — but this is the only one on the Saturn.

Searching GS-9036 on this site returns 1 result, this disc: the code is missing from the Media Arts Database that Kataban’s catalog is built from, so we added it to the catalog on 13 October 2026 (rechecked 13 October 2026). The code is on the package: GS-9036 is printed on the back of the box and on the spine card, and Sega’s own Saturn software list gives the same number.

Which searches find them?

At Suruga-ya, the codes work — but drop the hyphen for Virtua Fighter. In the games category on 15 September 2026, GS-9001 returned 36 listings, headed by a Super Famicom game, ゴーストスイーパーGS美神; GS9001 returned only Virtua Fighter. GS-9079 returned only Virtua Fighter 2, and GS-9036 returned NINKU. The title searches find the same listings and a few more: バーチャファイター2 セガサターン also shows the Satakore reissue and the sample disc. Stock and prices as of 15 September 2026: Virtua Fighter was in stock at ¥580, with marketplace copies from ¥330 (25 used); Virtua Fighter 2 was at ¥498, with marketplace copies from ¥260 (22 used); and NINKU was sold out at Suruga-ya itself, with marketplace copies from ¥890 (14 used).

On Japanese auctions, the code wins for the two Virtua Fighters. Through Buyee on 15 September 2026, the search for GS-9001 showed results: 2 (this game: 2). バーチャファイター セガサターン (the title plus “Sega Saturn”) returned 647 listings, and most of them were not the original game but Remix, Virtua Fighter Kids, Virtua Fighter 2, the CG Portrait discs, guidebooks and bundles (the breakdown is in the sources). The search for GS-9079 showed results: 5 (regular Virtua Fighter 2: 5), against 332 listings for バーチャファイター2 セガサターン, where the game is mixed in with other items. The code’s result is thin, and auctions turn over every day, so try the title search if the code comes back empty. For NINKU it is the other way round: GS-9036 returned nothing, and GS9036 found car parts, while 忍空 セガサターン returned 20 listings, of which 16 were this game. Prices as of 15 September 2026: the GS-9001 listings were at ¥780 and ¥1,000, the GS-9079 listings at ¥500–¥1,299, and the NINKU listings at ¥350–¥5,000.

On eBay, the English titles bring in Western copies. Virtua Fighter sega saturn, the search this site builds, returned more than 2,000 listings (15 September 2026, from Japan), mostly Virtua Fighter 2, Remix, Kids and North American or European copies rather than the Japanese original (the breakdown of the first 60 is in the sources). Virtua Fighter 2 sega saturn returned 794 listings, again with Western copies mixed in. The code helps here too: the search for GS-9001 showed results: 23 (the Japanese Virtua Fighter: 10), and the search for GS-9079 showed results: 15 (the Japanese Virtua Fighter 2: 9); most of the rest were electronic parts and car sensors, so the eBay links below search by code. For NINKU, Ninku sega saturn returned 30 listings, of which 25 were this game.

On Kataban, use the codes for all three. GS-9001, GS-9079 and GS-9036 each return their one catalog row (GS-9036 since 13 October 2026). 強気な奴等, from NINKU’s subtitle, also returns the Saturn row alone; 忍空 on its own returns five rows from across the series.

Virtua Fighter · バーチャファイター · Sega Saturn · 1994 · Sega (セガ) · GS-9001

Where to buy: Suruga-ya.jp (by code GS9001 — stock varies) · Suruga-ya.jp (by Japanese title) · Buyee · eBay
Search for this on Kataban →

Virtua Fighter 2 · バーチャファイター2 · Sega Saturn · 1995 · Sega (セガ) · GS-9079

Where to buy: Suruga-ya.jp (by code GS-9079 — stock varies) · Suruga-ya.jp (by Japanese title) · Buyee · eBay
Search for this on Kataban →

NINKU: Tsuyokina Yatsura no Daigekitotsu! · NINKU -忍空- ～強気な奴等の大激突!～ · Sega Saturn · 1996 · Sega (セガ) · GS-9036

Where to buy: Suruga-ya.jp (by code GS-9036 — stock varies) · Suruga-ya.jp (by Japanese title) · Buyee · eBay
Search for this on Kataban →

Of the three, Virtua Fighter 2 is the better of the two ports and, at ¥498 at Suruga-ya (prices as of 15 September 2026), also the cheapest. If you want the disc that launched the Saturn, look for GS-9001; if you want a Saturn fighter that no Western shop ever sold, GS-9036 is NINKU.