Released in arcades in the mid-'90s, Sega's Virtual On: Cyber Troopers immediately caught the attention of coin-op fans thanks to its unique twin-stick control method, intense arena-based action, and selection of eye-catching mechs designed by Hajime Katoki (famous for his work on the Mobile Suit Gundam series).
Ported to the Saturn at the close of 1996, the 32-bit console struggled to accurately replicate the grandiose nature of the arcade version (although Sega did go the extra mile and release a bespoke twin-stick controller for domestic use).
It wouldn't be until 2007 that fans got a better version, released exclusively in Japan on PS2 as part of the Sega Ages line. Then, in 2012, Sega released an even better port on Xbox Live Arcade (Xbox 360) and PlayStation Network (PS3), adding online play as a bonus.
While Western gamers were able to play the 1998 sequel Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram on XBLA and PSN in the West, the original game was never released outside of Japan for these services, and therefore, no English language version has been available – until now, that is.
Virtual On fan indigotrance has created a patch which translates all of the text in the Japanese PS3 version into English, allowing you to play the game in your native language using the RPCS3 emulator.
If you'd like to see what the game looks like on PS3 (without the patch applied), then check out the video below.