Virtua Fighter 5
Perfect fighter, rushed port, tough review.
Version PlayStation 3 | Developer Sega AM2 | Publisher SEGA | Genre Fighting |
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"The background designs are visually stunning with an elegance that no previous fighter on any platform can match."
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And besides, these background designs are visually stunning with an elegance that no previous fighter on any platform can match. Many of our favourite themes from previous VF games make a welcome return, and look better than ever now that powerful new hardware is behind it all. The Great Wall of China at sunset is surely the highlight - a massive and dazzlingly pretty stage with beautiful lighting and rich colours. Shun fights on his floating raft again, as depicted in VF2 and VF3, but now looking even more sensational as it floats down the river and passes underneath bridges. Wolf's snowy mountain from VF2 is reincarnated too, and is a graphical marvel. Basically there are nineteen stages altogether, and not one of them is anything less than awesome to look at with all the fancy next-gen dynamic lighting and effects you'd expect, in sexy high definition. It would just be nice to have the opportunity to explore more of the backgrounds with all the work that's clearly gone into them - fight a little further out on the Great Wall for example. But it could harm the core gameplay, so it doesn't matter.
Of course, VF has always been a bit of an AV tour-de-force, impressing with each new instalment. VF5's fighters themselves are satisfyingly detailed to a real next-gen standard, with veins, individual eyelashes and warm breath visible in the cold. Skin textures are as detailed as the many costumes, and animation is without question the best of its kind in any fighting game. Although it all looks awesome, there are a couple of small downsides - a couple of textures (the brickwork underneath Shun's bridges) and modelling (Akira's collarbone) are marginally lower in quality. But you only notice this if you really want to nitpick. Some have complained about loading times, but we're thinking maybe they didn't cache the game data to their HDD when they first booted the game - we find that the PS3 loads in the detailed stage, fighters, engine and everything in no more than three or four seconds.
"You can chain stuff together in interesting new ways, so it feels fresh with all the old guys."
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VF has never really been about a detailed story, and rarely engaged its fans with FMV style story sequences in the same way that Tekken has been applauded for over the years. In VF5, there's a newer (and pertinently a much more awesome-looking) 'V-Dural' model, and the shady J6 Corporation's attention has apparently turned from Sarah to Vanessa. Frankly it's all bollocks though, and the creators know it - but to be honest what we'd rather have is a game whose seventeen key combatants, not including the Dural boss, are all unique in terms of personality, design, and most importantly, play style. And VF offers character variety in spades. All the existing VF4 characters return with many superb, well thought out enhancements. I would estimate that about one third of my favourite character's moves in VF5 are completely new - and you can chain stuff together in interesting new ways too, so it feels fresh with all the old guys.
The two new characters, meanwhile, are great additions to the line-up. Personally I have not spent a lot of time using them to be honest, but I am assured that they're worthy additions and any fool can see they're cool to watch. They both bring a cool new fighting style to the series, with 14-year old Eileen practising the unpredictable, dance-like monkey kung-fu fighting and boasting plenty of leaping, evasive and mischievous techniques. El Blaze, the masked Mexican Lucha Libra wrestler, surprised players who expected another wrestler just like big-man Wolf, with his incredibly compact, fast physique, as well as his quirky ability to run all over the ring just like in real 'sports entertainment'. So, by all accounts, we have two versatile and entertaining new fighters to enjoy and master.
In Japan, VF is the highest grossing game in arcades, but at home on the PS3 version, AM2 has been sensible in creating a full-scale Quest mode, similar to that found in VF4 Evolution on PS2. You fight across a selection of different 'arcades' on a map, each with its own player skill level. As you progress, you're invited to take part in frequent tournaments. Your win ratio and ability to beat skilled players determines your player rank, with 28 ranks to get through in total, and also allows you to radically customise the look of your fighter, which can be used back over in arcade mode and versus mode too. Versus mode, for that matter, allows the two players to continue using their various Quest characters against each other and benefit from the same rank promotion/demotion and Item Battles system encountered in the singleplayer game, which is cool, and just like Japanese arcades.
Video Coverage (Latest Videos & Video FAQ) | |||
PLEASE DO NOT DIRECT LINK TO ANY MEDIA FILE ON KIKIZO | |||
Description | Dur. | Size | Details |
VIDEO INTERVIEW | |||
SEGA AM2 Video Interview Previous VF5 video interview feature with Hiroshi Kataoka, Noriyuki Shimoda & Hiroshi Masui (June 2006) |
10:00 | 200MB | ED, 16:9 856x480p60 3Mbps |
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