The Budget Bin Reviews: Virtua Fighter 5

 

Fighting games have seen their heyday in the early 90’s to the early goings of the 21st century. Since then, however, the genre has taken a back seat with only a handful of franchises acting as surviving torch-bearers. Pundits have predicted that the next console cycle may be bleaker for beat-em-ups but Sega‘s Virtua Fighter 5 has something to say about that.

The Virtua Fighter franchise has been in the business almost as long as 3D graphics have been in use for gaming. Along with Tekken in the mid-90’s, the first Virtua Fighter was the showroom baby of polygon fighters. It’s interesting to see then how Sega is coping with the changing times and evolving a series with a massive following worldwide.

Find out what we think of this latest iteration right after the jump!

 

Fighting games have seen their heyday in the early 90’s to the early goings of the 21st century. Since then, however, the genre has taken a back seat with only a handful of franchises acting as surviving torch-bearers. Pundits have predicted that the next console cycle may be bleaker for beat-em-ups but Sega‘s Virtua Fighter 5 has something to say about that.

The Virtua Fighter franchise has been in the business almost as long as 3D graphics have been in use for gaming. Along with Tekken in the mid-90’s, the first Virtua Fighter was the showroom baby of polygon fighters. It’s interesting to see then how Sega is coping with the changing times and evolving a series with a massive following worldwide.

Dural, Dural

Let’s get one minor thing out of the way before we begin: If you’re looking for a fighting game that tells an epic story about why Akira Yuki loves to plant his elbows in people’s chests, there are better options out there. If you’re here to get a great fighting game experience for its actual gameplay, however, you’re all set for the gold standard of brawling’s new breed.

The premise of Virtua Fighter 5 begins in the aftermath of Virtua Fighter 4: Evo. Evil weapon research company Judgement 6 (J6) embarked on its ambitious mission to create a perfect fighting machine by forging a cyborg named Dural. The full model was completed in the 4th World Martial Arts Tournament and was deployed as the slugfest’s final boss. Too bad it was beaten and J6 went back to the drawing boards.

With the determination befitting a true-blue evil organization, J6 didn’t quit and further improved their design for the new Dural. They were able to capture Vanessa and recorded her battle data before she escaped, giving Dural all of Vanessa’s moves along with the strong and durable metal body that it already has.

Unsatisfied, J6 is looking at how Vanessa escaped and the search for a traitor begins. They’re also salivating at the prospect of capturing veteran warrior Sarah Bryant to use her for the next stage in Dural’s development. Vanessa enters the 5th World Martial Arts Tournament to finally stop J6’s plans and put the Dural project to a halt by protecting Sarah. If that isn’t an excuse for characters in a fighting game to beat each other to a pulp, we don’t know what is.

    

Eye-poppin’, body-sweatin’ presentation

The visuals in this 3D brawler are next-gen without a doubt. So there may be a jag once in a while, but you’d really have to have good eyes and a strong will to look for them if you really want to see them. Aside from the funny mouth movements in some characters, that’s all you can really say bad about Virtua Fighter 5‘s graphics.

The amount of detail Sega put into the visuals is incredible. Everything from the lighting to the movements are crisp. Jumps are realistic, counters are well-executed in the aesthetic sense and the physics keep everything real. Heck, you can even see the sweat flowing off El Blaze’s nipples! Need we say more?

Seriously, the fighters here all look awesome. Scaling was obviously one of the keys as the size difference between the pugilists really give a feeling of uniqueness for everyone. Add to that the proportion to the actual damage that bigger fighters cause and the speed of smaller ones, and the realism meter goes up another notch.

The audio in this game may be a subject for debate depending on what your perspective is. Some may criticize the voice-overs and the impact SFX as a tad scratchy and low fidelity while veterans of the series may find it a little more on the pleasantly nostalgic side. Either way, it works just fine and isn’t a glaring issue that you should lose sleep over.

    

Flying fists and mashed buttons, monsieur?

Without a doubt, the actual fighting is the star of Sega’s VF5 show. The balance between the 17 characters in the game is so perfectly set that at the hands of experts, literally anyone can beat anyone. There are only two new characters in the mix but they fit in so nicely with the rest of the gang that everything feels so cohesive.

True to its classic control scheme, there are only three buttons to press in VF5‘s minimalist control mechanics: Punch, kick and guard. Don’t let that fool you, however, as the fighting styles employed by the game’s warriors make the most out of the scheme. You’ll literally have to spend years to master this game’s complex nooks and crannies before you can call yourself a true master.

This leads us nicely to nothera part where a lot of people disagree about VF5: Is the game noob-friendly enough to be picked up by a person totally new to Virtua Fighter? The answer is both a yes and a no depending on how strong your grip on reality is. If you think you can pull off high-hitting combos by mashing buttons, you’ll easily realize that this isn’t a Naruto or Dragon Ball Z game. With minute practice, however, things are fairly easy to learn.

Two complete noobs can sit down in from of the Sony PlayStation 3 and pull off a couple of flashy maneuvers with ease after a few rounds. Combining high and low attacks is always a good idea because doing so starts off a learning curve in pulling off effective, combo-oriented fighting. Mindlessly mashing the SIXAXIS, however, is a totally different thing which will often disappoint you. This is one of the few games where it’s darn near close to beat a disciplined players no matter how frantically you mash. With that said, the emphasis on rewarding skilled players is a much-appreciated addition.

    

It’s a hard-knocks life

Virtua Fighter 5 has all the standard modes and options that past members of the series had. There’s an arcade mode if you want to prove to J6 and Dural that muscles are superior to metallics, a versus mode for two-player battles under one roof and a very entertaining quest mode that should keep you occupied for weeks.

The Quest mode is essentially the game’s way of simulating a globe-trotting elite arcade player who’s out to prove that his fighting style is supreme. There’s a map where you can choose a location to compete in and challenge fighters from across this virtual world. Along the way, you’ll win money and other items by winning matches. The money can be used for the customization mode where you can go out on a limb and really personalize your favorite fighters.

In the customization mode, players can outfit their characters on eight different body parts from the head, torso, wrists and down to the feet. This makes for some truly unique looks to the point that it’s possible to fight with two of the same characters with distinctions far beyond shades and colors.

The Dojo mode is a comprehensive training program which allows you to go deeper than other fighting game practice modes ever have before. This is perfect for honing those skills to pull off combos which require a lot of timing and finesse to pull off.

The only big thing really missing in the features is an online mode that will allow players to take advantage of the PS3’s hardware and take their aggression against other players across America. There are no leaderboards and no way of telling how good you are if you’re not playing with other people. Sega says they cut out the online mode because they didn’t want to ruin the fighting experience with lag but players seem to think otherwise. Unless you have a lot of friends going over and playing with you on versus node, you won’t find a worthy  cha;;enge by the time you’ve figured out the AI.

    

Went the distance

Overall, Virtua Fighter 4 is an excellent fighting game that succeeds in everything that it wanted to pull off in this omstallment.The audiovisual presentation is off the hook, the action is perfectly balanced, fun and complex, plus there are a lot of solid modes to keep you entertained. The only stumbling point is the lack of an online mode but when you really think about it, is a very forgivable ommmission given how well-played and addictive this title is. We’re not saying that it wouldn’t have been good. By all means, it would have been the bomb, but even with that shortcoming Virtua Fighter 5 is still arguably the best fighting game of the next-gen class.