Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

Virtua Fighter 5

1. Official Site
2. Platform: ps3
3. Publisher: Sega
4. Developer: Sega AM2
5. Release Date: 02/20/07
6. Genre: Fighting

by Keith Schleicher

When Virtua Fighter premiered in 1993, it was a step in the new direction…or rather a new dimension.  While other fighting games were stuck in two dimensions, Virtua Fighter used wire frames and textures to produce three-dimensional characters.  Eight different characters filled the roster, each with their own unique real world fighting techniques.  The controls were also unique as it featured a kick button, a punch button, and a guard button instead of the “Street Fighter II” configuration of a row of punch buttons and a row of kick buttons.

While others have tried to imitate the series or add weapons to the characters, three dimensional fighters owe a lot to the Virtua Fighter series.  Ever since its introduction, the Virtua Fighter series has been highly regarded as one of the most technical fighting series available.  While the lack of buttons might seem to make give players less options in a move set, each character has many more moves that can be performed in combination with each other.  The number of moves given to each character has been staggering.  Knowing how to perform those moves and when often made the difference between victory and defeat.

While the series has had a bit of a misstep with Virtua Quest, the Virtua Fighter series has stuck to its core with a fighting game and hasn’t tried to create several offshoots diminishing its brand like some other fighting series.  While the Japanese have been able to play Virtua Fighter 5 in arcades since last July, American gamers are now able to experience Virtua Fighter 5 (VF5) in their own homes on the PlayStation 3.

Sega’s AM2 division has always been able to create a great looking game for the hardware given to them, and VF5 is no exception.  The character models all look great and each has their own unique look to them.  Wolf and Jeffry tower over the characters in stature with giant hulking muscles.  El Blaze and some of the female characters are much smaller and petite.  The clothing, like dresses and jackets, on each of the characters sways realistically.  Hair on the characters looks great too.  The animations of all of the fighting moves are smooth, transitioning from one move to another.

The backgrounds for VF5 are all varied.  In one instance you can be fighting inside a metal cage, while another time you might be fighting in the forest, a snow-blown winter landscape, or someone’s private house.  The backgrounds do have a little bit of interaction with them.  One arena has you fighting inside glass walls.  If you hit your opponent hard enough against them, it can cause the glass to break.

A few issues with the graphics do exist.  Sometimes some of the hits don’t look realistic because the hit character is in the middle of a move animation.  Also, some of the characters have look like they have a plastic layer covering them.  While we can’t expect photo-realism, the look of the characters takes you out of the game.

Also, the backgrounds are sparse.  While the backgrounds are varied, there isn’t much going on behind the scenes.  For instance, when fighting in a steel cage in a stadium you never see the crowd.  The lack of activity doesn’t detract from the graphics, but it does feel like there is a little bit missing from the game, especially considering the rest of the game looks so good.

While Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is highly regarded as one of the best fighting games ever created, the choice of J-pop music in the game is probably one of the most questionable decisions made in the gaming industry.  Fortunately, VF5 doesn’t make that same mistake.  The main music drives forward with guitars.  In between levels an ominous sound rings which makes you wonder what might be coming up in the next stage.  Each level has its own soundtrack that feels appropriate for the stage.

Before you fight, the characters like to talk a little smack talk to each other.  Most of the characters have voices that match their look, and the lip-syncing is masterfully done.  However, some of the voice acting does seem to be a bit over the top and doesn’t match the character.  This is easily forgivable though since you aren’t expecting the height of voice acting when playing a fighting game, so this is a minor annoyance.

Each of the attacks audibly lets you feel the blow.  Kicks and punches blast with a mighty crash.  The more powerful the attack, the louder the sound made.  The audio cues help immensely since you don't have any force feedback giving you any indication of the blows you are receiving.

The control system shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has played a game in the VF series before, especially Virtua Fighter 4 or VF4: Evolution.  Controlling your character is done with the D-pad.  Kicking is done with the Circle button.  Punching can be thrown with either the X or the Triangle button.  Using Square lets you guard against hits.  If you use the Square, Triangle, and Circle configuration, it’s almost like using the key configuration from the Virtua Fighter arcade machine.  The L1, L2, R1, and R2 buttons are each assigned a button combination, making the special moves a bit easier to perform, although some might consider that cheating or not in the spirit of the VF series since you can’t use those combinations in the arcade.

Fighting games generally include a move list that shows the special moves of each of the characters.  While the move list in some fighting games is fairly limited, the listing for each character in VF5 is quite extensive.  The text for each move in the manual is small.  You had better get your reading glasses for it.

Response time for the characters is precise.  Since VF5 is heavily dependent on timing, the controls are crucial.  You can button-mash with some success, but performing special moves really separates the men from the boys.  There can be times when the controls are frustrating because of the number of frames some certain moves need and you don’t feel like the controller is responding, but learning the timing of your special moves is required to become competent in fighting.

Finally, you can’t actually use the analog stick for movement.  You are required to move using the D-pad.  While the D-pad is better designed than some other console controllers, having the option to choose which one the player wants to use for movement would be preferable.

The Arcade Mode is the main portion of the game.  The story behind VF5 has something to do with the Fifth World Fighting Tournament.  Some fighters are there for their own personal glory, some are there because of some kind of revenge against one of the other fighters, and some are there to fight against J6, the six global corporations running the Fifth World Fighting Tournament.  However, when you are talking about the story in a fighting game, you know that they rarely make sense and they really don’t matter.  There isn’t any sense of story during the fighting.  You’ll hear a little smack talk between the fighters, but there doesn’t seem to be any relevance to the story.

In the Arcade Mode, you choose a character and fight through a series of seven opponents.  Each of the fights gets progressively more difficult as you successfully beat your opponents.  The opponents you face aren’t always the same, but there doesn’t seem to be any real logic behind who you fight against and the order of the characters you fight.  You also get unlimited continues through this mode, so if you have trouble with an opponent you can continue to attempt to defeat that fighter until you are successful.  Unfortunately, every time that you rematch an opponent you have to wait for the level to load again.  Even if you have done the initial install of VF5, the loading of the levels can take longer than what should be considered acceptable.  This is really disappointing considering the fact that Dead or Alive 4 on the Xbox 360 lets you play a rematch instantly against your opponent.

VF5 features seventeen different characters to fight as.  Bigger, more muscular characters are slower but have more powerful attacks.  Smaller characters don’t have the same strength, but make up for it with quickness.  While the characters do have some similarities with each other, each of them features their own unique fighting style that complements their fighting strengths.  Styles range from Shaolin Kung-Fu, Aiki Ju-Jutsu, Judo, Kickboxing, and Lucha Libre wrestling.  The movements of the fighters mimic these different fighting styles so well that if you know these styles you’ll be able to pick out specific moves.  Each character is so specific that you won’t mistake one character for another.  There are two new characters in the game, so many of the characters will feel familiar if you've played VF4 or VF4: Evolution.  It would have been nice to see a bit more of a shakeup in the character selection.

Anyone who has played a game in the Virtua Fighter series knows that the character move list is loaded with a wide variety of moves.  It seems that the move list has even been expanded more with VF5.  Taking a look at the number of moves for each character is staggering.  While the booklet contains all of the moves for each character, you can pause the action and take a look at the command list for your character on the screen.

VF5 features the same way to win a match as most other fighters.  The simplest way is to K.O. your opponent by depleting your opponent’s health bar.  A Ring Out means that you have knocked your opponent out of the ring, no matter who has more health at that point in time.  If the time runs out, the character with the most health wins the round.  If both players end the round with the same amount of health, the match results in a draw.

VF5 is a game that does give enough accessibility to newcomers that they can play the game and have a certain degree of success with button-mashing.  However, button-mashing will only get you so far in VF5.  Knowing the move set of each character and performing the correct moves at the appropriate time truly leads to success in the matches.  Once you start experimenting with the different characters and perform some of the more advanced moves, you’ll notice how much better your results are.  While this doesn’t necessarily mean that newcomers to fighting games won’t enjoy VF5, those who have time to devote to the different characters will find a more satisfying experience.

VF5 does feature a Dojo where you can learn moves and improve your skills.  In the Dojo you can go through Command Training.  Here you are given a specific move to perform.  If you perform the command correctly, a new skill appears on the screen with a new command set.  A Time Attack mode challenges you to see how many commands you can perform within a set amount of time.  You can also do free training in the Dojo where you select a character and a sparring partner.  Once you have these selected you can work on whatever moves you want to.

The Quest Mode has you fight against players in the arcade to win local tournaments and increase your rank to participate in the world tournament.  Once you have selected a character you start out on a map screen and move to an arcade or an Event Square.  Once your character is in position, you hit X to enter it.  At an arcade you can play against one of three VF5 opponents or participate in tournaments.  Local Tournaments are held in arcades and have a smaller scale of participation.  These are held on a regular basis but you are only given one shot at them.  Official Tournaments are announced and are held in Event Areas.  To clear the tournament you need to place in the top three.  You can try to clear Official Tournaments as many times as you want.  Your Official Ranking is determined by the number of matches you win.  You can lose experience points and drop your ranking by losing matches against opponents.  Occasionally Item Battles occur in this mode as well.  You can fight for items, money, or an orb.  Orbs can be used to fill an Orb Disc.  Orb Discs have seven holes that can be filled by an orb.  Once the orb is filled a specific reward is given and the Orb Disc disappears.  You need to have an Orb Disc for orbs to appear.  Through this mode there are a large number of items you can collect and you can customize your character with the items collected.

Each character in VF5 has so many moves that it would take a long time for anyone to get through mastering a single character.  With seventeen characters, you won’t get through this game quickly.  With the Quest mode to collect new items and a Dojo to practice your skills, there’s enough game for any fighting fan in the single-player portion of the game.

VF5 does have a multi-player component.  Unfortunately it requires a second controller and a buddy willing to get their butt kicked by you.  There is no online gameplay for VF5.  There is some disappointment with the fact that you won’t be able to play against others online, but because of the precision of the game, the developers felt that developing netcode fast enough for this isn’t possible, especially with any kind of lag.  It would have been nice to have some kind of online integration with VF5.  Maybe we’ll see some kind of implementation in the Xbox 360 version.

While some might feel that Virtua Fighter 5 is more of the same, there is no denying that Sega has always been ahead of the curve within the fighting genre.  While some fighters try to blow you away with the number of characters or some other new gimmick, VF5 brings a high caliber fighter with more substance than most other games in the genre.  Calling VF5 an evolution over VF4: Evolution could not be considered an insult considering the excellence of the prior game.

VF5 is the only new fighting game currently available for the PS3, and it certainly is one the premiere titles currently available for the PS3.  If you are currently looking for a title to show what the PS3 is capable of, VF5 certainly fits the bill.

Gaming Trend Score

90

1. Graphics: 90
2. Audio: 88
3. Controls: 90
4. Gameplay: 93
5. Value/Replay: 88
6. OVERALL:90