Virtua Fighter 5

The Virtua Fighter series has been Sega AM2's crown achievement. The first game not only had at its time the most advanced graphics (of course, they were quickly outdated soon after), but it was the first 3D fighter. And it made quite a difference from other popular fighters at the time, like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. It wasn't just being 3D, it was the amount of strategy and real world martial arts replicated. Virtua-ly (yes, I'll be making this pun throught, deal with it) no button mashing in sight, you'd be surprised and punished as you'd be in deep  without knowing what you're doing.

5 installments later, this still holds up, building on its predecessors, and with a total of 18 characters (17 including the final boss, Dural). With a superb and balanced fighting system, the only problems in sight are lack of features and, sadly, little appeal for those unfamiliar with this amazing game, pretty much making this game one for the fans.

The lack of appeal has actually been the problem that more "casual" fighting fans seem to have with the entire series, and that it is too complex and confusing. I'll get to the debunking and criticisms later, so now, what this game DOES have:

If you were looking at a Virtua Fighter arcade machine, you'd notice how simple in appearance the controls are. Usually, you'd come across 4, 6 button fighters. This one, has a ball top joystick and 3 buttons. Guard, Punch, and Kick (in the order from left to right). On the PS3 (or 360, depending on your version) controller, you obviously have a bunch of buttons, so you'll need to see where the inputs are mapped and where you want them. The great thing about it is that not only do you have the basic inputs that can be remapped anywhere, but you also have inputs that are basically a combination of either buttons, that can be accessed easily with one button push. For example, you can have a button that has the same function as pressing the punch and kick buttons, or kick and guard, or punch and guard (which activates grabs and throws) or all three. This is definetely help since the game is originally made for arcades. But of course, fighting game fans would settle for no less than to get an arcade stick. And that is true. You want to have the best performance playing a fighting game, you need an arcade stick. Plain and simple.

Now, like any arcade fighter you have, you guessed it, and arcade mode. One thing that's great is that you automatically have all the characters unlocked (save for the boss character, but you can't really use her in half of the playable modes). You can use series mainstays like Akira, Jacky, Pai, Sarah, and many others. There's no Taka-Arashi (or whatever that sumo wrestler's name was), since AM2 had trouble getting him to work with the game's physics, but not only do you have just about everyone else from past games, you got two new characters. Eileen, a young chinese girl who specializes in Monkey Kung-Fu. And El Blaze, a lucha libre wrestler who's design is noticeably inspired by real life wrestler Rey Mysterio. These are good additions to the rosters, as it expands the amount of martial arts and fighting styles already present in the game.

Once you've selected your character (either by making a profile or not), you'll fight against six of the other characters before going up against the end boss, Dural. Now, given this is an arcade styled game, if you were playing this on the cabinet, you'd have to pay more coins if you wanted to continue. Obviously, you can choose that on the console version, without spending any pocket change. You can do that for any of the fights, except for Dural. Now, I'm actually new to playing Virtua Fighter, and I've only researched the entire series. However, given that the characters are well balanced, I have to question whether or not Dural was purposfully made unbalanced just for the sake of being an arcade end boss. Even on the easiest difficulty she's a pain. You can unlock her for play if you beat the arcade mode with every character. Yeah, good luck with that.

There is another single player mode, that is Dural-free thankfully, called Quest Mode. The "quest" you say? Become the best arcade player EVAR! Yeah, not against real people, but given that arcades are still (to an extent) going on in Japan, this mode is supposed to give players and idea and feel of what it's like to travel from arcade to arcade, challenging other players and competing in tournaments, all to raise you're rank and win prizes. Yes, it is computer players, but it's alright. Off the bat, you have access to any arcade, including a stadium where official tournaments take place. Thankfully, you won't be completely lost as each arcade has a description telling you what kind of players occupy the area, either novice, intermediate, or expert players. Once you've found an arcade, select one of three units and you'll fight that player. If you win, a challenger will come and fight you. If you lose, you're kicked off the machine. On occasion, tournaments will open up at different arcades, and when your win count is high enough, you'll gain access to an official tournament. You can also win prizes either by fighting random people or by winning tournaments. Either way, playing this mode is pretty much the only you'll find all the unlockables, such as emblems for your profile, and clothing and other things for your character. One thing to make note of, there are no bonuses or increase in stats or any of that stuff when going up in rank. If you win, experience goes up. If you lose, experience goes down, and this affects your rank. That's how it goes.

When you're done playing by yourself, you can go up against another friend in versus mode. Not much else to say other than the self explanatory. It's a versus mode. You fight against another dude, either with your profile specific character or (if you are the visitor) just one of the already existing characters. Also, if my memory serves, Dural can be played in this mode, but not Quest or Arcade.

BUT, you might not be ready for any of the above. Not a problem, just go to the Dojo. The game's training mode, this lets you practice inputting commands and fighting against other characters to practice against. You know, to try and find their weakness and how to avoid falling for their tactics. If you're new to the series, you'll be shocked, maybe overwhelmed, by the amount of moves and attacks available at your disposal. They aren't all required, but if you want to go up against a skilled player (or against more difficult AI apponents in Arcade or Quest mode), you'll need to practice these moves, but until then, the basic commands and inputs do get the job done.

There are a few other modes. VF TV (which let's you watch replays or promo vids), which isn't a whole lot personally, and Customization, which you can also do during Quest mode. It's the same. And there's options, and what game DOESN'T have an options mode.

Now, if there was one thing I could not criticise this game for is, probably, the gameplay. There's almost virtua-ly (see, I did it again) no noticeable flaws. I say "almost" since I haven't played it as much as the fans have, so they might've found some problems, maybe some moves that shouldn't be as strong, I don't know. I DO know that AM2 really did put their effor in giving players, no matter what character, a fair chance. This is definetely the most balanced fighter I've played.

The graphics are also good too, not only are there good details in the characters and backgrounds, but stuff like water (in Eileen's stage) and snow effects (in Wolf's stage) are excellent. Water ripples where the player moves, and snow gets cleared as you go. It's those nice little touches that push the experience a little farther.

I'll leave this up to you to decide, but the sound design is as Sega as ever. There are the cheesy guitar riffs. There's the loud, overly excited (and lame) commentary, and there are the bad english voices for the fighters. Given that the voices are barely good when done by Sega, and they always have a thing for cheesy guitar riffs, I kinda like it. I guess that's part of it's charm, since the dialog is the kind that is so bad, you sort of can't help but laugh. Again, I'll leave that up to you decide.

What I CAN criticise this game for is that, it's not good at catching people's eyes. The average person whose unfamiliar with the series would call the game "slow" and "boring" when seeing it in action. What I think personally, is that nothing flashy is happening, and that's what turns people off. There's no fireballs, flash kicks, fatalities, none of those other crazy, over the top moves or hooks you see in other games. But really, what's flashy about reality? Given that this game replicates real martial arts, yeah, that WOULD be boring to you. Even if you are into Virtua Fighter, you'd know, that Dural is the most BORING and UNINTERESTING end boss in any arcade game. It's not the moves and attacks I'm talking about, she doesn't look interesting at all. It's just a grey stone/metallic/whatever figure of a naked woman with no hair. Uninteresting

The other piece of criticism is how lacking it feels in features. In the PS3's case (which I'm saying this for other people's sake, not mine), it's the lack of any online mode. This is where Japanese style of design doesn't bode well with a western audience. In Japan, top players would buy the home addition of the game so they could practice. The real competition took place infront of crowds at arcades. That's not the case around the rest of the world. With arcades Virtua-ly (okay I'll stop now) dead, people want online just to play with their buds when they aren't around. Unless you don't have any close friend, you might get bored if you give up on the Quest mode (no one keeps playing the arcade mode forever). Also, the VF TV mode seems like a waste to me. I don't know, I didn't really use it a whole lot. Also, as good as practicing moves in training mode is, it doesn't prepare you very well as there aren't any sort of lessons or suggestions on what to do in a situation. So, you're still forced to do things on your own.

However, there is one thing, ONE thing, that I will say as I finish this review, in regards to criticism about this game being too complex. This game is only complex as you want it to be. All those moves for that character? Don't worry, you aren't required to know all of them. The fact that you atleast have a handfull of moves that are easy to execute and only three main buttons, this is one of those games that are easy to pick up, but will be a hard challenging road to master them. Depending on how you play it, with another person of your skill level, is where it can shine as its own game. When two pros go at it, its their game. When two noobs play against eachother, its their game. You won't see the fun in this game just by looking at it. You need to play it to see what it is for yourself.

But the more you play, and practice, you will become better, and start to see the genius behind this game. Winning a match is one satisfying feat after another. Heck, mastering this game might take you as long as it would be to master a real martial art. The real fun once you get into it, is striving to become better.

Don't be intimidated. There is as much fun and beauty to be had here.