Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown Review - Pie Reviews

[Elliot]

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown is a 3D fighting game developed and published by Sega, and is part of the long-running and successful Virtua Fighter series. It's a re-release of Virtua Fighter 5, which saw a release on the PS3 more than five years before this version, shortly after the launch of the PS3, but even this version of the game is two years old, having come out in Japanese arcades in the summer of 2010. So, it's an old game based on an older game from an old series. This could, of course, mean two things - either it's been honed to perfection over the years, or it's just a dated cash-in by Sega, and everything rides on this distinction.

Writing this review presents a rather interesting problem for me, though - as much as I love playing fighting games, I feel as though it's difficult to review them properly. Who do you write the review for, the extreme fans who understand the gameplay so well that they're knee-deep in the subtlest of its hidden mechanics or the casual observer who's up for a bit of fun, giving their friends a good kicking? Despite the fact that I've sampled the franchise several times over the years (I've played the Saturn version of Virtua Fighter and the Dreamcast version of Virtua Fighter 3TB), I don't feel nearly qualified enough to go into depth about the innards of this game, or this series, so if you're a Virtua Fighter nut, I apologise in advance for any unintentional slights I may make against the game. For the crowd who are like me - interested in the mechanics of fighting games, but not up to scratch with the true elites (the hobbyist enthusiast), I shall try to give you an idea of where I think the game lies in the fighting game landscape.

The game offers several modes of play, including the obligatory arcade mode, a series of fights against opponents that ends in a fight against a special opponent (who you can unlock and play as if you beat), a license challenge mode that will task you with meeting certain criteria during fights to advance and improve your rank, a tutorial mode that's pretty comprehensive and will get you fairly familiar with the mechanics of the game, and of course local and online play so you can play with friends and strangers either on your couch or around the world.

I do have a couple of gripes against the game in this regard, however. There's one mode that you can't play unless you fork out for all the character customisation packs, and I see no reason, after all this time, why the DLC wouldn't just come with the game. Selling it separately seems like quite a cash grab, which is a shame. Still, for what the game offers, it's not bad value.

Most disappointingly, there are no stories for the characters - no endings for Arcade, no proper Story mode, nothing of the sort. There's a bunch of people who fight, but you never learn their motivations, which, given I know that plenty of people play fighting games for the story as well as the action (myself partly included), is quite a blow.

This online mode, which is new to this edition of the game, is likely reason enough to replace (or supplement) the copy of Virtua Fighter 5 you may have lying around from back in the day. The ranked mode is very slick, and in my mind, quite reminiscent of the online system of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, where each fighter has their own rank which will advance the more you use them, and advance more rapidly if you perform well in fights and win. It gives you a nice indicator of how you compare overall to the rest of the world, as well as how proficient you are with each of the characters when fighting against other humanoids. Player matches are here too, with private slots for fighting against friends, adjustable round counts and time limits, etc, but there doesn't seem to be any way to track stats for these, which is a shame. Compared to games like BlazBlue, the stat tracking almsot nonexistent, which is a huge shame. There was absolutely no lag or disconnects to be found when I was playing against global opponents, so the netcode seems fairly sturdy.

The range of fighters available to you is fairly broad - there are now 20 characters to play with, (up from 18 in the original PS3 release), with 17 characters returning from previous games and 3 new to the series. The characters all seem pleasantly varied in their fighting styles, though they're not so distinct as you might expect from series such as BlazBlue, as they have to obey the laws of nature and other petty restrictions on their movements. Movement and attacks feel weighty and immediate, and it's very satisfying to boot your opponent in the chest and watch them topple backwards out of the arena.

The gameplay, if I were to compare it to another series, feels more like Tekken than anything else, but slightly more technical. One very interesting thing to note is that there are only three buttons used in the fighting - guard, kick and punch, with throws and other such moves being mapped to combinations of these buttons (though these combinations are, in turn, mapped to buttons on the PS3's controller). It makes for a rather interesting experience compared to Tekken's four buttons and Street Fighter's ridiculous six. This, in turn, makes it very accessible to newcomers, who will soon be able to beat the AI on the easier difficulties after a bit of practice, though of course the complex underlying systems are still there to be learned and mastered should one wish to become acquainted with them.

Graphically, the game shows its age. The character models look sharp but everything else looks like a bit of a mess - not so bad as to detract from the game when your attention is raptly focused on the two people duking it out, but if you look beyond them to the backgrounds and such, it's not a pretty sight. Still, the game runs at a flawless framerate, and it's doubtful that anyone would play the game looking for a visual spectacle. The art style is pretty much exactly what you would expect it to be - there are realistic looking people, and the various stages and such that you'd expect to see. The animation on the fighters seems to be excellent, and everything flows together very nicely. Oh, yes, and there's sound too, I suppose, though it left no impression on me whatsoever. Again, one does not go into a fighting game anticipating excellent sound design.

So, for the budget price tag (and the fact that at the time of writing, it's free with Playstation Plus in Europe), is it worth a look-in if you're a fan of fighting games? Absolutely! Is it worth a look-in if you've never really tried fighting games before but want to have a look at what the fuss is about? Probably, but make sure this isn't your only sampling, as there's no fighting game that's truly representative of the genre. Is it worth picking up if you're a Virtua Fighter fan already? I don't feel it's my place to say, but I can leave you all, my dear readers, with the experience I had with the game, which was somewhat brief but mostly positive. I enjoyed my time with this game, and I hope you do too.

[Jarred_450]

Nice review. I don't particularly care for fighting games, and haven't played one since Tekken 2 for the PS1. But I was almost .. this close.. to downloading this, especially since it was free.

[snakebit10]

Other then playing a little of Tekken 6 last summer I like Oscar have not playe a lot of fighting games in a long time. I usualy don't do very well with them even if they are considered easy like Tekken 6. I did how ever down load this since it was free and I am glad I did. It is not overly difficult and Have picked up on it fairly quick.

My lack of skills did show while playing online though. Even though it is not required to win matches online for the trophies I still wanted to do well. Out of the ten I won 3 or 4 of the matches.

[DanielVT]

I really could care less about Japanese games and fighting games in general, but since this was one of the free 12 games for PS Plus, and the 100% is ridiculously easy, I might as well give it a go through. What's the worst that can happen??? lol Great review as always, Pie!!!

[Elliot]

Nice review. I don't particularly care for fighting games, and haven't played one since Tekken 2 for the PS1. But I was almost .. this close.. to downloading this, especially since it was free.

I do love Tekken 2. I'm surprised you didn't bite the bullet given it was $0!

Other then playing a little of Tekken 6 last summer I like Oscar have not playe a lot of fighting games in a long time. I usualy don't do very well with them even if they are considered easy like Tekken 6. I did how ever down load this since it was free and I am glad I did. It is not overly difficult and Have picked up on it fairly quick.

My lack of skills did show while playing online though. Even though it is not required to win matches online for the trophies I still wanted to do well. Out of the ten I won 3 or 4 of the matches.

A 30-40% win rate isn't too shoddy, especially seeing as there will be people out there that have been playing the game since 2006.

I really could care less about Japanese games and fighting games in general, but since this was one of the free 12 games for PS Plus, and the 100% is ridiculously easy, I might as well give it a go through. What's the worst that can happen??? lol Great review as always, Pie!!!

Thank you kindly. I did enjoy seeing this game on top of the PSNP "most played" list when it was made free. People love their free, easy 100%s. ^__^

[truth320]

This review is very well written. Congratualtions that is actually the best one ive seen

[playdemos1]

I only think the game is poor, i played PS2 tekken 5, and i think was better

[Elliot]

I only think the game is poor, i played PS2 tekken 5, and i think was better

They're completely different in terms of fighting engines - Tekken is (and really, I don't care if I offend Tekken fans with this) a much more casual fighting game than this. That's not a bad thing - super technical fighting games certainly aren't for everybody, and I don't blame anyone for not liking them, but that being said, Virtua Fighter 5 is a pretty proficient technical fighter on its own merits.

 

Though, if you're going to pick a Tekken to compare it to, at least it wasn't Tekken 6. Ech, that game...

[zorry777]

it is still a nice game