| Author | Review |
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JoeCool7835
135,606
TA Score for this game: 1,599
Posted on 10 December 10 at 02:04 |
This review has 19 positive votes and 2 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Since 1995, the 3D fighting game community was split between loyalty to two games series: Tekken and Virtua Fighter. Back then, which one you played depended on which console you owned. If you had the Sega Saturn, you had Virtua Fighter. If you had the Sony PlayStation, you had Tekken. That was the way it was until Sega bowed out of the hardware business. Next thing I knew, Tekken 5 was duking it out with Virtua Fighter 4 on the PS2! Now, the 360 is home to both Tekken 6 and Virtua Fighter 5. I'll talk about Tekken 6 in a later review, but, now, let's look at Virtua Fighter 5.
The PS3 version floored the world with its steller visuals, and the 360 is definitely no slouch there. Sure, it doesn't have crazy pyrotechnics with each hit, but the impacts look so real, the game didn't need them. That's always been the buzz word with the VF series: "real". The character roster is smaller than most fighters, but, on the flipside, unlike other games that use the same style with multiple fighters, with VF5, each fighter is 100% unique. Each fighting style is perfectly modeled and complex as hell. It will take a LONG time to master just one character's move list.
The Arcade, Training, and VS modes are the standard stuff. The big unique mode is the Quest mode which sees you taking a single character from Arcade to Arcade challenging the locals and entering tournaments. It's a much different take on a quest. (Well, what do you expect from Sega?)
The 360 version released a year after the PS3 version, and it was worth the wait because of one major addition: XBOX LIVE PLAY!!! Now, Americans get the chance to get schooled by the Japanese players who took the Virtua Fighter courses (yeah, those REALLY exist!) without the humiliation of entering a public tournament. There are Leaderboards for Arcade and Training and VF.TV for watching ongoing matches. The online offerings are slim, but the fact that the game is, for the most part, lag-free, it kicks ass!
All of the Achievements can be done in single-player, and most are meant for insane completionists, including beating ALL opponents in each of the Quest arcades and earning the highest rank with one fighter. It's a shame that the online play didn't factor into the Achievements since that was the big thing the 360 version had over the PS3.
Virtua Fighter 5 is a masterwork of fighting game design. It is one of the only fighting games where flailing gets you nowhere and where practice and dedication reward in spades. Pick it up, and give me a shout-out if you want a match! 
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