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Review: Virtua Fighter 5 (PS3)

by Warren on April 19th, 2007

AM2 and Yu Suzuki’s famed Virtua Fighter series has been the pinnicle of fighting games for a good while, garnering more acclaim then almost any fighting game along the way. Perhaps Virtua Fighter 5 changes all that, though…I believe this is the first Virtua Fighter game to not have Yu Suzuki’s direct involvement (I may be wrong about that), plus at this point it’s only a PS3 exclusive. Does Virtua Fighter 5 suffer without Suzuki’s involvement? Is it worth buying a Playstation 3 for? Can you keep up with Lion’s speed!? No frankly, you can’t keep up with Lion’s speed, but keep reading for the answer to other pressing questions.

First off, I’d like to apologize for the delay in getting my hands on a copy of this game to review. I had intended to simply rent the game on PS3, then purchase it later for Xbox 360. This changed when I found a nice deal on the PS3 version, but it was of course, through Ebay. You know how Ebay goes. So the review is about a month late, but it was a game worth waiting for.

Anyone who has been a long time fan of the series, particularly PS2’s Virtua Fighter 4, will find themselves right at home. This works against the title a bit, on one hand you’ll be able to jump right in but on the other you may be expecting something more out of the game. Don’t worry, though, the game is well worth the price, even if it may be a little familiar.

As most fans are aware, each iteration of Virtua Fighter adds two new playable characters. Not that it matters, because anyone not playing exclusively as Lion is missing the entire point of the series and is generally a doodie head, but joining the roster this time around are the Lucha libre styled El Blaze (think Pro-Wrestling’s Rey Mysterio) and Eileen, trained in monkey Kung-Fu style. The addition of these two bring the roster of fighters to 18 (counting the unlockable boss, Dural.) While I appreciate the new additions, I can’t help but wonder why Sega doesn’t bring back Taka-Arashi, the Sumo from Virtua Fighter 3 back or Siba, the ‘Virtua Fighter that wasn’t’ from Fighters Megamix. Maybe next game?

Each of the 18 characters is well animated, beautifully detailed and rendered in up to 720p resolution. Stages, ranging from a rainy New York City street, to a gym, to a little town with a view of the aurora borealis (and for Shenmue fans, a view of a bar titled MJQ…) all look just as impressive. In fact, Virtua Fighter 5 may just be not only the best looking fighting game yet this generation, but the best looking game this generation period. We’re treated to just about every graphical effect possible and it’s all extremely well done.

Control wise, the game is brilliant. Tight and responsive as usual, with a level of depth unheard of with a mere 3-button system. One small gripe is that game forces D-Pad use, when at times I would like to use the analog stick (for full circle movements) and I can find no way to change it. Not much of a problem, because the PS3 D-Pad is surprisingly well suited for the game, but any Virtua Fighter nut might want to look into getting the Hori Joystick for PS3.

I wasn’t expecting much from the music, as this has been the worst aspect of Virtua Fighter titles in the past, but I was surprised to hear some passable music for a change. Nothing incredible, but a few of the tunes are nice. A step up from before. Where the sound hasn’t changed, however, is the Voice Acting and sound effects. Love it or hate it, the dulled sound quality is a series trademark. So, not only are we treated to cheesy kung-fu meat slapper punchs…they’re muffled meat slapper punches. If you were to close your eyes and listen to the game you’d swear it was from 1993.

Which leads me to voice acting. I’d like to commend AM2 for not only keeping the voice sample quality the same as it was 14 years ago, I even think they kept the original voice actors as well! Sure, some people hate the bad taunts, but it’s a lot of the charm of the Virtua Fighter series for me, so I’d actually be mad if they “fixed” it. Oh, don’t forget to put on the awesome match commentary. Without the cheesy voice acting, how else would we know that Lion is “twice the man he used to be”?

The majority of play comes from Quest Mode, which is a new version of Kumite mode from Virtua Fighter 4. This mode is all about unlocking new items for your fighter while working your way up the ranks by defeating CPU controlled opponents. You can customize your characters name, motto, emblem and costume. My character is currently a 5th Dan Lion, with 147 Wins and no losses. The number of unlockable items has been significantly beefed out from VF4 (maybe not VF4: Evolution, though) so, this mode will definitely hold your attention when you can’t play with a buddy.

Fan’s expecting online play (even in the Xbox 360 Version coming up) will be disappointed to know that there is absolutely no online component to the title at all. No online VS, no replay trading…nothing. This may be a downer for most folks, but I knew it wasn’t included, plus I can’t play online in the first place, so I’m not deducting any points for it.

This isn’t a radical change for the series, in fact, you could fault it for not doing much to change things up, but, the game has it where it counts: Great gameplay. You’ll quickly forget the lack of online play, which is the only real downside to the game, as soon as you start up Quest mode. The best aspect of Virtua Fighter remains, this is still anyones game. Casual fan’s will have little trouble picking up the game and playing for hours at a time and hardcore fighting game fans will be able to appreciate the depth of the games fighting system.

To say Virtua Fighter 5 is the best 3D Fighter so far this generation would be a little redundant, as it’s one of two 3D Fighting games so far and the other one is DOA.(*rimshot*) But, any Virtua Fighter fan or PS3 owner still on the fence with VF5 should promptly hop off the fence and go buy it. Casual fans or Xbox 360 owners might want to wait until it hit’s Xbox 360 later this summer, but what ever system you own, make sure you pick up Virtua Fighter 5.

“Good job, Champion.” 9/10

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POSTED IN: Review, Sony PlayStation 3