The Good: Brilliant gameplay, great animations and environments, large amount of replay value.
The Bad: Lame English voice acting (that can be switched to Japanese thankfully), pre historic presentation and a fairly barebones online mode.
Learning Curve: Medium to Hard, 45 min. – 1.5 hrs
Rent or Buy: Must purchase for VF fans and players wishing to get seriously involved in a fighting game, but not easy to pick up and play.
Sega-AM2 (not to be confused with Sega the publisher) has finally brought over the critically acclaimed Virtua Fighter franchise to the 360, and has managed to not only port over a great game, but improve it as well. While the game is geared towards Virtua Fighter enthusiasts, all fans of traditional fighting games should be able to play VF5 and appreciate it’s extremely well crafted and balanced fighting system.
It should be noted that the 360 version of VF5 is based on Version C of the arcade game, meaning that it is slightly tweaked and more balanced than the PS3 version of VF5 that is based on Version B. However, the average player won’t ever notice this while the big VF fans will be skipping down the road while bursting out in song.
VF5 contains 17 completely distinct (both visually and gameplay-wise) fighters. Mastering and unlocking everything for a single fighter will take a large chunk of time on its own, so the roster itself provides a deep layer of replay value. VF5’s gameplay is based off a flawlessly crafted multi-layered combo system. Players will be able to pull off moves ranging from something simple with a few button presses to very complex moves that require perfect timing and dish out a good deal of damage. Thankfully, none of the tiers of the combo system overpower the other. The only problem with VF5 from a gameplay perspective is not due to the game itself, but due to the poor D-Pad design on the default 360 controller. The game is certainly playable with the D-Pad, but sometimes the D-Pad will just be unable to cope with all the action that is going on. However, chances are that fighting game fans will have a third-party joystick lying around either way.
That finger could kill you...
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