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Worth Every Penny at Twice the Price: Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution
Date of Review: Oct 21, 2003
The Bottom Line: This game belongs in every PS2 owner's library. It's an instant classic.
When it comes to fighting games, there are five standout series and a bunch of other games that are cool, but not on the same level. Street Fighter, Tekken, Soul Calibur, Dead or Alive and Virtua Fighter are the undisputed heavyweights—it's their world, everyone else just lives in it.
Of those four, choosing a champion is largely a matter of personal preference. Some gamers love the 2D stylings and wild moves of Street Fighter while others are hardcore Tekken fans, and still others prefer the weapon-based fighting of Soul Calibur. There is, simply, no right answer. However, for me personally, one game stands slightly above all of the others—Virtua Fighter.
The latest incarnation of Sega's venerable fighting series is Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. It's a tweaked version of last year's megahit Virtua Fighter 4, released as a greatest hits title despite the fact that it features new characters, some new moves, and cleaner backgrounds. Sega's thrown gamers quite a bone with this release—allowing you to play one of the coolest fighting games around for a measly twenty bucks.
The augmented cast contains two new characters: Goh and Brad. Goh is a specialist in throws and grapples, which makes him more suited for an experienced player who can fight effectively in close quarters. To the novice player, that character will seem mostly ineffective since he has such a limited number of ranged attacks. However, in the hands of a skilled player, he's one of the title's more formidable creations.
Brad is the opposite, a kickboxer-styled character who excels at ranged attacks. His combos are fast and furious, and he's an infinitely more forgiving character to play for the neophyte. He's quick, he hits hard, and he doesn't have to get in too close to other characters to cause extreme damage.
Unlike many fighting games, wherein button-mashing will often earn you a great deal of success (at least until you run into really skilled players or the highest levels of the AI), Virtua Fighter is a fighting fan's game. Lacking the flashy and over-the-top moves of so many games in this genre (you'll not find any fireballs or fatalities here), VF4 goes for a more realistic approach. Attacks are grounded in real world, with each character utilizing a unique and mostly realistic style of fighting. Because of this, there's a great deal of emphasis placed on the regular attacks, blocks, and evades. Rather than trying to fill combo meters and all that other technical stuff, players only concentrate on draining their opponent's health gauge. It's this simplicity that makes the game so compelling.
Don't let this concession to simplicity turn you off, though. Like many simple things, VF4 really has a great deal of depth once you get past the surface. Truly skilled players can destroy an opponent in seconds, becoming a whirling dervish of destruction that is both terrifying and inspiring in the same instance. Mastering the complex controls will take time, but the rewards are more than worth it as a game played between two masters is a thing of beauty. Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution is like poetry in motion when played properly—moves flow into other moves, counters, throws, and evades. It's a dance not unlike the inspired gunplay in Hong Kong action cinema. Once you've seen it, you'll want to keep playing until you can do it yourself.
Many people are probably taking a pass on adding Evolution to their collection since they already own the original. I can understand the logic behind this, but I also think players are best served by owning both.
The inclusion of two new characters is but one selling point for this re-release. Other changes, some major, some not, have been implemented as well.
Cosmetically speaking, the new version looks great. The aliasing issues that were present in the first game have been rectified, and the backgrounds look richer than ever. The game is graphically impressive, rivaling the best the genre has offered to this point.
Evolution also features some new modes of play. The fun but challenging Kumite mode of the original is gone, replaced by an equally fun but less daunting quest mode. In this mode of play, the player will travel to various arcades and fight other fighters for prizes, rankings, and the right to compete in tournaments. This is the flesh and blood of the single-player experience, and it's far more compelling than the single player mode in just about any other game out there. With tons of fights to fight, tournaments to win, and nearly 2,000 unlockable items, players will be fighting in quest mode for some time.
The good thing about this is that the AI will more than justify the time spent questing. Unlike many games, wherein players soon master the skills needed to win and spend the rest of the time in a repetitive quest to unlock stuff, Evolution retains its challenge throughout. The computer-controlled fighters have been modeled after real life VF4 players, and as such come with a variety of different styles and approaches. As players reach higher rankings, the difficulty of the opponents increases as well—and at the highest rankings, the CPU is just as capable of whipping your ass as a skilled human.
When you're tired of just handing out beatdowns to everyone you come across, you can always tackle the quest mode challenges. These run the gamut from simple (win a fight without blocking) to insanely difficult (evading throws and several others). These will keep you busy for some time, as well as teaching you the finer nuances of the game in the process.
And, last but not least, you can always spend time in the dojo training. Evolution comes with a fantastic training mode that will help new players master the basics, and keep old veterans fresh too.
Ultimately, Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution would be a steal at twice the price. To get this kind of classic fighting game for a mere $20 is like an early Christmas present from Sega. If you're into fighting games, owning this is a complete no brainer—you simply must have it. And even if you're not overly into the genre, Evolution does enough things well to be that one game that makes it into your collection even though you don't generally play those kinds of games. This may well be the best fighting game of this generation.
