Fighting games undoubtly peaked in the early 1990s. Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat were all the rage. However, there was a lesser known series for the 32X called Virtua Fighter. Now that Sega's gone 3rd party, we can play it on the PS2. The game some things very well, an it fails miserably in some areas. VF4E succeds in being a graphical pleasure. Everything looks very realistic, from the fluid character movements to the way wooden boards break. There's even a level where you're fighting in water, and the reflections match up with what's happening perfectly. It's also got a great fighting engine going for it. There are many similarities between Virtua Fighter and Tekken, but the AI isn't one of them. The computer is never cheap of unfair. It's just skilled, so when you loose a fight, it's no one's fault but your own. The sound, for the most part, is also worth taking note of. There are amazing grunts and screams, and the music is amazing. The least notable way that VF4E succeds is in it's options. You can choose to choose which order you fight you're enemies in, and even change the menu backgrounds. There are also a couple of other features that you don'y have to unlock. The coolest one is by far the mode that lets you play as the old-school style characters. Turn it on, and it'll look like you're playing VF2. The character, battlegrounds and even the health bars look like the older games. Now for the problems: The announcer really pisses me off. Mabey I'm just too picky, but after hearing some exceptional voices in games like Tekken 3 and the MK series, hearing some nerdy sounding guy say "Ready? Go!" is pretty disapointing. He really got on my nerves verry quickly. You'll also come across problems with the difficulty. Most of the stages have some sort of a ring out, and that makes the battles just a little bit to easy. I've litterally gone about 7 battles in a row, winning every time because of the ROs. By far the biggest problem with the game is getting up after you fall. You have to press 3 buttons all at one to stand up. So you either have to do some awkard button pressing, or wait the 8 seconds while you're character is just lying there motionless. The only other real problem is the button layout. For some reason, you have 2 punch buttons, and only 1 kick button. The shoulder buttons are used for special attacks. The problem is, I always found my self pressing the black button expecting to attack. You can change it in the options, but there's not really another place to put it. So what's the final word? Virtua Fighter 4 is superior to any Tekken or Soul Calibur, but it doesn't interest me as much as the MK series does. If you don't like the gore from Mortal Kombat, then you'll deffinately fing thid worth picking up.
Other Helpful Reviews for Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution
VF4 Evolution is a good fighting game, no doupt. Its fighting engine is great, complex and hard, very hard to master. In order to beat the toughest oppoents in the game you must be some sort of freak because the opponent... Read Full Review
There is only one way to start this review... and that's by telling you that AM2 should have its own religion. VF4: Evo improved every aspect that made VF4 great. The Graphics are sharper and more detailed. The Music, ... Read Full Review
