The great arcade beat-'em-up lands on PS2, and gives us a handful of knockout surprises.
User Rating: 9.3 | Virtua Fighter 4 PS2
The death of Dreamcast has left PS2 owners with the advantage of being able to play Virtua Fighter 4. It's good news because the newest addition to the Virtua Fighter series, quite simply, is the finest yet. For those unfortunate ones who have not played the Virtua Fighter games in the arcades, or on a Sega console. It's the combat system that makes people play this classic series from Yu Suzuki. Perfection Based around three buttons (Punch, Kick and Block), Virtua Fighter is all about timing. The controls give a realistic feeling of kicking someones ass in true martial arts style. Moves must be learnt and practiced to become a Virtua Fighter master. Imagine the DOA series as a game of drafts, and Virtua Fighter 4 as a chess session, and you'll start to grasp the complexity of sparring VF-style. Sega Chic Playing a Virtua Fighter game on PS2 may seem strange to some but, just seconds in, you'll see that Sega have worked wonders. From the moment Akira and familiar faces Jacky, Sarah and Wolf start fighting, you can tell that VF4 is one of the best looking fighters on PS2. Look at the crisp 3D enviroments - as perfectly formed as their arcade counterparts. This is true arcade scrapping action, the best that PS2 has to offer. Virtua Fighter 4 features only 14 characters - which means that you can get to know each one well. From the slow, punch-drunk play of Shun-Di to the fist flurry of muscular newcomer Vanessa Lewis, you'll soon find one to call your own. When you do, you can enter a Player Edit menu and select costume colours, saving the details to your memory card. In another addition to the arcade version, the Kumite mode allows you to build your skills, and rewards you with Shenmue-style toy trinkets, such as treasure chests. Adding loads to the traditionally undernourished one-player game. A Training mode (with a staggering amount of detail) is also available. And the Command mode teaches you all the attacks, starting with a single punch. For the dojo master, the Trial mode includes a series of trick tutorials. The Versus games add further longevity to a comprehensive single-player fighter. And, stunning as DOA3 looks, in gameplay terms VF4 beats it hands down and sets the benchmark for what is expected from future beat-'em-ups. Quite simply, Virtua Fighter 4 is the PS2's greatest fighter, and you have to play it.
