The Virtua Fighter series has always been more of a technical fighter than most other fighting games. With an emphasis on hand to hand combat rather than the use of weaponry or crazy projectiles, Virtua Fighter has established a strong following of gamers. Virtua Fighter 4 truly stands above all of the previous games in the series, and perhaps above all other fighting games available on the market. When you load up Virtua Fighter 4, you are treated to numerous gameplay options. Of course, the game features the standard arcade mode, which will pit you against thirteen fighters in an attempt to win the tournament. For those who have grown up playing Tekken, don’t expect to get any CG cinemas offering insight into your character. In fact, Virtua Fighter 4 has absolutely no character development outside of the short descriptions in the manual. But, that’s never been what the series has been about. What the series has been about is technique. In order to truly master Virtua Fighter 4, you must be able to recognize how and where your opponent is going to be attacking. Learning where they are attacking is essential to defending in the game, since you actually have to block high, mid, and low attacks differently. If an opponent is attacking high or right at you, simply hit or hold the block button. But if he decides to go low, you must defend low. This might not sound like that big of a deal, but it adds a lot of depth to the game. A similar method must be used when attacking. Stringing long combos alternating high, mid, and low attacks will be your best bet. Since the game only has a punch, kick, and block button, this makes the game easy to pick up for anyone new to fighting games or the series. Veterans will be the ones learning the game’s abundant amount of moves. The game has an enormous amount of moves and fighting tactics to be mastered. While the arcade mode can be entertaining, the kumite mode is the way to get the most fun out of the game’s single player experience. Kumite mode has you playing through a series of battles trying to go on winning streaks so you can increase your rank. Increasing your rank allows you to get items to customize your characters. The catch is that your opponents will get gradually tougher depending on how well you are doing. If you manage to go on a losing streak, you can actually lose ranks. Of course, what allows this mode to be so interesting is the game’s superb artificial intelligence. The AI really does an outstanding job of playing to your skill level. Never played a fighting game? That’s fine, because the game won’t go too hard on you. A Virtua Fighter master? Prepare yourself for a formidable challenge. The real beauty of the AI, however, is the fact that it is never cheap. You will never feel that the AI knows what you are going to throws next or that it has superhuman abilities. I don’t think I have ever played a fighting game with AI this good. The AI actually plays such an important role in the game that it actually has its own mode. Players can actually teach the AI by either fighting against it showing it various techniques and moves or by saving replays of fights and highlighting specifics tactics for the AI to learn. Teaching the AI is actually quite a nice diversion, and it gives the game something fresh. As I mentioned previously, the game is great for just about anyone, offering a challenge to experts and a plethora of help to newcomers. Besides AI that adapts to the player’s skill level, the game offers three training modes. The command mode teaches players moves and allows them to try and pull them off. Several minutes or even hours in this mode should have you mastering a character’s massive move list. The free training mode allows players to practice freely against an opponent. This allows them to practice their timing and moves against in an actual combat situation. Trial mode is perhaps the most useful to newcomers, because it runs players through all of the basics of being successful in the game. By running through each of these modes, newcomers are sure to develop their skills, which says a lot about the level of detail placed in the training. But no one should expect to master more than a few characters, since each fighter is so vastly different. Several of the game’s characters are actually quite easy for beginners to pick up, but the harder characters are quite tough to master effectively. Since each of the thirteen fighters has their own fighting style, ranging from karate to drunken master, they simply don’t feel the same when you control them. The game’s two new characters, Vanessa and Lei Fei, fit in well, fighting in kickboxing and kung fu styles, respectively. Graphically, Virtua Fighter 4 is an amazing fighting game. While essentially the arenas are all square, a few of them have some very nice touches. One arena has water splashing around, while another allows fighters to realistically make footprints in the snow. Yet another arena’s tiles shatter when a fighter hits the ground hard. Touches like this to the game’s presentation go a long way. However, it is quite obviously that the focus of the game’s graphics is on the fighters, which animate well and look even better. There are flapping clothes and varied skin tones. Add to this the fact that the game features some very stylized combats moves, and you have a very visually impressive game. Since battles in the game are typically fast paced, the game tries to create an adrenaline rush which its music. Unfortunately, none of it is very memorable. The game squeezes in an exciting tune here and there, but overall you are just left wishing for something better. Also, the sounds of the actual combat are fairly forgettable as well. These are the same sounds you have heard before, which aren’t necessarily bad, but they don’t help the game’s sound stand out above the rest. Of course, the game is still best played in versus mode, which is the standard two player bouts that appears in every fighter. However, the game does a lot to try and give the single player quite a bit to do on their own time. With the superb AI, the game gives a challenge to any kind of player. Anyone should be able to pick this game up, which is made possible by the extensive training options and variable AI difficulty. And I recommend just that: if you have any interest whatsoever in the fighting genre, this is one of the best places to start.
Graphics: Great graphics, awsome backgrounds, arenas etc..., great character design, nothing was left behind in this game. Virtua fighter 4 arenas have a simple thing that goes a big way around, in some arenas when y... Read Full Review
I bought this game because I heard about its fame, and now, after I’ve been playing it for a while, I really can’t understand the reason why, according to somebody’s tastes, this beat’em up series is so successful: it ca... Read Full Review
