E3 '07: Virtua Fighter 5 Hands-On

Surprise! Virtua Fighter 5 on the Xbox 360 looks a lot like it did on the PlayStation 3. Plays like it too. Oh, except it has online play. And online leaderboards. But other than that, our time spent with the game at E3 2007 reminded us very much of its PS3 counterpart. And that's a good thing.

So, for the sake of immediate disclosure, no, online play was not on display in the build of VF5 at E3. However, we did get a look at what some of the leaderboard action was all about. Many of the leaderboards will be tied into the various offline modes in the game. Quest mode has its own leaderboard, as does command time attack, which is a mode where you're presented with a series of commands to perform, like a specific series of attacks or a combo. Every time you properly pull off a series of commands, a new one pops up. The goal is to get through all the commands as quickly as possible. There's also a score attack mode, which is a series of fights in a traditional arcade path. You get three choices for paths, and your score at the end of the path determines your place on the leaderboards.

In terms of other content exclusive to the Xbox 360, there's not very much. This version is based on the most recent update of the arcade game, so some characters will have a few new costumes. Otherwise, this is very much the same game you may or may not remember from the PlayStation 3. The gameplay is still a great deal of fun, especially with the new licensed Hori stick that was hooked up at the demo station. Graphically, the game looks very much on par with the PS3 game. The Sega rep we spoke to stated that this version looked a bit smoother in terms of antialiasing, but otherwise, the two should be practically identical.

Despite the inability to try the online mode, the Xbox 360 version of Virtua Fighter 5 looks very sharp. We'll be sure to bring you more on the game between now and its release later this year.