Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution Review

Here at TVG we're fans of the Virtua Fighter series. Recognising the historical importance of the first title and being such a remarkable Saturn launch title, Chris (the Segaboy that he is), luuurves Virtua Fighter 2. This writer had a soft spot for Virtua Fighter 3tb - the Japanese version, not the scary PAL conversion, with the preview disc for Shenmue, or as it was then Project Berkeley - that came out with the Dreamcast in Japan. Both of us liked Virtua Fighter 4 when it was released last year, but it lacked that something to keep you coming back.<br><br>The original port of VF4 was basically a straight arcade port, done rather hastily and apparently completed within six months of receiving PS2 dev-kits. Whilst this was an impressive feat, there were a couple of side effects. The graphics were too jaggedy - ooh how we love the Dreamcast's oh so crisp video output - lighting effects were lacklustre and the one-player Kumite mode, where you took a character to increase their ranking and gain new clothes and other items to dress them up with. It was enjoyable, but there was no real structure, you just fought, and fought and fought. Not a bad thing, but not a great thing, especially when you looked over to see how Soul Calibur had done things.<br><br>Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution puts everything right to produce what is, arguably, no, quite probably, the best fighting game that has been released to date. We will elaborate on why this is so.<br><br>Firstly there is the fighting system itself, the team at AM2 know how to make a fighting game, they along with Capcom have probably - and this is arguable - had the most influence over the genre. With Shenmue, Yu Suzuki helped introduce us to the philosophy of Kung Fu and helped this writer at least to appreciate fighting games even more. Virtua Fighter 4 manages the tricky juggling act of being accessible but deep, balanced and rewarding, realistic but working as a videogame. The control system may seem simplified over say the Tekken one button one limb system, but the differences in implementation mean that what the buttons do is secondary to your timing and the directions you press with the buttons. <br><br>Rather than reeling off long combos ala Tekken or having over-simplified counters as in Dead or Alive, Virtua Fighter 4 requires you to learn the fighting styles, being able to predict what your opponent will do and know, or feel - for those with Kung Fu - what move you need to pull off. You only use the D-Pad and three buttons, for blocking, punching and kicking. This takes things back to being more like Virtua Fighter 2; the third game had a dodge button that was widely believed to overcomplicate the proceedings. In VF4 Evolution you use the d-pad to wander around, with various types of button presses doing different things depending on the situation. The control system is accessible, with a couple of characters performing impressive moves with not too much thought, but there is enough to the system so that good players can comfortably K.O. those button bashers rather easily.<br><br>We should mention the new characters, two new men who slot nicely alongside the past favorites and the two additions from the first itaration of VF4. Brad Burns, a kickboxer with some groovy shirts and Goh, who looks a bit like Eminem after a heavy weekend out until all hours in the morning. His style is Judo, and he looks lazy, but I'm sure we'll grow to like him, despite him initially looking a bit odd in comparison to the more realistic characters, we think it's just his rather pale complexion and a large scar.<br><br>The biggest addition to VF4 Evolution is the Quest mode, which is a touch of genius. Rather than having some preposterous plot Sega have done something head smackingly obvious, but at the same time it is fundamentally genius - someone said that word is used out of context, discovering a new field of science being genius, not improving an existing concept, whatever... You make your way through various arcades in what appears to be Tokyo. There are tournaments in each arcade, but you have to meet various criteria before you will be allowed to enter. For instance you'll have to beat 15 players at the arcade before the tournament opens up. This is brilliant, it may not sound genius, but compared to the Kumite mode it is. <br><br>It also seems that Sega have been very cunning, and instead of spending silly amounts of time developing artificial intelligence, they've just harvested the brains of the best Virtua Fighter arcade players in Japan. This means that all of the characters you'll come across all play slightly differently, with the variety of clothing types and colours they all look rather distinctive as well. Yes they have the same faces and bodies, but there is enough variation in hair, clothes, eyes accessories and the like to create a good enough illusion of different fighters, just treat them as fighting in the same style. Or as if you're just taking on people in an arcade. Either way it's all-good.<br><br>In addition to the tournaments and meeting their entry requirements there are things called Quest Orders. These are, well orders... You have to do things like throw an opponent against a wall 10 times, grab someone 5 times, beat the same character 3 times, you get the idea. These can be selected as you try and meet competition criteria, or in a competition. This works rather well, for instance, there is one tournament that you need to beat 30 opponents to enter. There are a few little Quest Orders, throw people or whatever, but when you beat one, you open up another, so if you do a couple of these Quest Orders you then open up one saying defeat 15 opponents without loosing. So if you've only fought a few matches you can happily try and win 15 on the trot as you head towards you total of thirty. Beats arsing around looking for a big sword in our book...<br><br>As well as unlocking useful items like contact lenses, different hair colour, funky shoulder pads, shin pads and spanky new colours you can get more useful things as well. Things that the hardcore Virtua Figher fan will like, things like videos of advanced techniques showing footage of the screen, and the player's hands on the arcade unit, verrry interesting...<br><br>Obviously not too happy with having to rush out VF4, AM2 have improved the graphics over that title. The changes are not immense, but you'd be surprised what a difference they make. The aliasing problems that resulted in some ugly jagged edges have been sorted out. Textures are improved, although they could be better, but we're nitpicking, some of the levels do look absolutely stunning. Lighting effects have received the biggest overhaul, now being a lot more dynamic and realistic, and coupled with the character detail and animation help make them look like very solid people. Our only issue is that on levels with more than one light source there is still only one shadow - now that is nitpicking you might say, but not these days... Animation is just wonderful, the physics in the cloth animation gives the character's outfits an eerily realistic appearance, flowing silk always looks good, and here it is beautiful.<br><br>The levels too look a lot better, this is down to the lighting and a bit of redesigning; for instance Pai's aquarium looks a lot different, more construction site than finished location, and looks a lot more realistic for it. In fact most of the levels just manage to look like real places, we just wish there were some camera focusing effects to really make it look like television footage. Fighting on the Great Wall of China with rain lashing down, the sky filled with clouds, huge flags fluttering all along the wall into the distance, with a great sense of being in the open air, you sort of forget about what makes this technically amazing and just enjoy this for the work of art it is.<br><br>With the directorial experience of Shenmue behind them (well hopefully not totally behind them), AM2 have incorporated some fancy camera trickery into the fights, as well as for the poses before and after. Performing grabs and reversals will result in well-directed close ups or camera pans that really add a cinematic feel, but are implemented so well that they do not distract from the fighting action. Job, as they say, done.<br><br>Sound is good as well, doesn't need as waxing lyrical as the graphics, suffice to say the sound effects are spot on, sounding as painful as you would hope for, the voices don't annoy and the music is good, but if you don't agree you can always turn it off.<br><br>We like this a lot. You should too.<br><br>Our only problem is that it costs $20 in America and it is a full price release here in Europe. We're not really getting ripped off; rather they're getting a bargain - Bastards.