Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution

I told you those trunks made me angry

Compared to Tekken and Soul Calibur the Virtua Fighter games always have delivered deep, involving gameplay in a genre where the norm is button bashing and little else. Whether you actually prefer the button bashing or not though is entirely a matter of taste. The fact is that the characters in the game have become ever more convincing to look at with each new instalment in the series. As the title implies this one is more of a Virtua Fighter 4½ than Virtua Fighter 5 which could again be construed as a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view. Luckily there’s a lot of juice in it, but does Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution (VF4E) justify the purchase of a full priced game? Follow me into the arena for a test and an answer...

Virtual Intelligence

Seems Arnold is missing

The most obvious new addition to VF4E is the Quest mode, which is a far more involved replacement for the Kumite mode of the previous game. In short you have to fight your way through various simulated arcades to become the best of the best among the joystick aces, thereby winning respect from all the other geeks.

The AI of your opponents is based on data from some of the best Japanese players. In Japan Virtua Fighter is a phenomenon and this latest version has been the subject of numerous tournaments, with every Japanese arcade decked out with at least half a dozen machines. Which means you'll be playing against some of the meanest, hardcore players in the world. One would expect that to be quite a challenge but unfortunately the skill level isn’t as high as you would expect. Don’t worry, though, you’ll get your ass handed to you from time to time, but a lot of the various tournaments are just too easy.

Hold on, I got to sneeze

Since you face ‘real’ adversaries you'll often find yourself fighting the same game character a lot of times, where a different person controls the character each time. To create some differences there is a huge selection of costumes and modifications in VF4E, which you can also unlock yourself as you progress through the Quest Mode. While it’s cool to gain a rice hat that indicates how insane your kung-fu skills are, playing with virtual cut-out-dolls – be it girls in skirts or ninjas with sunglasses - is just not enough to sustain longevity in the long run in my book.

A fighting game is a fighting game, right?

There goes the head

Even though the Quest Mode is the main attraction of VF4E the classic arcade and versus modes are also included. It’s funny, though, that the challenge is actually more substantial in arcade mode, in which you face the different characters one by one. If you want to brush up on your skills without playing against real life players, arcade mode is the place to do it. Embedded in arcade mode are a number of mini-missions, like landing ten successful punches in your opponent without getting hit yourself and similar tasks, thereby adding bonus points to your overall score.

Like the majority of fighting games out there, longevity is primarily in versus mode where you play against friends. But if you don’t know anybody that is that good at the game the AI opponents in the Quest mode are the next best thing. The virtual players have a lot of fun names and they are obviously supposed to radiate geek l33tness. Whether or not they are actual player names or just figments of the developers’ imagination though is unclear.

Straightforward development

Those sure are buns of steel

VF4E separates itself from its predecessors by – big surprise – having better graphics and by being more fluently animated. You can actually tell the difference by comparing with Virtua Fighter 4. Besides the new better looking versions of already familiar characters two new fighters are also thrown into the mix and, lo and behold, you get some new moves to toy with as well. If you really want to see the vast improvement in graphics throughout the series, you can actually win characters from the first Virtua Fighter game in Quest mode and use them in actual combat.

Whereas the graphics are top notch – still trailing somewhat behind Tekken 4 though – the sound is unfortunately a big drawback in VF4E. The background music is anonymous at best and it’s definitely not something you want to hear loudly. The sound effects are just plain awful in the menus as well as in-game. Given that there is no blood or flashy light explosions indicating how devastating your hit was to your opponent, you’d at least expect some sort of bone crushing sound effect to go with the punch. Sadly we are left with something that most of the time sounds like angry slapping between Catholic schoolgirls. The blows simply have no weight, which is a bad thing for a game in a genre where feel is everything.

They certainly got experience

Apparently he also turns into the Hulk when he gets angry

In spite of all these critical remarks no doubt should exist that this is Virtua Fighter in its best incarnation so far. Sega’s acclaimed series has definitely been given a worthy new addition, though the differences between 4 and 4E are fairly subtle. You still have to consider your attack combinations, since you can’t just change from a flying kick to a kneeling punch in the blink of an eye, which certainly adds a strategic depth to the game. Luckily you have the opportunity to play a so-called Hyper-Action Battle, in which you are free to cancel moves on the fly, allowing seemingly endless combos to be strung together.

If you don’t already own Virtua Fighter 4, VF4E is certainly worth its price. You don’t become a champion in this game overnight, meaning you need to train hard to compete with the top dogs. Whether or not VF4E delivers enough hardcore action for a fighting game is an altogether different question though and is best answered according to your personal taste.