Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution for PS2

The best 3D fighting game of this generation is back with an upgrade. Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution is an enhanced version of the arcade hit. While it retains the same core gameplay of the first Virtua Fighter 4, the game has been significantly upgraded and it is an instant Greatest Hit title, retailing for only $19.99.

If Tekken is an art, Virtua Fighter is a science. Everything is extremely well balanced and organized in VF4 Evolution. Victory in VF4 Evolution comes through knowing your character as well as your opponent’s, being able to capitalize on opportunities to punish them for mistakes, and piling up heavy damage with air juggle combos. The best feature of VF4 Evolution’s fighting system is that it presents you with a large menu of options in combat to deal with situations. You have the standard attacks, throws and dashes of other 3D fighting games, but you also have parries, reversals, counters, stances, escapes, evades and interrupts. The game is easy to pick up and play for the first time thanks to button-mash friendly characters such as Lei Fei and Jacky, but true mastery will come by spending time in the extensive training modes offered in the game. Unfortunately, the game’s presentation leaves something to be desired. Although it is polished and neatly arranged, the task of creating your own character profile and editing it is still too complicated and illogical, and the instruction manual offers little help. The memory card save system in VF4 Evolution lumps the character profiles into one collective save rather than individual save files of VF4, which makes it difficult to transport characters on your memory card to a friend’s PS2.

The characters in VF4 Evolution have been heavily modified from their previous incarnations. Moves have been added, replaced, removed and tweaked. Characters who were overpowering in VF4 have been toned down, while weaker characters have been given a boost in damage, endurance and effectiveness. Every character has a handful of new moves at their disposal, with nearly all of them being useful in some way. Two new characters, Brad and Goh, join the fray in VF4 Evolution. Brad is a kick-boxer who plays similarly to Bruce and Steve from Tekken; he utilizes tricky swaying and weaving moves with powerful kicks to confuse and pound his opponents into submission. Goh is a close combat character who uses the art of Judo to grapple and injure opponents with devastating throws and holds. These two characters are surprisingly well balanced despite being new additions, but their artistic presentation does not fit well into the Virtua Fighter universe; they would fit more easily into the Tekken and Dead or Alive games because of their rough, hard edged looks.

The Kumite mode from VF4 has been replaced with the Quest Mode. Quest Mode is an arcade tournament simulator where you travel across famous Japanese arcades, competing for prizes against other players in challenge matches, mission modes and tournament battles. As you collect your winnings and advance in rank, you can purchase trinkets for your character at the store and create a custom appearance. The artificial intelligence has been rebuilt and it simulates human gameplay habits with frightening accuracy. It almost feels as if you are playing against real people and not simulations. Battles with identical characters can be completely different, depending on the play style of the virtual opponent controlling it. Quest Mode is the best single player experience for a fighting game yet, and not even Soul Calibur 2’s Weapon Master mode can compete against it.

The original Virtua Fighter 4’s impressive visual presentation was marred by the presence of graphical artifacts: jaggies, flickering and shimmering. Sega has cleaned up the visuals in Evolution to a much more polished state. Although the same image quality issues still exist, they have been greatly reduced and the game looks much smoother than its predecessor. The lighting effects have been enhanced as well, coming a step closer to the arcade version¹s unbelievable rendering of light and shadow. In addition to the enhanced image quality and lighting effects, the character models, animations, levels and costumes have been touched up and look even more impressive. One note on the US version: Vanessa’s 1P costume (a spandex sports outfit) has been replaced by a variant of her security guard uniform. This change is puzzling, considering that the costume was intact in VF4, but it is missing in VF4 Evolution.

The sound effects are largely recycled from the original VF4, with a few notable additions. Characters now grunt when struck by a particularly heavy blow, and new voice acting accompanies the extra win poses. VF4 Evolution’s music is the only disappointment in the audio category: it lacks the energy of VF4’s, and it seems altogether softer and more subdued: an unsuitable motif for a fighting game. All of the original levels and their soundtracks are unlockable, however, and it is refreshing to play them again with the graphical upgrades.

Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution is an upgrade to one of the best fighting games ever made. The depth of the gameplay combined with the good graphics, excellent training modes and endless amount of items to unlock make it a must-have title for any fighting game fan.

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