Virtua Fighter 5

Oct 29, 2007

After all that “only PS3 can do Virtua Fighter 5” talk, we’re proud to say the 360 version is graphically superior - by some margin, in fact. Truthfully, the 360 sheen is so apparent in a direct HDMI cable switch comparison, it’s like looking at Soul Calibur 2 on Xbox compared to PS2. VF5’s here, online, and all is right with the world.

We wish our review could end there. But, sadly, that’s not the end of the story. You see, while it’s as hardcore as they come, supremely balanced and a fighting enthusiast’s wet dream, it plain refuses to pander to the average gamer. Whereas Virtua Fighter 2 found universal acceptance because of its gorgeous texture-mapped, 60fps graphics in 1995, this latest incarnation just isn’t flashy enough to win on graphics alone. And what’s left to ogle may well turn off more gamers than it turns on.

Don’t get us wrong, it’s still gorgeous - some of the cloth textures are so vibrant you’d swear they’ve just arrived from the tailor. But its 32-bit roots are starting to show through the next-gen gloss. The gameplay may have been refined for 12 years now, but it’s barely changed. It proves how revolutionary Virtua Fighter 2 really was for its time, but there’s something wrong when you can achieve decent success here using only those moves you learned over a decade ago.