Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution

"Here's what you get when you take the greatest fighter ever made, refine it and add a jumble of new content."

Virtua Fighter 4 was released in the UK and Japan in 2001 and was soon porter to US arcades by Capcom, in Japan the game really took off, according to creator Yu Suzuki, if you step in to a Japanese arcade you'll see a crowd around the VF4/VF4E/VF4FT machine and rarely you'll see an abandoned Tekken 5 machine. One year later the game saw many seperate releases of a PS2 port. Not only was it hailed as the only near flawless port in the series, but also as one of the greatest fighting games of all time.

Before this port was a little-known Japanese update of the game called Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution. Though it is lost on me personally why AM2 didn't just port Evolution right off the bat, its here and virtual fighting has never been better.

Virtua Fighter 4, though it didn't have any kind of gimmick like the others did used small tweaks to create a completely new experience. Evading is now done by tapping the D-pad up or down instead of a dodge button. You can also now move in 8 directions. With this increased movement you not only no longer have to constantly worry about which side of you opponent you hit (though it helps) and the environments are much more interactive. Some arenas now have walls that allow you to chain together wall combos with the slight time you opponents momentum collides with the wall, and yes, most walls can be stressed to breaking point. The reaction time has also been shortened very slightly adding a faster flavor to the game and completely changing how you deal with rising attacks, you can preform counter-attacks by either interrupting a charging attack with a striking attack or attacking with an attack that does more damage than the one you interrupt. You can also get up with good timing exactly after you hit the ground, you can also move into the background or foreground with one of these, making the game even faster. Finally, you have new moves such as groin collapses that gives you extra time to hit an opponent. Furthermore you have deflections and guard breaks that stun your opponent that can be excaped by rapidly moving the d-pad and even counters.

Evolution in the arcades had better AI, smoother graphics, more arenas, new moves and new fighters. The new moves do little more than increase the depth of the game, resulting in more ways to deal with each situation and new ways to adapt to your opponent.

The game includes the entire original arcade version of Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution with no changes except for the ability to play it with the characters having the look you have made for them (more on this later), but the strength of the game is in the extra modes added in the port.

The two new characters look like they belong in a Tekken game, but they still play like VF characters. Brad Burns is a kickboxer and has an interface focusing on long combos of striking attacks. Creepy goth assasin Goh has weak strikes and slow attack speed, but devestating Judo-style throws. Of the two, Brad is more of a beginner's character but his counters are devestating and he has a slightly lower reaction time for guard breaks. Brad is easier to use but still has a lot of depth. The remaining characters are also more balanced, for example Wolf's throws now do less damage overall.

The original PS2 port of Virtua Fighter 4 contained a Kumite (pronounced Koo-mi-tay) mode which had you fighting a variety of opponents in rounds of three, climbing ranks and buying accessories and color schemes to customize your character with. The mode has been replaced with Quest which has you traveling from arcade to arcade, each tougher than the last playing against random passerbys who have decided to be part of the dream of how your reputation can be staked on a quarter. This is no gimmick either, AM2 actually recorded millions of games of Virtua Fighter 4 and each of the AI personas you spar against are modeled against one or more players including some of the pro level players in Japan. Quest is the closest you'll get to the authentic tournament experience in Japan.

The AI training that let you train an AI to fight like you and then pit it against other players and even the computer is gone without a trace, you'll have to do all of your own fighting on your own now. Of course, if you think about it this wouldn't work on Quest because you could easily reach the highest rank by putting your AI in the first arcade and leaving for a week, so this is not much of a problem.

Quest now literally has thousands of customization features, the look of your character will most likely be all your own. You can have two different instances of each character on one memory card save, meaning that you can't pit your fighter against your friend's, but this doesn't change the core gameplay.

Finally, hidden in the anals of the menu is Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary Edition. Think Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution but with the VF1 engine. You have all your moves but guard breaks are now guard penetrations, you can't dodge on the Z axis, you can't move in any direction but back and forward, you can't get up quickly and you can jump straight over your opponent's head. This mode is simply a mode, it has Arcade and literally no other modes.

Vs. Mode is still in the game, you can either challenge someone in Arcade or go straight to Vs. Mode. The difference is in Vs. Mode you can play as Dural after you unlock her and you can play on unlocked stages and even the original Virtua Fighter 4 stages.

On the negative side, well, the stages could be more interactive, there are only 15 characters and the music is quite simply, bad.

VF4E is the best fighter on the market and anyone willing to give it a try will be glad they did.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/17/06