Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution

"A very, very rare perfect "10""

Even when I review games that people rave about in magazines and here on GameFAQs and other sites, I almost always only score them an 8 or a 9. That's because I try to reserve 10's for the extremely rare, excellent titles. In fact, to this point, here at GameFAQs, I have not given out a 10 rating.

Until now.

Since its conception, the Virtua Fighter series has struggled with its fan base. While there are many people who enjoy the ''depth'' of the gameplay and spend much of their time practicing it (which is, by the way, true for all decent fighters), many people have always been turned off by it. Slow, floating physics and things like attacks that may not be interrupted by anything lend an ''old-school'' feel to the game that many find dull and annoying. That certain game style and the lack of new characters or changes to the moves lists or gameplay have also let the series stagnate over the years. Also, the graphics have always been basic and oftentimes not smooth at all--most notably when Virtua Fighter 3tb came out on the Dreamcast and was destroyed by beautiful titles like Soul Calibur.

Then, Virtua Fighter 4 came out. From the preview videos and the additional character designs, it was clear the Virtua world was finally getting some good changes. The game looked nice, save for some shiny skin and strange facial expressions, the new characters were designed well and also played well, and the new kumite mode offered hours and hours and hours of play.

However, that very kumite was the root of many peoples' complaints of the new title. It took far too much effort and time to acquire items for the character or to go up in rank, thus making unlocking things in the game quite a chore. In fact, it was such a labor that after anyone did well with one character, they usually didn't feel like playing the game with anyone else. I'll admit that although I gave the original Virtua Fighter 4 a 9, it still sits on my shelf most of the time, mostly because of this.

Now, with Evolution, the Virtua world is getting shaken up again. There are two new characters, a judo-practicing criminal named Hinogami Goh, and a bobbing-and-weaving ''kickboxer,'' Brad Burns (great name for an Italian character, by the way(?)). As in the two added to Virtua Fighter 4 (namely Lei Fei and Vanessa), Brad and Goh are very good characters. Their designs are almost Tekken-like, which is a departure for the Virtua series, so rabid Sega fans may be upset. To them I say not to worry, because they play very well and are decently deep and strong.

Along with these two great new characters, the moves lists to the old characters have actually been changed up quite a bit. Almost all of the changes are for the better, though. For instance, Akira used to have the rising knee technique, performed by hitting the kick and guard buttons together, and then releasing the guard button no more than 1 frame later. Now, there is instead an attack string kick and guard together, then punch, which is a grounded attack that actually looks more like baji quan. The kick plus guard, release guard in 1 frame still exists, but it's simply the first attack of this string with altered physical properties. This way, if the command isn't entered properly, the player no longer is punished by getting the really slow standing kick or nothing at all like before.

Finally, what pushed it over the edge of 9 for me: the changing of kumite to the new quest mode. In this new mode, items can be acquired in more than one way, and a player can choose different, virtual ''arcades'' to fight in, and face the host of virtual players who haunt them. Now, it is far less frequent to wait around for people of certain rank to show up and fight you. Also, each area has ''quest orders''--smaller objectives you can select that unlock certain things as you play against the computer opponents. There's a shop, now, where a player can buy items for your character with virtual cash earned randomly against the computer and also awarded after completing quest orders and competing in tournaments.

The changes over the kumite make for a much more interesting game mode. That combined with a change-up in move sets and the addition of two characters make this game more enjoyable than the original.

Just an add-on? Perhaps, but a very, very good one. There are still a few obstacles those who don't like Virtua Fighter will have to overcome, like the slow game pacing and seemingly invincible ''rush'' sets and moves, not to mention the fact that it's still a very, very hard game, but if you're a fighting game fan you should be able to appreciate Evolution.

Everyone was told that Virtua Fighter 4 was the one to buy, if you've never had a Virtua Fighter before. Well, I'm saying the same with Evolution. Those who didn't like VF4 at all probably won't really like this game either, but those who still haven't bought VF4 and are interested who have both VF4 and Evolution available should probably just buy Evolution.

With this and Soul Calibur II, it's time for good fighters, finally.

The changes in things like the menu graphics and all the music are

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/03, Updated 04/04/03