Virtua Fighter 5: The Final Showdown Review

NOT

AI isn’t Challenging
The last Virtua Fighter game I played was back on my Sega Saturn, which was roughly 3 generations ago. Despite my 17 year abstinence from the series, I still had virtually no problem beating the game on Very Hard. Even with the maximum handicap, the AI just isn’t that bright. This is to a point where spamming punch is enough to win matches. This gives the arcade mode a real hollow experience, especially when you consider most fighting games require more mastery in their normal mode. Thankfully you can find a challenge in the license challenges, though a lot of this stems from the actual challenge aspect.

Lack of Modes
While there are several fighters to choose from, there aren’t many modes to select from. Single player is limited to Arcade mode, Score Attack, Special Sparring and License Challenge. All of these modes are basically fighting a series of fighters, with the exception of License Challenge, which generally adds some pointless requirement. Some of them are a joke like doing a combo of 2 or more hits, whereas others are just hitting your opponent a certain number of times.

Besides single player, you can also play online and offline versus. Sadly it’s limited to basic versus, but that’s all you need there. You can also train in the dojo, though this is just to help you get better at doing certain commands.

VERDICT

Virtua Fighter 5 The Final Showdown is a fantastic budget title, but isn’t anywhere near retail releases.   When you consider how dumb the AI is and arcade doesn’t have any sort of story, it’s no wonder why it’s only $15 dollars. Thankfully the gameplay is quite solid, plus you can find endless challenge via the online mode. Unless you plan on playing online a lot, you might want to wait for a price drop.

[Editor’s Note: Virtua Fighter 5: The Final Shodown was reviewed on the PS3 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]