We go one on one with the import version of VF4. Impressed much?
With Sega's untimely exit from the console market, it left a lot of initial questions unanswered. Will they continue making their popular arcade games, and what hardware would they use? What platform would they be ported to? I'll admit it was strange to see Sega's initial offerings to the console market land on the Playstation 2 and Gamecube, but with Virtua Fighter 4 on the PS2 they have proved that, indeed, it was always about the games.
There has never been a lot of market penetration for the Virtua Fighter series here in the US, and to my knowledge that held true with VF4 in the arcade. You can either attribute that to lack of human competition in most areas, a lack of knowledge about the intricacies of the fighting engine, or shallowness of the home versions. The one thing that cannot be held responsible is the quality of the series. The home version of VF4 can't magically grant you friends for competition, but it easily remedies the other two problems that could have potentially kept it from mass appeal.
Don't let anyone steer you wrong until you've seen the game for yourself. This game looks amazing. The character models and animation are clearly the cream of the crop. Wolf and Jeffry are bursting at the seams with muscles while Aoi and Lei are draped in silky, flowing robes. Every fighting environment is like a whole new world unto itself. There's a stage played on tile that breaks when someone is slammed to the ground. There's a beach stage and a winter stage where the sand and snow gets kicked up and pushed aside in real time. There's even an underwater stage where you play within a human aquarium with literally hundreds of fish swimming under your feet and in the background. The only problem is with the actual clarity of the picture. Straight lines, especially fence posts, suffer from some bad jagged lines, and some of the characters' clothing and accessories tend to flicker like a first gen PS2 game. Seeing as how Sega was late to the development game while they were busy supporting their own console, it is understandable how they are behind the curve in this respect, and it's even possible that this could be cleaned up by the US release (ala Tekken Tag Tournament).
The sound stands out as well as the graphics. The little guitar riff that accompanies the cool looking menu interface is catchy as all get out. The rest of the fighting background music is rock driven and really pumps you up in the match. The hard music is accompanied by excellent sound samples for strikes, bumps, and especially crashing into the ground or through a wall. The whole media package really helps put you into the fighting mood.
Getting into the game is going to be no problem for veterans, and thanks to some home improvements, it should be a great entry point for previously interested but intimidated newbies. Personally, I've always been a huge fighting game fan, but despite its potential, I've had a hard time with the Virtua Fighter series for the same reasons I outlined in the second paragraph. I don't have competition to learn from, and trying to absorb VF techniques from a FAQ is like trying to learn Calculus from a book without a teacher. The next best thing to a guide book like the ones from Versus Books or Gamest Mook in Japan is what VF4 actually provides, a series of in-game lessons.
Virtua Fighter 4 cannot be fully appreciated without learning and applying all the available techniques. Sure you can play through the game just referencing a move list, but it will be a much shallower experience. Enter VF4's training mode. In addition to command training where you are taking through all the moves available to the character, there is also a trial mode. The trial mode takes you through 26 chapters of fighter training. It starts with the basics like blocking an attacker and attacking the exposed points of a defender. It escalates into advanced techniques like yomi, minor/major counters, and multiple throw escapes. It even provides character specific chapters that help you learn how to set up throws and which combos to use to follow up a juggling move.
Training isn't the only extra mode that has been added. On top of arcade and versus we're also treated to an AI mode and a Kumite. The AI mode allows you to create and mold a computer fighter in your own image. While watching it fight, you can tell it when you approve or disapprove of an action taken. See it block a knee and capitalize with a throw? Approve the action and it will be more inclined to use that strategy again in a similar situation. You can use your creation as a sparring partner or even pair it off against one of your buddy's AI guys.
If you're not completely sold by now, then the Kumite will definitely put you over the top. In most fighters, it's only a matter of time before you get tired of rampaging through the arcade mode in single player. What the Kumite offers is a ranking system with rewards. VF4 allows you to create duplicates of each fighter that you can customize with a personalized ring name. When you take these fighters through Kumite they can earn new poses, costume colors, and accessories like motorcycle helmets. You start off at rank 10. By winning fights you can earn the opportunity to fight for a higher rank. There are a number of ranks to run through, all the while increasing in difficulty and earning items. One of the best prizes is the winning the ability to play with the original VF1 character models, and they look so perfectly nostalgic. It's highly addicting constantly reaching for the top rank and earning all the extras for each character, and it's no small feat.
If we were presented with a port of Virtua Fighter 4 with just an arcade and versus mode, then I would still be compelled to recommend it as an awesome fighting game. Sega, though, has finally taken the extra step in this home conversion to provide tons of extra replay value making the purchase when it hits our shores a no brainer. For those with the ability to play import games, it's safe to assume that you would be justified in picking it up early.
