From the original flat shaded, chunky polygon-rendered Virtua Fighter, Sega has nearly always stayed true to their vision. Smooth moving, "realistic" 3D fighting action, with a tight, simple control scheme that focused more on gameplay and competition than flash. They strayed a bit from the formula with Virtua Fighter 3's uneven and fancier (and some would say unfair) fighting environments, and the addition of a 4th evade button. After a large public outcry from its fans and serious tournament-level players, Sega dropped the additional button and once again leveled the playing field (physically and figuratively) for Virtua Fighter 4, and now 5. Fighting games are not at all realistic, but the VF-series skews a bit more that way as compared to other games. Some fighting styles and maneuvers are very recognizable, and special moves such as fireballs and super combos are nowhere to be found. Most veteran VF players (at least those well acquainted with the arcade versions) will only play Virtua Fighter 5 with an arcade stick of some type. While I'm personally competent with an arcade stick, being primarily a console fighting game player, I have no problems with a control pad, and in the case of VF5, the Sixaxis. With a responsive D-pad, and the ability to map button combos to the 4 shoulder buttons, there's not much you can't pull off with a little bit of practice.

Virtua Fighter 5 for the PS3 is the first truly perfect port of a Virtua Fighter game. Previously, home consoles were behind the curve as compared to Sega's awesome arcade hardware, but this time, the tables have been flipped. Sure, the arcade version has more RAM and an NVIDIA video card very similar to that in the PlayStation 3, but in overall graphical and computational power, both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 can run circles around it. Needless to say, Virtua Fighter 5 is a looker. The boxed in environments are simply gorgeous, with nicely animated surroundings, beautiful and realistic lighting and texturing, and many well-designed and distinct settings. For fans of the series, many of the stages are throwbacks to previous games, with remakes of VF2 making noteworthy appearances. The characters and in all their various outfits and accessories do not disappoint. They have a bit of that overly oiled-up look in static screens, but in motion the flowing animation and lighting in combination with the awesome self-shadowing make for some definite eye-candy. The smaller details like skin complexion, body hair, flowing clothing and muscle definition goes a long way in completing the illusion. The characters finally don't look like perfectly smooth-skinned plastic dolls - and that's a good thing. The entire game looks fantastic in high definition, but yes, it also looks rather nice in standard definition as well.

The audio in Virtua Fighter 5 is pretty much par for the course in regards to the series. In other words, the music is very listenable, well composed and fitting to the stage it corresponds with. The character voices are a bit cheesy, but once again, in that amusingly VF way. New to VF5 is a commentary option in which an announcer attempts to keep up with the frantic on-screen action as you battle it out; "attempts" being the key word here.

Besides your very typical Arcade, Vs. and Practice play modes, Sega has brought over the really enjoyable Quest Mode from Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. Recognizing that fighting games are usually best played against others in a competition environment, Sega has put some effort into developing this nicely thought out career-style "virtual arcade" mode for the game. You first create a profile (yourself) and select/configure a character to be used within your Quest, and then you set out to become the #1 ranked player by visiting arcades, playing against other ranked characters, and taking part in tournaments. Along the way you'll meet and play against a variety of CPU players (such as GA's own customized "Futa-Kun" Akira character), rank-up or down depending on your performance, and score some items and coins to be used in further customizing your characters. The Quest Mode is a really simple addition to the game, and it does wonders in redefining the usually straight-up single player arcade experience.

For the 5th installment in a game series, Sega made almost all the right moves. They have improved the graphics substantially, added 2 new, interesting and fun-to-learn characters, and have found a few ways to increase the single player experience and replayablity factor. Still, there is no excuse for not providing some sort of online functionality. Thanks to the game's extremely strict 1/60th of a second timing required, online play would be essentially "broken" no matter what, throwing off the balance of the finely-tuned characters. Sega or AM2 should of at least provided the option though, as I'm sure there would be more than enough people out there that would still love to battle it out online regardless of how imperfect it is. And even without online play, leaderboards, some sort of character download/upload system or other assorted community features could have been worked into the game. Certain Japanese developers still have some sort of aversion to providing such online functionality, and they need to get over it quick. For $60 gamers want something a little beyond prettier HD visuals or a new control scheme. Community and online is where it's at, and where the industry is going, so they need to get with the times. Although Sega has confirmed no actual online play for the Xbox 360 version (for the reasons stated above), there's still hope for a little something extra. It's hard to ignore the lack of online functionality, and that disappointment is reflected in the game's score.

One other issue with Virtua Fighter 5 is the lack of a real Training Mode. The game does have a straightforward Practice Mode, which allows you to select a character, bring up a command list, and run through the moves one by one; with a few even being demonstrated. It's not a replacement for a proper full-featured Training Mode of the sort that was included in VF4: Evo. With an insane amount of technique and moves per character, the game could provide a little more hand-holding in helping an individual learn a new character or perfect an older one.

So is worth Virtua Fighter 5 worth getting? Absolutely. Fighting enthusiasts will love the new characters and moves, along with the finely balanced Vs. play. Newbies to the series or genre, will appreciate the eye-pleasing high-def visuals at first and then most likely be sucked in by the deep gameplay and the enjoyable Quest Mode. Either way, it's an obvious purchase for the new PlayStation 3 owner.