Virtua Fighter has been one of AM2's greatest successes, not to mention one of the most significant games to come along ever. It singlehandedly created the 3D fighter genre, and spawned countless imitators and contenders. Every great 3D fighting game such as Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive as well as every pathetic one such as Mace owe everything to Virtua Fighter. Now, after a 5 year layoff since original Virtua Fighter 3 was unleashed in the arcade, the next installment of one of the greatest fighting game series of all time has made its way to the home consoles, more specifically the PS2. If anyone doubted for a second that Virtua Fighter 4 couldn't live up to the expectations, they were wrong, and if anyone doubted that AM2 wouldn't give us the complete experience of a Virtua Fighter game, they were dead wrong.

There are numerous features introduced in Virtua Fighter 4 that are relatively new to the series, although not to the genre perse. The first thing you'll probably see is called Exact Recovery, which is just a fancy name for a Tech Roll that we've been accustomed to in previous games. By pressing Punch, Kick and Guard together, you'll be able to spring up in place quickly. If you happen to press Up and Down during this time, you'll be able to roll in and out of the screen to avoid any incoming attacks. What's even more important about this feature is that you can use it to escape additional damage for certain throws. For example, if Wolf happens to catch you in his Giant Swing, the damage you receive when you land from it can be negated if you time the Exact Recovery perfectly. The second new feature in Virtua Fighter 4 is called the Recovery Mark. Whenever you are hit with a certain move or if your attack is parried by a character like Vanessa, a joystick icon appeaars on your side of the screen. This handy little icon tells you when you can shake the joystick (or press left and right on the control pad) so you can break out of your staggered state. It's a very nice addition to the game that makes it a hell of a lot easier for new players to get into who might not have the great sense of timing that seasoned veterans have in the game. Also introduced in Virtua Fighter 4 are three different types of arenas: Walled, Breakable Walled and Wall-less. As their names would imply, arenas that are Walled contain unbreakable walls that surround the entire ring, while Breakable Walls also have walls surrounding the ring, but can be broken by players crashing into them. Finally, Wall-less arenas are the classic Virtua Fighter rings, where there are no walls surrounding the ring, and the chances of getting a ring out are very real. This last major addition to the Virtua Fighter series is tremendous, because it really gives the players what they really want. Many gamers hate ring outs, so for them stages like the City and the Aquarium are perfect because they contain walls that are unbreakable, while those who don't mind having ring outs can simply choose locations like the Great Wall or the Dojo.

But the fun doesn't stop there, not by a long shot. While many games like to populate their rosters with tons of characters that have many similar fighting styles, you'd be hard pressed to find that in Virtua Fighter. In fact, the only characters that share similarities are Pai and Lau Chan, and even they are almost like night and day when it comes to using them. Every character in the game has a distinct playing style, whether it's the full out offense of Jacky, to the deceptive style of Shun Di, to the reversal-happy style of Aoi. What makes the gameplay even deeper is the fact that with the exception of 4 characters (Akira, Lion, Lau and Wolf), each character possesses one or more special stances in their repetoire. Character such as Lei-Fei and Shun even have up to 5 stances to choose from! While the saying may be quantity doesn't equal quality, it certainly does here, with every character requiring tons of dedication in order to just be competent. In fact, Virtua Fighter 4 is home to some of the most difficult characters ever made. While characters such as Maxi from Soul Calibur are certainly difficult to master, even he doesn't compare to the precise timing needed for Akira's knee, Dragon Lance Combo or Stun Palm of Doom. This isn't even getting into the inner workings of a character such as Shun Di or Lei-Fei, both of which would require weeks, if not months of playtime in order to become "good" with, or many of the new types of attacks that are introduced in VF4. The first of these new attacks are Chargeable Strikes, which allow you to hold a button down in order to increase the power of an attack. Chargeable Strikes can also cause Recovery Marks on characters if they happen to block the attack when it is fully charged. The other new attack are called Sabakis, and are truly an excellent addition to the game. Sabakis are attacks that have built-in parrying abilities against certain attacks. For example, Lion's Meteor Punch is a Sabaki against High Punches, High Kicks, Mid Elbows and Mid Kicks. This means that if you happen to execute a Meteor Punch against an opponent who happens to attack with any of these attacks, you will simply brush their attack away and nail them. In one way, it makes the game a hell of a lot easier to play than before, but it also gives those gamers who have followed the VF series since the beginning something new to add to their strategies. And to think, Sega actually made Virtua Fighter 4 easier than previous versions!

If you had the opportunity to play earlier Virtua Fighter games on the consoles, you know that there weren't many game modes to choose from. Okay, I won't try to sugarcoat it, they were basically direct ports of the arcade version. This time around it's a totally different story, and it's good to see AM2 putting so much into the console version. Virtua Fighter 4 contains the traditional Arcade and Versus mode, as well as an excellent Replay mode as well as an awesome Training Mode. The Training Mode is great because it's actually split up into three parts: Command, Free and Trial. The Command Training mode allows you to go through a character's entire movelist in order to get a feel for the character, while Free Training mode lets you do whatever you want in it. The Free Training mode is great because it also allows you to record up to 5 actions for the CPU to use so you can practice anything from Sabakis to Evading moves. You can also speed down the game to practice buffering moves. Trial Training Mode goes through an entire tutorial with you, which is broken up into specific lessons such as how to escape throws, and how to use Exact Recovery. It's also somewhat tailored to the character you choose, as it also goes through many character-specific combos at the end. In the end, Virtua Fighter 4's training mode is probably the most comprehensive training mode I've ever seen, and that's a good thing, since you'll definitely need it for Kumite mode.

What Kumite mode does is recreate the entire arcade experience of VF.net for the PS2. For those who haven't heard of VF.net (and we don't blame you, as it is a Japan-only feature), it is an online ranking system for every player that possesses a player file. In the arcade, the player file was stored on a small card about the size of your bankcard: this contained information about one character, and included their name, win/loss record, and ranking. Fortunately for you, more than one player file can be stored on your PS2 memory card. So when you create your player file (you select it by pressing the Select button), and enter Kumite mode, the fun begins! Since Kumite mode does its best to accurately represent what the arcade life in Japan is, you'll be challenged to battle by other "players" constantly. These players are like you, in that they also have their own unique name, win/loss record and ranking. I've ran into some pretty crazy players, such as a Lau player who has named himself "Your Daddy", a Pai player named "IlikeCheez" and an Aoi player who goes by the name of "Owwie". Despite the humourous aliases, they're all out for one thing: To become the absolute best, and they plan on doing that by going through you. Kumite Mode is a big feature in Virtua Fighter 4, so big in fact that it's the only way to unlock all the secrets in the game! To unlock secret items by Kumite mode, there are a number of requirements you must meet. The easiest one is to defeat the same character you're using in battle. If they are wearing any special items on them, you will win that item. The second easiest is to win a number of battles consecutively. By winning 5, 10 or even 50 matches in a row, you'll unlock special items. Other conditions for unlocking special items are by escaping throws, winning by ring out or time out, winning matches without getting hit (which results in an "Excellent!" result), or by performing certain combos. Some of the items you can unlock in Kumite mode allow you to change your character's looks, while others unlock win poses. Kumite is an excellent mode not only because of the challenge of it (playing some of the top ranked opponents is extremely difficult), but because it really gives the player the opportunity to personalize the game for them, a trait that's rarely seen in fighting games as a whole.

Each player in Kumite mode is ranked, and while the ranking system in Kumite mode might seem a little odd at first, but it's actually quite simple to understand. There are essentially six tiers in the ranking system: Kyu, Dan, Hero/Champion, Expert/Kings, God and Emperor. When you first start Kumite mode, you'll be ranked a 10th Kyu, the lowest denominator. While you are a Kyu, you accumulate experience points as you defeat opponents. For every 100 points that you attain, you will be involved in a Ranking Match, which will allow you to rise up in rank should you win the match. This system continues on until you've reached the Dan tier. Now this is where things get a little bit trickier. Once you have reached a Dan rank (1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest), instead of accumulating experience points you now must earn victory points against opponents of the same ranking. For example, if you are a 4th Dan, the only way you can earn any victory points are against opponents that have a ranking of 4th Dan, no higher or no lower. Once you have earned 5 of these victory points, you will be able to participate in a Ranking Match to go up in rank. However, unlike the Kyu tiers, it is very possible that you can go down in ranking. If you happen to lose 5 matches to opponents of similar rank, you will be in a Ranking Match, only this time you will be fighting to keep your rank instead of raising it.

However, the Kumite mode does have its minor flaws. One thing that I noticed is that your player file isn't instantly updated after a match, which can make accidental resets a pain, especially if you've played long enough to raise your ranking. Secondly, because your player file isn't updated after a match, you can definitely just pause your game if you're losing and quit. While this wouldn't happen in a Versus mode match, it's something that I think it's a tad pathetic. I liked it Metropolis Street Racer where you'd actually lose a race and Kudos if you tried to quit midgame, and I'm somewhat disappointed that it's not included here. But hey, those are just some nitpicking points.

Finally, there's the A.I. System mode, which is a remarkable feature in the game. What you do here is pick a character and then by "feeding" them replay files or by sparring, you can train and develop your A.I. fighter in order to become the perfect warrior. It's amazing how the A.I. System mode works in some ways like a Tamaugachi would, in that you really do need to take care of your warrior and teach it how to perform various techniques. Needless to say, it's an awesome feeling when you finally get your A.I. Wolf to manage to perform a Double Throw Escape or if you get an A.I. Kage to finally land a TFT Combo on someone.

Even with having some of the best gameplay in the world, the graphics of the Virtua Fighter series have never ceased to impress anyone. I can recall the moment when I first saw the first screenshots of Virtua Fighter 3's character portraits, and my mouth literally dropped to the ground. They were THAT good. In Virtua Fighter 4, they are as equally as impressive, although the impact is much less than VF3. While yes, the graphics in the PS2 version of the game do have aliasing problems, they aren't a factor. In fact, if you're bitching about the graphics in this game, there's something really wrong with you. Looking past the aliasing problems, the visuals are outstanding. The hooded short-sleeved jacket of Lion floats realistically in the wind, while the clothing of Lei-Fei's player 1 costume trails his every movement. And then you have the stages themselves, which are equally as impressive. Wolf's arena stage contains literally dozens of onlookers cheering for the fight, while Lion's snow-bound stage and Jeffry's island sandpit both leave the tracks of the combatants as the fight goes on. Let's not forget the tile-smashing fun of Lei-Fei's Temple either! The soundtrack as well as well as the sound effects are both amazing. Lei-Fei's Temple stage has one of the coolest tracks in the game, while Pai's Aquarium stage has a sweet ambient sounding track of its own. In fact, every stage contains a track that actually seems like it relates to the location you're in, which is a rare occurance. The sound effects themselves are great too, with every bone-crushing hit coming through cleanly, and the announcer not going over-the-top like the one found in Capcom vs SNK 2.

In the end, Virtua Fighter 4 represents an evolution in 3D fighting games. I wouldn't be surprised if we happened to see Sabakis as well as the ability to personalize your character in future fighting games. Just as the first Virtua Fighter revolutionized the genre, Virtua Fighter 4 will be the new standard that every other fighting game from now on must meet. With it's outstanding graphics, timeless gameplay and more features than 10 fighting games combined, Virtua Fighter 4 is the game to get for your PlayStation 2… until Virtua Fighter 5 arrives.

· · · Reno