Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution Review

Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution

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Publisher: SEGA

Developer: AM2

# of Players: 1-2

Category: Action

Release Dates

N Amer - 08/12/2003

Official Game Website

Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution Review

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Last year, Virtua Fighter 4 was released on the PlayStation 2, which many people argue is one of the best fighting games ever. Sega’s development team, AM2, thought that they would improve on every aspect of their game even further, so they decided to release a “sequel” to it. Now that I have played this game, I must say that Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution is highly addictive and one of the best ways you can spend twenty dollars.

The story takes place one year after the “Worldwide Martial Arts Championship,” which took place in Virtua Fighter 4. Now a new date has been set for the Worldwide Martial Arts Championship II, and you want to take place in it. The only way to qualify for it is to fight through all of the arcades in the city, and make a name for yourself. The city is your arena, and it is your duty to become the number one player in the world. Are you up to the challenge?

The game contains an arcade, verses, quest, and training mode. The arcade will let you take a character, fighting through until you meet the last boss. Verses mode lets you and another human fight it out to see who is the best of the best. Quest mode is the meat of this game, and for good reason. In this mode players go from arcade to arcade, participating in tournaments, trying to get the top prize. The thing about it is that a lot of the AI opponents are modeled after real-life arcade champions. This makes the game extremely challenging at times, especially the farther in the game you get. Another thing that this mode provides is an extensive customization of all of the characters. You can give the characters different clothes, hairstyles, and accessories. The level of customization is mind boggling, you can play this game for hours on ends, and only scratch the surface on the amount of things the characters can get.

If this is your first time playing this game, it will be extremely hard to play this game proficiently. To compensate for this AM2 has one of the best training modes I have seen in a fighter. After trying each of the characters, I found one, which fits my type I like to play with in these games: a fast agile fighter, and Pai Chan was my choice. After that, I went though the training mode, where it teaches players every move that the character can do. Besides learning all of the commands, players can practice several exercises that will prepare them for certain situations, they can go to a free-for-all mode, or go to the “guide” which will explain everything you wanted to know about Virtua Fighter.

One of the neatest bonuses in this game is the “Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary.” What it is, is Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution done in the Virtua Fighter 1 style, meaning the rules, character models, and environment; but the characters still maintain the moves of VF4. This one little feature shows that Sega really loves its fan base by taking the time to do something that seems minuscule but really is greatly appreciated.

Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution is rated T for Teen for violence and suggestive themes. It requires 167kb on your memory card.

Reviewer's Scoring Details

Gameplay: 9.3
Stupendous, Marvelous, Awesome, and Spectacular. Those words still cannot convey how great this game plays. When playing the game, the controller becomes an extension of yourself; every move that you make will be done on the screen with pinpoint accuracy. There is no delay in this game, which kills many fighting games that I have played. In other words this game plays like a dream!

Graphics: 9.6
One thing that was wrong with Virtua Fighter 4 is the painfully obvious jaggies that plagued the game. It wasn’t something that ruined the game, but it was an eye sore. In this game it is very hard to find any jaggies. Besides the elimination of jaggies, everything in this game has been improved upon, the character models are more detailed and contain a higher polygonal count. The level of detail for each of the characters is astounding especially when you deck them out with all of the accessories you win or buy. The animation for each of the players is great. All of the characters have specific moves, and their bodies react according to if they are hit, kicked, fall down, or pushed through a brick wall. The game also runs at a constant 60 frames per second, which is always a good thing with any game, let along a fighting game.

Sound: 9.0
The music for this game is as good as one can expect. It has all of the appropriate sounding themes for each of the levels that the players will fight at. All of the bone cracking, grunting, and whatever else characters might say is done well. The sound is also used to bring the levels more realism. A prime example of this is that one of the levels is taken place in a coliseum, with thunder and lightning. The lightning breaks a statue and at the same time you get the impeding “BANG” that makes it feel so real.

Difficulty: Medium
Hard for new players, but give it a chance, after playing with it for a while you will understand what to do in no time.

Concept: 8.5
The quest mode gives players a high level of customization, and it even lets you play against real life Virtua Fighter champions.

Multiplayer: 9.5
It is a fighting game, so of course the multiplayer for a game of this caliber is nothing short of greatness. Even though the AI is one of the best I have seen in a fighting game, nothing can beat playing against another human player.

Overall: 9.6
To be perfectly honest this is one of the first times I have ever really sat down and played a Virtua Fighter game. Sure I have played it in the arcade a few times, and even on a friends Saturn and Dreamcast, and a rental with Virtua Fighter 4, but I never really played it thoroughly like this before. Now I can see why this game is touted as one of the best fighting series. This game has got an extremely deep Quest mode that will keep anyone occupied for months on end. Bottom line: just go out and get this game!