Average Customer Review: ( 114 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.

Graphically, VF4 is a masterpiece. You won't see any multi-tiered environments a la DOA or flashy effects like Soul Calibur. The Virtua Fighter series has always been grounded in reality, and the newest incarnation is the most realistic fighter yet. The characters are modelled with compelling accuracy and astounding, lifelike animation (no fireball casting here) - clothing wraps around limbs, flaps in the wind, and flows with breathtaking movement. The arenas are spectacular creations: Pai fights in an underwater aquarium with sea life swimming outside its glass walls, and Jacky battles on the roof of a skyscraper with several circling helicopters creating some amazing lighting effects. You might find sand or snow underfoot, or be knee-deep in water. You'll be in a cage surrounded by a shouting crowd. You'll see leaves softly falling, or birds overhead. These are perfect places in which to battle. Most of the arenas contain incredible animation, and although they don't really affect the gameplay, they make the fights that much more involving. Walls can be broken in some places, and ring-outs happen, but not as often as in Soul Calibur. The dreaded PS2 "jaggies" are present, but they're only noticeable if you're looking for them. The combination of realistic fighter animation and beautiful environments make VF4 the current best-looking home fighter.

As amazing as it looks, however, the gameplay of VF4 is what vaults it into Soul Calibur territory. The controls consist of three buttons: punch, kick, and guard; and the d-pad. That's it. The PS2 controller allows you to map button combinations to a single key (i.e. P+K+G = R2) if you so desire, which can make pulling off more complicated moves easier for beginners. Each character has literally hundreds of individual moves at his or her disposal; throws, reversals, rising attacks, combos, etc. There are only 13 fighters, but they are all perfectly balanced, and each is very different from the other. Lei-Fei is a Chinese monk who features several stances; Kage is a ninja who sports airborne throws; Lion uses Mantis Fist style; Wolf is a pro wrestler. Button mashing won't get you far against a VF master or the higher difficulty CPU settings. You're required to explore your fighter's capabilities, using strategy for victory. It may seem overwhelming at first, but the game's perfect control makes maneuvering your fighter second nature after a few matches. The Virtua Fighter system is deceptively simple, and as you get used to the timing of a side-step followed by a vicious counterattack, a perfect reversal of an incoming combo, and throwing, you'll discover how much attention Sega paid to it. Unlike past VF games, beginners can get the jist pretty quickly, but the artistry of the fighting engine becomes more apparent over time, and rewards the patient.

VF4 features several modes. Arcade mode pits you against all 13 fighters with progressing AI difficulty, and Vs. is for multiplayer. Pretty standard stuff, although there's nothing quite like a human vs. human VF match. Its replayability is infinite, and it works best when the two combatants are of relatively equal skill levels, making fights a match of wits as much a match of reflexes.

One new addition is Kumite Mode, a tournament of sorts. Pick a character, and fight an unending stream of CPU opponents, progressing in rank along the way. The better you do, the harder the enemies. Perform well, and you unlock customizable items like sunglasses, jewelry, and headgear. It's like a souped-up Survival Mode, and is highly addicting. You can eventually take each fighter through the entire Kumite Mode - a daunting task that will take many, many hours to complete. The higher difficulty levels are brutal, and require mastery of your character.

Training Mode is a fantastic creation. It's split into three sections, one of which allows you to practice combos to get your timing down. The second lets you practice against a CPU dummy, which can be set at several difficulty levels. You can even program the dummy to perform a specific combo to practice countering or evasive tactics. The third section contains different challenges that teach you the basics of the VF universe. This mode is highly recommended for beginners, as it teaches the skills necessary for success. It also gives you a glimpse at how deep and refined the VF engine is, like peeling back a layer to find many more underneath.

AI Mode allows you to train a "blank slate" fighter yourself, and set it lose against your friends or even in Kumite Mode. It's a novel idea, but isn't quite as compelling as the other modes. Still fun to play around with, though.

Virtua Fighter is a more involved, strategic game than, say, the Marvel vs. Capcom series. It relies on technique rather than flash, in both gameplay and visuals. It's been made more accessible for newcomers (after all, this is the first time a VF game has appeared on a non-Sega console), but still retains the complexity of previous installments. VF4 is a labor of love. In comparison to Soul Calibur, the extras and flashiness of SC are balanced out by VF's incredible fighting system and Kumite Mode. Some may argue that DOA3 is prettier, but Tecmo's series doesn't come close to the sim aspects of Virtua Fighter. Sega has drawn first blood in Year of the Fighter, and it currently sits beside Soul Calibur as the best fighting game available.

10 of 10 found the following review helpful:

Virtua Fighter 4 a beautiful 3d complete fighting gameMar 27, 2002
By martin nunez
VF 4 shines in gameplay, every character has a realistic martial arts technique. A true balance between fighters the fast, the strong, and the technical. The more you learn the faster the fighting gets. Easy learning curve but difficult mastering curve. The graphics are said to have Horribile jaggies, but really they are nice, very nice. And when you are fighting for your life you don't have time to inspect the jaggies with a magnifying glass. The replay value is very high with the kumite mode (survival mode), you can customize your characters color,name, and some apparel. The vs. mode is classic and ofcourse adds an eternity of replay value beating your friends up. The presentation is good with a futuristic feel to it. The stage design is also very nice but not breaking any new berriers like DOA 3. The sound is nice punching and kicking sound like punching and kicking though i never thought that making fighting noises was all that complicated. There some things that virtua fighter 4 is missing like a tag team mode, analog support, online play, option for infinite time, and no ring outs. All in all this is a superb package of a fighting game. I suggest to buy it, besides it is the only great 3d fighter(at the time) and may end up being the best 3d fighter for the ps2

15 of 17 found the following review helpful:

My two centsMar 31, 2002

I am a 24 year old gamer. I've played all of the fighting games from Karate Champ to Street Fighter (1, 2, 3, EX, Alpha) to Mortal Kombat (1,2,3,4) to the SNK fighters (Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, King of the Fighters) to Virtua Fighter (1,2,3) to the Tekken Series, Soul Blade / Calibur, and the Dead or Alive games. I own a PS2 but have no bias against an X Box or Gamecube, I'll probably buy them both when they give me good enough reason (like Grand Theft Auto 3, Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid 2, and Gran Turismo were for me on the PS2). I also OWN THIS GAME (the domestic version), for whatever that is worth. I just wanted to get that out of the way so that you may see how my view of this game may apply to you.

The Virtua Fighter series has always been my favorite 3D fighting series (Super Street Fighter 2 might be my favorite all time though). I have played Virtua Fighter 4 in the arcades and thought that it was great. I don't have anything personal against Namco, but Virtua Fighter was always the deepest of them all and I love flexibility which is abundant here. I've seen too many people walk up to Dead of Alive and Tekken (including myself the first time I played both) and frustrate people who actually try to learn the game by frantically hitting buttons. This has always been less prevalent with VF and it remains so with part 4, even with the simplified (from VF3) controls.

First of all the graphics are great. Did I mistake the game screen for a window in my wall? No. Are they better than Dead or Alive 3 on the X Box? Naaaaaah, but they aren't a whole lot worse. People kill me with their nit picking over graphic detail. Many of these people are zealots who just want to put down the PS2 in favor of their machine. Ignore these people until they grow up. There is nothing about this game that would disappoint any reasonable video game enthusiast. The backgrounds are simply gorgeous, and the characters are very nicely rendered. DOA3 is the only thing that compares.

There are 13 characters in the game, which might seem skimpy to Tekken fans. Personally the "hidden" Tekken characters never did anything for me since they were all mainly rehashes of the ones that you start out with. VF4 takes a different approach in that you can make your own characters (all based on the core 13), and as they progress through the game you can win adornments and colors for them to truly make them unique. Right now my Sarah Bryant has a funky colored suit with hexagon earrings and a set of designer sunglasses. Rumor has it that you can unlock secret moves as well, giving you character more... character.

I thought that I would miss the uneven territory from VF3 but VF4 makes up for it with a straightforward and elegant fighting engine. It was admittedly cool to take the level into consideration when forming strategy (and apparently somebody liked it because Tekken 4 and DOA2 both ripped it) but the engine in VF4 is so refined in regard to attacks, counters, and just overall timing (all with 3 buttons no less), that I was over it in no time. The fights feel like honest to goodness battles. This game is truly what it says, a fighting simulator. Sure there are a few reality-defying moves (read: Kage) but that sacrifice is acceptable in light of the immense entertainment value of the game. And there still are a few walls to bust down with the carcass of your opponent.

The sound is very appropriate. Sound effects are standard fight fare but you may be amused at little bits of trash talking that come from the likes of Jacky and Sarah (Whap! Whap! Whap! Whap! Whap! "Go back home!"). The music fits it perfectly, but they aren't going to make you swoon like... say the Metal Gear Solid 2 score. The tracks are varied to go along with the locales and personalities of the fighters so I'm sure that some will like some tracks over others. As far as I'm concerned, as long as it doesn't annoy me I'm cool. And I'm definitely cool.

Random notes: It's good to see that not EVERY female fighter is the game is wearing a G-String or exposing gratuitous parts of her body. The Asian women are dressed very classily and the developers even resisted the urge to give their outfits ridiculous splits up the side, even the black woman (who looks like Storm from X-Men on steroids) who in her 2P outfit looks like she�s about to hit the gym, has a very covered up 1P outfit. This is welcome, and no, I�m not a female... The deforming snow and sand are cool (nothing that wasn't in DOA3) but the stage where you walk through the water is probably coolest to me... Man I'm glad to see Sega back in the game!

7 of 8 found the following review helpful:

Confessions of a Tekken EnthusiastMar 28, 2002

Like most people back in the infancy of our beloved Playstation, as Sega pioneered the three dimensional fighting genre with Virtua Fighter, many Sony loyalists and non-Saturn owners were left with clones that have spurred great followings. Over the years, games like Tekken and Dead or Alive have developed identities and followings all their own, gaining much popularity along the way. But behind the countless debates of DOA's flash without substance and Tekken's Eddy Gordo mash-fest, AM2 was quietly working on a little gem that would eventually silence us all. To hardcore Virtua Fighters and Iron Fisters alike, it only seems appropriate that the series that started it all would take us to a new level of fighting game bliss.

Virtua Fighter 4's strongest points rest on the deep, intricate gameplay that genuinely replicates authentic fighting styles. I'll admit at first that to people who have never played a VF game, like myself, it doesn't seem complicated at all. In fact, the fighting system didn't draw me in as much as I'd hope it would. But under the extremely thin meniscus of Virtua Fighter 4's button mashing facade rested a vast ocean of gameplay depth heaven. To say this game is a complicated game of paper-scissor-rock does little justice to the mechanics in which you are so obligatorily inspired to train for, master, and in turn, be well rewarded. Who could've guessed that a simple layout of Punch, Kick, and Guard could result in such a plethora of strategy and quick thinking. Scratch the surface and force yourself to stop comparing it to Tekken or DOA, and you'll grow to love how much different it really is. The graphics are the best in any PS2 fighter to date and are perhaps second only to DOA3. Despite the minor jaggies, seeing Lei Fei's garment flowing so naturally as Sarah gracefully kicks him halfway across the room landing on extremely realistic snow makes you wonder if AM2 weren't limited by graphics chips and processors how much closer they would be to depicting reality. Even more impressive than the graphics, perhaps, is the single player replay value provided by the Kumite mode. Aside from the obvious friendly competition on Versus mode, VF4 gives those with no friends over 800 artificial ones. Pick a player that suits you, give him a ring name, and pit him against computerized representations of Japan's best and not so formidable opponents. As you progress, you are promoted with a higher rank and items to cosmetically alter your virtua buddy. There are over 400 of these items ranging from masks, alternate colors, necklaces, and hairstyles, giving you the ability to suit your character to best represent your own tastes. You can then pit your customized character against your friends' own concoctions and since the game tracks your win/loss record and also lets you gain more items in Versus mode, you try that much harder to send your foe crying back training mode.

There are a few minor flaws I noticed that don't really detract from the game's best points but I feel they should be addressed to make this review as fair as possible. First of all, with such an amazing Kumite mode, the Arcade mode is pretty much rendered useless. There's no CG ending and your win/loss record remains unaffected, leaving you very little motivation to complete it. Secondly, the system in which you gain items appears to be a mixed bag of chance and meeting certain conditions. However, when you go over 100 matches without getting a single thing, the drive to go on goes down a bit. Maybe it's just me, but I think defeating someone 5 ranks above you warrants a reward rather than beating someone 5 ranks below you with ring outs. Thirdly, be prepared to have a memory card for each person intent on seriously raising a full fledged fighter; you can still get by with one but the game only reads the second player's character from the second card port so you'll have to switch back and forth and it gets annoying after a while. I guess this is designed to mimic the VF.net system in which every player has his own card but for home purposes, it becomes an unnecessary pain. Even if you have two memory cards, if there are three or more players, two characters would eventually have to be put on one card so you'll end up switching back and forth anyway if you want the same two to duke it out. These minor flaws can be overlooked, however, as you probably won't give a "dan" whether or not you get another necklace just as long as you keep that win percentage above 80% and reach the highest rank.

What's so great about Virtua Fighter 4 is that it offers so much for you to do on top of beating your best friends with lighting fast gameplay running at 60 fps. It's a fresh, unique experience that you don't really see too often in these graphically driven days of gaming. Just don't go into VF4 with a pro-Tekken anti-VF mindset because like I initially was, you will be disappointed. Give it a chance. The beauty of this game is that it's so much on a different plane that, truth be told, it's really not fair to compare it to the likes of Tekken. I'll always be a Tekken gamer by heart, but Virtua Fighter 4 made me see that the grass is just as green on the other side. Do yourself a favor and immerse yourself in this near-perfect fighter. As much as my Tekken roots hate to admit it, VF4 is quite possibly the best fighting game ever created.

See all 114 customer reviews on Amazon.com