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Virtua Fighter 4
by Jolex Del Pilar
Sunday, December 16 2001
Sega's crown jewel of fighting games will be coming to the PS2 fairly soon. How does it look? So very good.
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Title:
Virtua Fighter 4
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Platform:
PS2
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Publisher:
Sega of Japan |
Developer:
AM2 |
#
of Players: 1 - 2 |
Genre:
Fighting
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Origin:
Japan
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Expected
Release:
March 15, 2002 |
Grapevine:
The mastery of Virtua Fighter is almost like the mastery of real martial arts. Each and every single move, each muscle twitch, each parry, each hesistation must be part of a greater purpose for you to survive in this game against a practiced player. If one cannot understand this, then one is lost in this game. |
Now, as the self-proclaimed king of fighting games at VGLN (trust me, non of the other staff members have come close to being challenging), I thought it wouldn't be too early to do a quick screen shot gallery and analysis of Virtua Fighter 4 since Sega was kind enough to give us a few PS2 screens for us to glaze over. That way, I can imagine how it'll look to stomp the other staff members over and over again.
Virtua Fighter 4 is currently scheduled to be a PS2 exclusive; good for you PS2 fans, bad for you Gamecube and Xbox only folks. However, after glancing at the controllers of the other two systems, perhaps VF4 being PS2 exclusive isn't a bad thing (note to Nintendo: large overbearing "A" buttons and wings don't match with fighting games). That's not to say the other two systems have horrible controllers, it's just that I personally would never choose the Cube or Xbox designs for my fighting games urges.
Controllers aside, the Virtua Fighter series has always been known for it's complexity and balance. It takes 5 minutes to be able to play the game, and a lifetime to master. In fact, the game has it's own professional league in Japan. If you thought you were a good Virtua Fighter player, you should take a peek at some of the amazing things the Japanese hardcore players are able to do.
The variety of moves and complexity of the fighting engine are just heavenly. With an engine that boast over 10,000 seperate moves, no two games are ever repetitive or become predictable. The mastery of Virtua Fighter is almost like the mastery of real martial arts. Each and every single move, each muscle twitch, each parry, each hesistation must be part of a greater purpose for you to survive in this game against a practiced player. If one cannot understand this, then one is lost in this game. Attacking, defense, and countering all take a new meaning in this fighting game series. It's quite a serious undertaking learning to master this game.
The stages in this game are something to look at. Just don't get to distracted by the scenery when fighting.
Graphically, the game boast an even better graphics engine than Virtua Fighter 3tb on the Dreamcast with greater level complexity and effects. The whole thing is running at a constant 30 fps on the PS2 and that number may go up by release time meaning "silky smooth domination" for me, and horribly realistic mutilation for my staff.
Akira and Jacky look good in making the jump into the next generation of consoles.
So far the game is looking at a March 2002 release date. We'll be updating our preview sooner to launch. However, as far as we can tell, so far so good. Thank you Sega!
--- Jolex Del Pilar
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