Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown | PS4 Review

SEGA's flagship fighter returns to the fray updated, and upgraded in a new graphics engine for fighting game fans and newcomers alike. Boldly, and bravely it brings back it's unique cast of 19 fight style inclusive characters, adds in a whole host of new features, and does so at a decent full packaged price. Downloadable content included. While it does visually improve the overall looks of the game, and add modes as well as various tools for learning it falters where it should prevail though. The training mode which now has everything from the basics of 3D fighting to the detailed combo training for every character alongside a proper free training mode it hinders progress by not directing the player to do what they need to do to win in the most straightforward fashion. That along with netcode, and matchmaking instability it causes the game to not shine as brightly as I think most returning fans or newcomers would hope. It is, unfortunately, a fighter fit mostly for couch co-op competition, and limited online play via the game's new room system ...

For thirty dollars a paying player will gain access to the full 'Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown" experience including all the DLC in one big fairly priced package. Upon purchase you'll be able to play through Arcade mode in it's several ladder matches against the series' staple roster. Ending a playthrough with a chance to fight, and unlock the secret boss that is Dural. Each fight taking place on uniquely themed stages that have borders, and ring out opportunities. The main goal being to defeat the opponent the allotted amount of rounds, and do so by depleting their health bar through landed attacks and combos. With each character in the roster having their own unique fighting style it makes for an interesting match-up in a sort of MMA fashion. You'll find kung-fu specialists, wrestlers, brawlers, and grapplers among the mixed casting. Some with their own unique fighting gimmicks.

Beyond the battles of arcade mode lies the offline versus mode for that couch co-op experience that only some of the community are privileged to. A way to play at home against family or friends. There's that, and a three mode training section for getting familiar with the game's combat mechanics, beforehand. You have at your beckon call basic training, combo training, and free training. Basic training allows you to learn the game's various movement, attack, and defense mechanics. Combo training extends this learning by adding in combo starters, and strings for each, and every character. Lastly the free training is a fully decked out modern take on the fighting game training mode with a detailed program menu for the dummy's actions, and player settings. A proper tool for fine tuning your approach against certain match-ups and situations. Comparable to modern day anime fighters.

When it comes to the online components 'Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown' offers a more straightforward ranked match setup where you can train with a dummy player while you wait for the matchmaking system to find you a match. Match parameters can be set before a match pairing to include connection quality, and ranking preference. If you want to really control who you play against though the Room mode is where you'll want to setup up your sessions. In room matchmaking you can set a password, number of players, what role you'll play, the match type, tags, and rules. You can choose to play elimination style matches, a kumite match, or a league match. Each with their own winning or losing standards. If you want to join a room instead of create one you can do that as well through the "Search Room" option. Of course you can narrow down the room search by choosing the type of room you are looking for.

The Room mode also doubles as a sort of spectator mode. Kind of like MK11's mode where those on standby could interact by using the game's character and emoji-like stickers to troll or cheer fighting players on. It's something to do while you wait your turn. 

As some of you already know character customization does make a return from Final Showdown as well. The new customization system is a sectional part menu user interface allowing the player to customize various parts of their chosen character. This includes hair, accessories, shoes, pants, shirt, and other body part focused areas of interest. It's not the most elaborate customization, but does similarly resemble Tekken 7's setup. When you finish customizing a character you can save that customization, and even set it as your default costume for that character when playing in any of the other modes of play. Even further still paying players will be able to transform characters into a retro 3D style that pays homage to the classic Virtua Fighter arcade builds.

The Verdict ...

Visually 'Virtua fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown" is an honest, but somewhat basic upgrade. Everything from the character models, and stage environments gained a new more realistic skin transformation. Characters have sweat, veins, and more realistic muscle tone on their bodies. That change looks to be mostly skin deep though as the character models themselves are like Final Showdown's, structurally. They are even animated in a similar fashion as to Final Showdown. That having been said the environments have semi-photo realistic elements, and lighting that makes everything pop all that much more. Even clothing on the characters looks, and flows better. 

When it comes to the actual gameplay Ultimate Showdown is true to itself to a fault. In a lot of ways it has the same feel as the previous entry, and is crude in some aspects. Offline the CPU opponent will either play cheaply or hardly attack, for example. Pointing to an old AI issue. In fact this AI issue extends into the basic training mode where the AI will not act in instances it should. Causing the player to have to attack the CPU dummy before it will attack back so that guard requirements or dodge requirements can be fulfilled. The text beforehand doesn't even tell you this. In regards to combo training it is once again made foreign like so many other fighting game tutorials by not showing the button icons as they are on the controller the player is using. For a newcomer this alone can be confusing. 

Online play is also not without it's issues. Even with settings set to a favorable connection, and the game showing the matched opposing player as having that matching favorable connection lag will be present, and to a point it can cost you a win. I don't know if this is a netcode problem, or a player problem, but it is a problem nonetheless. As far as my recommendation goes I can, and will recommend this for players who have the option for offline co-op play, and will be able to make use of the room system. For those looking to take advantage of ranked online though I cannot readily recommend it for you.