VF5 has solid fighting mechanics accompanied by some nice visuals, but where's the rest of the game?
This is what you bought Virtua Fighter 5 for! There are basically 3 different buttons: punch, kick, block, but dont each character has a load of moves. You cannot blindly button mash on this game like you can with Dead or Alive, Street Fighter, or even Tekken. Blocking and executing at the right time are key in this game, and a lot of the moves require some tricky D-pad movement. This is why many consider Virtua Fighter to have the most solid fighting system. Graphics:
Its clearly evident that VF5 has the visuals worthy to be called a next-gen game. The game only runs at a maximum of 720p and there are a few glitches in the game. An annoying glitch that you'll see all the time is when you use Kage's diving headbutt on an opponent laying on the ground, he goes right through the opponent each time! I dont recall seeing that kinda crap in Dead or Alive 4. Sound:
Uhh nothing special, SFX are decent, I've played VF5 many hours, but if you played any of the stage music to me, I wouldnt recognize such forgettable compositions, hmmph!
Content & Replay Value:
Well the good thing is, that this game was priced like $20 less than any other new PS3 when it came out. Well it was priced that way cause this game doesnt offer anything more than good gameplay. Tekken, Soul Calibur, Street FIghter, King of Fighters, Dead or Alive, Mortal Kombat all some sort of apparent storyline for each character (Dead or Alive's and Tekken's is actually somewhat deep). The storyline that I've concluded in Virtua Fighter 5, is that there are these people that fight each other. Seriously, maybe there is more to it than that, but after I beat the game with a character, I get sent back to the main Menu! No CG animated ending or anything! Street Fighter 2 for the Snes offers more storyline than this game. Each character has only 2 costumes... Other things you can unlock are items like sunglasses or maybe a hat for a character, yay... And even to unlock those little accessories takes forever, since you have to aquire money to buy it. There is a decent selection of characters but some of them really suck. Like there is a white guy who looks like a Backstreet Boy and uses Bruce Lee's martial art style, I never select that idiot. And the only character you can unlock is this stupid bald stone sillhouette lady. I bought this game for the PS3, and there is no online gameplay! I want to fight other people, since the A.I is a bit on the stupid side. So this game might get boring quick if you don't have some friends who like playing these sort of games. Conclusion:
Unless your in love with this game's more tactical fighting system, I reccommend other fighting games if you want more content.