Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (PlayStation 2) review "There are two types of people in the world, those who love Tekken and those who love Virtual Fighter. I don’t care who you are, you fit into one of those categories. Be it an old lady from Florida or business man from New York, you either love one or the other. How is this possible you may ask yourself? There both 3d fighting games, the object in both games are the same beating the crap out of the other person. It all comes down to is how you like to beat the crap out of the other person, do you..."

There are two types of people in the world, those who love Tekken and those who love Virtual Fighter. I don’t care who you are, you fit into one of those categories. Be it an old lady from Florida or business man from New York, you either love one or the other. How is this possible you may ask yourself? There both 3d fighting games, the object in both games are the same beating the crap out of the other person. It all comes down to is how you like to beat the crap out of the other person, do you like going all out at super speeds doing 10 hit combos or would you rather take it slow and watch your opponent for an opening then strike. I vote for the latter of the two.

While Tekken focus is on great looking graphics, flashy moves, bad ass looking fighters, and a good story line (as far as fighters are concerned), VF4 on the other hand cuts out all the crap and what is left is a pure fighting game. Let us take a look at the story in VF4. Well for starters there is none, you finish the game and all you get is a congratulations. This is a fighting game people; we don’t play fighters for the story. If you want a story go read a book, watch a movie, or play an RPG. If you look at the fighters in VF4 you would probably call them lackluster, there about as dull as a cardboard cutout of Bill Gates. The most ‘edgy’ one on the roster is a guy with blue hair and a black hoodie; it just screams I’m a bad ass you know. Each uses a different fighting style, from judo to drunken boxing. The animation for each fighting style is spot on, and as long as that is right the fighters could be stick figures for all I care. What Tekken and VF4 both have in common though, is that the graphics in both are just fantastic. While the fighters in VF4 may look bland, it can’t be said that they don’t look bad graphics wise. And the places they fight at just make you want to go there and see them for yourself, from the snowy mountains to the sandy beaches they all look remarkable.

After reading all that stuff about VF4 in the last paragraph I bet you are wondering why anyone would pick it up over Tekken, well it all has to do with game play. Let me start off by saying if you want to just pick up the controller and do combos and flashy moves right off the start, then by all means pick up Tekken. VF4 is hard, learning one fighter’s moves can take months and mastering that fighter can take years. I for one have used Lei Fei for about 2 years now and I still feel as though I have more to learn. Sure you maybe able to pull off Akira’s ‘stun palm of doom’ but using it efficiently in a fight is a different thing altogether. And using moves efficiently is what this game is all about, just because you can do the best moves in the game doesn’t mean you should. It’s a balancing act, doing hard hitting moves may do loads of damage but will leave you open to attack if you miss or are blocked. And if you block you may get thrown if your opponent knows your going to block. Predictability will get you flat on your face fast. Knowing when to block, throw, and attack can’t be taught in VF4 you must learn it threw experience. But when you finally learn all the moves for someone and know when to use them, it is one of the most satisfying feelings you can get in a fighting game.

VF4 is a fighting game; it doesn’t try to hide it behind a story or flashy fighters. VF4 don’t need small orange dinosaurs, huge boobs, or a love triangle to be good and what it doesn’t need it just cuts out. Really that’s what games need to do, just cut the crap.

Community review by phoenix_crow (January 24, 2006) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.