Surprise game announcements are topped only by surprise game releases, which themselves are topped only by a great (or altogether missing) price. Sega pulled this trifecta off recently when they announced Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown, the remaster of the 2012 re-release which itself was an updated version of 2007’s original release of Virtua Fighter 5. I think I reviewed the original game, but I for sure reviewed Final Showdown in 2012, though the ravages of time and server failure have made it only visible via Archive.org. That said, with about a week’s notice before the game was released on PSN and also free for those this month with PS+, Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown closes out the 60th anniversary celebration of Sega in fun arcade style.
The Virtua Fighter series is an old one, first gracing arcades in ’93 and then home consoles afterwards. A 1v1 fighting game with ring-outs, I liken it to games like Tekken, Dead Or Alive, and SoulCalibur, though I like Virtua Fighter the best, even if barely, out of that bunch. That’s not to say I’m great at it or play it all the time, in fact, I hadn’t played a Virtua Fighter game in years, but there’s something about its simplicity and responsiveness that makes it easy to pick up and play. I’m pleased to have a pretty vast fighting game collection, and I find Virtua Fighter a great compliment alongside series’ like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and SoulCalibur, as well as more obscure titles like Battle Monsters and Way of the Warrior.
So, anyway, history lesson and high-level subjective praise aside, why did Sega release this? Well, with nearly ten years since the last release of the game, two console generations ago, there are a lot of nostalgic players and lots of newcomers who haven’t tried the franchise at all to make an appeal to. It’s also a very modest remaster (likely didn’t cost a lot of time or money), understandably, given that they have given the game away at launch for PS+ members. To that point, from what I have gathered, the only difference with Ultimate Showdown are remade graphics — character models, stages, cinematics, as well as the music, bringing them into bona fide HD — as well as new online features, though specifically I’m not sure what those are (and indeed, some online features from Final Showdown may not even be here).
One feature, not sure if it’s new or not but I think it is, is that you are able to create private rooms for up to sixteen players and dive into various match types, including Leagues and Tournaments, though I didn’t test this. I will say that from what I have played so far the netcode is pretty good, but I’ve read elsewhere that it needs patching, which isn’t too surprising for fighting games to need some post-release polish. I prefer to just play the CPU or against someone locally anyway, but there is a ranked online system and in the few times I tried to find a match I was able to find one pretty quickly. While you’re waiting for a match, you are placed in practice mode to help you prep your combos and strategy, pretty cool.
All nineteen combatants return to the fold, with personal favorites Lei-Fei and Kage at the top of my roster. Controls are familiar, not as complicated as some fighters like BlazBlue, but not quite as simplified as Mortal Kombat. Matches tend to go quickly, and without EX bars and meters, or X-Ray attacks and all that, you would think it’s really down to raw technical skill, but there is something to be said for just relentless button-mashing. It’s not how I prefer to play, but button-mashing for constant offensive attack can get you places — I have been defeated several times that way. Now, there is a dedicated block button, Square, and I much prefer that to other games where you just have to press ‘back.’ From the block position, counter attacks are not only fun to pull off even if tricky, but they are really satisfying. The simplicity of Virtua Fighter appeals to me because there aren’t a variety of special moves, meters, and things like that to juggle, it’s really just about knowing your character (and learning your opponent), and working out a good strategy, with a dash of luck.
All that to say that this surprise re-release of Virtua Fighter 5 is a welcome one, especially for PS+ members who get it for free. The series still has a special place amongst all of the other fighting franchises out there, so hopefully enough interest is generated with this re-release to warrant a full blown sequel in the future. In the meantime, AM2 and Ryu ga Gotoku Studios have done a fine job with Ultimate Showdown, such that any fan of the series or fighting games in general should check it out.
###
