Virtua Fighter 5 Returns To Consoles In Final Showdown

[Earnest Cavalli]

Virtua Fighter 5 Returns To Consoles In Final Showdown

It's been four long years since Virtua Fighter last appeared on a home console, but that dearth of fisticuffs is about to end.

Come next summer, both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 will play host to Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, the latest update to 2006's Virtua Fighter 5.

While the fifth Virtua Fighter has already appeared on both consoles in an earlier iteration, Final Showdown brings with it a host of new, shiny features. Sega details the works:

The Perfect Fighting Experience: Virtua Fighter 5's signature style of hand-to-hand combat, with revised mechanics, balance, timing and more, along with simplified controls for new players while retaining the depth that veterans demand

Dynamic and Interactive Arenas: Fighting areas in new shapes and sizes, including arenas with fences and walls that are different for every round - take unexpected advantage of fighters' new wall-based moves, or break through the fences with special attacks

A Mode for Every Fight: Dominate the leaderboards with VF5's extremely responsive online battle system, widely praised for having little to no latency, or take on an army of opponents yourself in a new single-player mode

Endlessly Customized Combatants: Enter the ring with one of 19 playable characters, including fan favorite Taka-Arashi from Virtua Fighter 3 and an all-new character, Jean Kujo, and customize them with unique costume and character items.

New roster addition, Jean Kujo, is the effeminate gentleman in the image at top-right. He's a French Karateka, who could pass as Ken Masters' mopey younger brother in a pinch. Final Showdown is his debut in the Virtua Fighter series, so expect Kujo's novelty to make him something of a favorite among online players, at least initially.

Alongside this announcement, Sega also issued a trailer for the game. Though it lacks actual gameplay, the footage does offer a substantial amount of hype-building stylized aesthetics, likely built specifically to appeal to long-time fans of the series. Have a look:


Unlike Capcom's updated fighters, Final Showdown will be released solely as an Xbox Live Arcade/PlayStation Network downloadable title. No pricing details have yet been announced, but we'll fill you in just as soon as Sega does the same for us.

Though Final Showdown is not scheduled for release until next summer, Sega has promised that the game will be playable at PAX this weekend.

This seems like an excellent opportunity to learn exactly how Monsieur Kujo throws down.

Source: Sega [http://blogs.sega.com/2011/08/23/segapax-virtua-fighter-final-showdown-is-coming-to-consoles-and-is-pax-playable/]

Permalink

 

[Kyle 2175]

Huh, I remember playing the original Virtua Fighter years ago. It was okay, I guess. Anyone know if the more recent ones have been good?

 

[Rad Party God]

Meh, never been a fan of either Virtua Fighter or Tekken, I like shiny fireballs in my fighters, thanks.

BUT, judging by the description, it seems like Sega are updating this game big time and are releasing it as a downloadable title no less, you rarely see a game of this magnitude as a downloadable title.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Two comments. Figures.

I always feel bad for Virtua Fighter. One quick trip through VF4 Evo's extensive tutorial will show anyone that this is the most complex and gratifying fighting series on the planet (and it's not close), but practically no one knows this because the game is too fucking bland to attract new players.

I mean c'mon, petite women with ordinary breasts who also wear clothes? Character gimmicks consisting of nothing more than a little bit of hair dye? No fantastic sparks or flames or explosions when people get punched?

If you can lock yourself in a room with this game for two hours and play through the initial lackluster bits, you'll discover the best fighter around.

 

[Earnest Cavalli]

Two comments. Figures.

I always feel bad for Virtua Fighter. One quick trip through VF4 Evo's extensive tutorial will show anyone that this is the most complex and gratifying fighting series on the planet (and it's not close), but practically no one knows this because the game is too fucking bland to attract new players.

I mean c'mon, petite women with ordinary breasts who also wear clothes? Character gimmicks consisting of nothing more than a little bit of hair dye? No fantastic sparks or flames or explosions when people get punched?

If you can lock yourself in a room with this game for two hours and play through the initial lackluster bits, you'll discover the best fighter around.

It should be noted that your comments only apply to America (and to a lesser extent Europe). By and large, Virtua Fighter is the second most popular fighter (behind only Street Fighter) in the Asian territories, and given that Asia is the only place that still has viable arcades, that's a pretty solid accomplishment.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Two comments. Figures.

I always feel bad for Virtua Fighter. One quick trip through VF4 Evo's extensive tutorial will show anyone that this is the most complex and gratifying fighting series on the planet (and it's not close), but practically no one knows this because the game is too fucking bland to attract new players.

I mean c'mon, petite women with ordinary breasts who also wear clothes? Character gimmicks consisting of nothing more than a little bit of hair dye? No fantastic sparks or flames or explosions when people get punched?

If you can lock yourself in a room with this game for two hours and play through the initial lackluster bits, you'll discover the best fighter around.

I hear you! When ever there's a poll of favorite fighting games on the forum and the OP doesn't list the Virtua Fighter series I go into nerd rage meltdown (especially if SSBM is on there). It's the closest you can come to actually having a fight without the bruises and broken bones.

I can't remember how long it took me to get the precise timing and motions to pull off the SPOD, let alone use it in the pressure of a match.

 

[Riobux]

"Well, we were going to make a sequel, but it required too much effort, not to mention we wanted to print money". There, summery.

 

[Vortigar]

When I picked this news up yesterday my jaw just about hit the floor.

I really didn't think we were going to see this game come home.

My main game is getting another home release... I feel I'm like tearing up.

"Well, we were going to make a sequel, but it required too much effort, not to mention we wanted to print money". There, summery.

You talking about a VF6?

The fact they're taking the trouble to port this game at all is a miracle in its own right. SEGA have gotten burned by low VF sales figures since time immemorial.

I think a major problem also lies in the fear SEGA has of a home port drawing people away from arcades. They own those places in Japan and VF is one of their main draws. SEGA doesn't want to mess with one of their main revenue streams so VF gets very late ports. A VF game will never ever debut anywhere but in arcades unless SEGA suddenly makes a heel-face turn in its policies.

VF and KoF are in the same boat that way. Very good games that somehow don't sell in home editions. A vicious cycle of little name recognition leading to careful investments leading to moderate sales leading to little name recognition. Whenever SNK or SEGA throws a boat load of money at the problem they still don't see a return. Ie. KoF12 and VF4Evo, where KoF12's failure was rather obvious (visually beautiful game but crap netcode and barebones single player experience) but VF4Evo is an absolute gem of a game (Quest mode, training mode, tutorials and AI programming that are all way ahead of the norm to this very day) that failed to sell in numbers.

This seems like an excellent opportunity to learn exactly how Monsieur Kujo throws down.

Two words my man: Charged moves.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

More Virtua Fighter goodness? Excuse me while I go perform the dance of joy~

Now I'd just like to see VF get some recognition in Western competitive scenes.

 

[Riobux]

"Well, we were going to make a sequel, but it required too much effort, not to mention we wanted to print money". There, summery.

You talking about a VF6?

I'm talking about every current fighting game. I'm talking about Street Fighter, I'm talking about Marvel Vs Capcom 3 and I'm talking about Virtua Fighter 5. Maybe I'd be interested in the game, if the companies behind all the relevant fighting games didn't think "oh, we could make downloadable content, but a repackaging of the game with exclusive DLC content will make us more money". It's hard to argue that these companies do it for newcomers when the sales are that strong they're repackaging other genres too (Dead Rising 2).

 

[OniYouji]

FieryTrainwreck basically summed it up; it is WAY too bland. I saw some of the gameplay, and it just looked boring; nothing to do with the characters, it just didn't have the spark or style that other games do, not to mention actually having substance to back it up. Because so many people gush over it, I'll give it a shot, but I'm not really feeling the hype like most people.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

FieryTrainwreck basically summed it up; it is WAY too bland. I saw some of the gameplay, and it just looked boring; nothing to do with the characters, it just didn't have the spark or style that other games do, not to mention actually having substance to back it up. Because so many people gush over it, I'll give it a shot, but I'm not really feeling the hype like most people.

Depends what you are after really. It's like comparing the likes of Gran Tourismo and Forza vs Burnout and NFS. One series is based around rock solid mechanics, grounded in realism and the other is flashy and over the top. It's not a fighter where you mash the controls or throw fireballs ad nauseum to grind out a win; the fights ebb and flow and if you don't practice you will get dominated from the get go.
I like your willingness to "give it a go", but just keep in mind that it isn't like the bulk of fighters out there and that's how it's supposed to be.

 

[Vortigar]

I'm talking about every current fighting game. I'm talking about Street Fighter, I'm talking about Marvel Vs Capcom 3 and I'm talking about Virtua Fighter 5. Maybe I'd be interested in the game, if the companies behind all the relevant fighting games didn't think "oh, we could make downloadable content, but a repackaging of the game with exclusive DLC content will make us more money". It's hard to argue that these companies do it for newcomers when the sales are that strong they're repackaging other genres too (Dead Rising 2).

You can't really equate VF with Capcom's titles in this case.

VF5 was 2007 remember? This is not a game that was released less than a year ago getting another release to milk it. This is probably the final version of VF5 before VF6 goes into the works (arcade beta testing).

They've redone the animations, stages (which actually has effect on gameplay unlike in Capcom's titles), models and interface between VF5 and VF5FS (there's been somewhere around 15 updates (could easily be 25) on the arcade version in the meantime, thus playtested and tweaked on a massive scale). It's not just two new characters and a couple move changes that may or may not improve or break the game (here's to you Yun!).

If they do this as DLC (which isn't even possible for the PS3 btw. VF5 was a launch title there and they didn't program the necessary hooks to be able to plug in DLC in that version.) the download would still be massive and you'd probably pay the same as you're going to pay for this new release (I'd estimate the price somewhere between 20 and 30 bucks).

Now we get VF5 50$ new and this version for something like 30$ both of which are complete games. Can you add up 15 incremental updates at 5$ a piece plus 50$? Now tell me which alternative is actually milking the franchise.

On a related note:
Personally I despise DLC with a passion, it might seem like a good deal but it never is. Especially DLC characters in the vein of MvC3's Shuma and Jill. I'm glad VF never stooped that low, if you really wanted some specific items you could buy them but it changed nothing to actual gameplay. Still tasteless, but okay, at least you could skip it without second thoughts.

Now, if they start selling games for 20$ I can get behind the DLC model but in the current market its practically a gun short of highway robbery.

 

[Riobux]

VF5 was 2007 remember? This is not a game that was released less than a year ago getting another release to milk it. This is probably the final version of VF5 before VF6 goes into the works (arcade beta testing).

My big problem is this: Why couldn't they of just did a bit more work and called this a sequel? If they've remastered a lot of the game, they could of did more work and packaged it as a separate game. The only reason not to is a money grab.