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Deepest most rewarding fighting series of all time.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Scrubs and button mashers beware. You'll start this game up play for 15 minutes without doing anything worthwhile and go "THIS GAME SUCKS!" and return to your mortal kombat or Dead or Alive. You're just too impatient to learn a quality fighter. You can't just pick this game up and be knock heads. You have to train a bit. Each character has a distinctive style and all the major martial art styles, even some that aren't real martial arts (luchadore and american wrestling) are represented. This game is the most well balanced fighter as well. Unlike most fighters with 2 or 3 really good characters and a mediocre remaining cast, Virtua Fighter 5 contains the most well balanced character roster of any fighter. Attacks that open up the potential for big damage aren't safe and can be punished by evade or after guarding (Usually by throws, Unless the opponent buffers escapes (It can get deeper still).) In the most popular fighting game in America, Tekken 5, big damage moves are safe on block and can lead to boring overly defensive gameplay, with each player dashing back just waiting for whiffed moves. In VF5 if you turtle you're going to get punished. This series isn't for everybody, but it is for those that want the deepest 1 on 1 experience in fighting. The game really shines when playing against other experienced players.

If you think a fighting game needs a storyline or CGI movies then plz pass on this game. The main point of this game is playing to your potential.

First BLOCKBUSTER on PS3!!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: March 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is great overall. As a long time fan of Tekken, I must admit I came in very skeptical, even hated the game after the first hour or so, however, after playing it more and giving it a legitimate chance, I'd recommend it to anyone.

What's Good:
A good array of fighters, each one very unique, you never feel like Fighter X is just a palette swap of Fighter Y.

Physics engine is finally at a point where the game is not an absurd juggle-fest, this has been my biggest critique as long as I've known about the game.

Grapplers can actually grapple! Thanks to "buffering" and 0-frame throws the game is not rediculously unbalanced between the strikers and grapplers.

Graphics are spectacular

Great variety of arenas

The Bad:
Characters do not have stories

No FMVs

A.I. ranges from rediculously easy to rediculously hard

It takes forever to unlock items

Overall, I highly recommend this to PS3 owners, but I will be honest, once Tekken 6 comes out I probably won't play this as much.

VF5: A great fight with just a bruise or two to show for it.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: February 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

SEGA's Virtua Fighter carries a legacy that only the blue hedgehog can rival. Akira, Wolf, Sarah - you've seen them in one form or another, whether it's the blocky polygonal models from the original or the immaculately detailed PlayStation 3 ones. Does this legacy fall far from the tree?

Virtua Fighter 4 was a critical success on the PlayStation 2, with a global average of 91% in its original form and 91.4% in the revised form, Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. In fact, it sits just under Soul Calibur 2 (91.6%) as the all-time highest-rated PS2 fighting game. History lesson aside, Virtua Fighter 5 does little to improve upon its PS2 predecessor, but it really doesn't need to. Fans of the PS2 game will find two new fighters and improved gameplay and graphics to boot. Cover boy Akira is joined by his entire set of Virtua Fighter 4 peers and newcomers El Blaze and Eileen. El Blaze, a luchadora, uses fancy wrestling moves while Eileen hops around a whole lot and utilizes what I considered cheaper hits than other characters. My personal favorite was the bald monk Lei-Fei.

Fighting is a breeze for newcomers and series vets alike. I can't say how grateful I am for this, because Virtua Fighter 4 wasn't so accessible and as a result I personally didn't appreciate it as much as my critical peers. On the PS3 pad, X serves as a punch button while Circle kicks and Square blocks. The triggers act as shortcuts for combinations of those three buttons, making special moves easier to execute. Combos are simple and flow together well, giving Virtua Fighter 5 a feel that is more similar to Dead or Alive than other fighting games. Fights tend to last longer than in other games, since the default settings require you to win three rounds, not two out of three, but three rounds, meaning close fights extend into five rounds.

Quest Mode is where it's at in this game; the mode is essentially a recreation of the experience of traveling to different arcades and challenging players on a machine. To start you create a profile and choose your preferred character, and then the Quest world is open to explore. There are several different arcades with "players" of different skill levels, so there is a feeling of progression as you go from one arcade to the next, improving in your ranking and piling up wins. Winning matches and tournaments in the different arcades will earn you money and items to customize your character and beef out your profile. Not only is it addictive to collect items and personalize fighters, it's very difficult to stop trying to improve your rank and dominate different arcades.

Unfortunately, Quest mode is the only attention-grabber. The Arcade and Versus modes are very generic and don't offer anything you haven't seen before. There's a VF TV mode, which is entirely worthless-it lets those with HDTVs and HDMI cables appreciate their expensive commodities by watching two CPU-controlled characters battle. Virtua Fighter 5's biggest flaw is its lack of PS3 online play. With Quest mode being such a focus and character customization being a bit part of that, I find the lack of at least some sort of online profiling to be inexcusable on SEGA AM-2's part. After all, A.I. opponents in quest mode don't recreate the tendencies of human players very well, and it isn't even until elite ranks that the CPU becomes difficult or utilizes techniques that force the player to study the fighting system beyond a few different combos.

At least Virtua Fighter 5 shows off the PS3's power for the most part. Arguably there isn't a better-looking game on the system. Every character is fleshed-out-literally, in fact-with detail down to their skin textures and hairstyles. All of the different outfits are colorful and react realistically as the players animate. I was very impressed with the animation in general; Virtua Fighter 5 stands right beside Dead or Alive 4 as the fighter with the most visual fluidity. The only complaint I have from a technical standpoint is that the overall sound of the game is slightly muffled and doesn't blast out of the speakers like I think it should.

Virtua Fighter 5 should be your next PlayStation 3 game if you enjoy fighting games and can deal with its "more of the same, but improved" syndrome. Quest mode could easily have you hooked for thousands of matches and have you searching for band-aids for gamer's thumb. The lack of online play hurts its overall longevity, but perhaps this will be attended to with the Xbox 360 version's summer 2007 release.

Gorgeous Graphics but Gameplay Needs Work

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 13 / 23
Date: April 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Virtua Fighter 5 lets the graphics prowess of the PlayStation 3 shine. The question is whether great graphics alone can make a fighting game worth playing.

First, the good. The graphics in Virtua Fighter 5 are spellbindingly beautiful in many situations. The landscapes are lush. The movements of the fabrics are fluid and natural. The physics engine is quite impressive. Yes, sometimes the textures can be shiny, and the water more mercury-like that truly watery. Still, this is beautiful to watch.

The characters are each very unique. The look and feel of each character seems true to their background. Not only that, but each character's movements and actions is distinct to them. It's not that you have a "kung fu" style that is replicated 30 times across 30 different blue-green-yellow characters. They put a lot of work into ensuring that the characters are extremely differentiated.

That being said, the main gameplay is very restrictive. The square you can fight in is extremely small. There is limited interactivity - the snow moves away from where you step, the wooden walls might dent a little - but it is very small changes compared with what other modern games offer. The spectators in the background look like animatronic robots on a short movement loop.

There is a standard mode where you go through a series of rounds to win, and then an 'arcadey' mode where you are pretending to go to different arcades to challenge other players. In the arcadey mode, you can unlock new items and outfits for your characters. I would have appreciated a much greater depth of options here. It would be nice to have a story mode, where you can learn more about a given character and their background. Maybe a career mode where you learn new skills along the way and build up your reputation.

I think part of the problem was that the gameplay itself was great to watch, but rather easy to play. I realize this is great for new kids and new fighting gamers - but there should be more complexity to how the enemies react to you and start to pick up on your patterns. I could use the exact same three keystroke pattern to defeat all of the first 6 enemies I faced, without them ever learning to guard against me.

Which leads into the next problem. Usually in fighting games, you do all your training against the enemy AI to learn the keystroke combinations, so that you can face your real challenge - human opponents. Enemy AI is rarely as much fun to fight as a real, live human who has honed his or her skills to a razor's edge. But you don't have that option here! No online gameplay at all. So you can build up your character, learn the skills, perfect the techniques, and then ... what? Earn a new pair of sandals?

I really appreciate what they've achieved with the graphics and movements here. I give them kudos for that programming. Now it's time for them to take that work to the next level, and to bring it online, and to add in more complex gameplay and arenas.

My Favorite PS3 Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is an immensely entertaining game. Perhaps the most impressive aspect is the range of skill levels it accomodates; huge, immediate fun for the casual gamer yet impressive depth for those who take their Virtua Fighting seriously. Coming from a family with extensive Real World Martial Arts experience, it is fascinating to explore the strengths and weakness of the various characters. Just as in the real world of martial arts a small, skilled opponent can take out a big brute---but you better practice! The game is very well-balanced; any character can be a stud or dud, depending on your skill level.

After a long day at work, what could be more fun than powering up the PS3 and beating the tar out of "Jeffry," the obnoxious Australian Pancratium expert? I tell you, he deserves every thumping he gets!

Some magazine reviews have bemoaned the lack of on-line play. In a perfect world, yes, on-line would be a nice addition. But this is the ultimate fast muscle twitch game. Often the winner is determined by a last-moment, split-second kick. The quality of game play would suffer over the internet. So enjoy Virtua Fighter 5 for what is is: a gorgeous, highly replayble adrenalin-pumping slugfest.

Amazing graphic,

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: February 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The concept behind VF5 is almost the same as it predecessors. The fighting mechanic is a simple kick, punch, block and any combination of these. The frame-rate, movement are silky smooth and again the graphic is amazing. I like the backgrounds here more then any other fighters out there. The presentation is very stylish.

What it lacked are any extras. You got the typical arcade, vs., quest, training, a few short movie clips, but not much more. Tekken usually throw something weird in like Tekken Bowling, volleyball and more characters' animation to get a better feeling for the fighters. Even though I enjoyed playing VF5, I just prefer the Tekken's fighting system: combo moves and will hold other for it. Why not try online vs. mode?

Get ready to lose sleep!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: February 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

After reading several reviews especially the one in EGM I was eager to purchase VF5. I ditched fighting games during the Sega Genesis era while I devoted my life to Madden and Tony Hawk for many years. Thanks to VF5 for the PS3 I'm happy to return to the arena. Gameplay is super smooth and fast. I was literally up all night practicing combos. Two different training modes shrink the learning curve. One mode lets u practice your moves using any character on any character who won't fight back. 5555555 LOL 55 wwwwwww!!!! The other training mode is for practicing your combos. Did VF4 have this? I dunno cos' I was too busy drinkng and playing Madden. I just started Quest mode which is really fun. As you win and earn money you can buy new outfits for your character! A fashionista plus! Too bad you can't go to Topshop. Ok so no online mode...I've read Sega did this to avoid laggy play. Well you know what...bring it back old school...practice your combos and invite yer friends over to play. I'm going to. What fun. Oh yeah Aoi is hot. If you use her (she's fast and very agile) change her into outfit #2. The bikini kimono is IOUEHEIHEIHWA-Ra OUZWEEEE!!!!

fast paced fighting, slow paced interface

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

ill keep this short. the fighting in this game is fun, the graphics are great. and thats it for the good. now on to the slightly bad to the game-killing bad.
some of the moves are just about impossible to pull off with the ps3 controller, you really think that sega would've realized this, but either they didnt, or they didnt care. yes folks, if you want to be able to do all of the moves available, you will have to buy an arcade stick. but the worst thing about this game is the fact that you cant just pick it up and fight your freind in vs mode over and over. the game is so tedious about post-fight options and reloading, that you cant just keep playing. after a fight you have to scroll down an options list to be able to choose new fighters, then you have to scroll up a list of your customized fighters (as does player2) to get to an option to choose "non-customized fighter", then you have to choose your fighter, which you have a time limit on doing, and there is no random selection. all in all, after a 1 1/2 minuet fight, youll be doing 3 1/2 minuets of options and loading. IT KILLS THE GAME! the tekken sytem has it right, if you just like to get in and fight, more fighting options too (like 8 vs 8).
all in all, if you're just dying to get a fighting game, i really suggest you wait for something better. trust me, you'll be dissapointed.

A definite buy

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Virtua Fighter 5 out shines it's predecessor by miles even though it doesn't have the tutorial mode from the 4th Evolution Ed. This game has improved graphics and faster game play.

Virtura Fighter PS3

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I am more of a Tekken fan per se, but I wanted a next generation fighter for the PS3 and this one is pretty much it.
I have DOA for the 360 and was never really all that impressed with it as a fighter but I have heard that the VF series has always been great.
I have not played it a great deal since I just got it but overall it is pretty nice. The fighting engine is fast and responsive and very similar to Tekken. The texture maps are the most impressive thing since they look real and are nothing short of amazing!
The moves are numerous and the AI is very good since you can not reuse the same tricks over and over again to win consistenly.
Not bad since I have never been a VF fan but I am impressed!

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