Since Virtua Fighter 5’s 2007 debut, the fighting-game scene’s experienced something of a renaissance. That’s why Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown feels a bit flat compared to more recent fighters. It doesn’t do much that another game wouldn’t do better, but for $15, its nostalgia value and good clean combos are more than enough.
Final Showdown is the same VF5 you loved five years ago, only with enhanced graphics and animations (which makes hit detection much clearer), plus a much better online lobby. It does feature two new characters, however: Jean Kujo, a karate master who plays fast and strict with an enormous wingspan; and Taka-Arashi, the sumo wrestler from Virtua Fighter 3 whose (mostly) slow, fluid combos deal massive damage.
But here’s the good and bad news: Final Showdown plays exactly how Virtua Fighter always has. It’s balanced, fast-paced, and austere, using only four buttons (punch, kick, block, and grab) and combinations thereof. It’s easy to pick up and excruciating to master.
That won’t stop series fans from flocking to the improved online lobbies to battle it out. If you’ve never played Virtua Fighter, this is the best entry yet, and if you’re a fan, well, spend the $15. Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown is still everything it was in 2007 — fluid, complex, and fun. It’s just not much more.
PUBLISHER: Sega • DEVELOPER: Sega • ESRB: Teen • MULTIPLAYER: 2 locally, 8 in lobbies on Xbox Live • ACHIEVEMENTS: Easy • COST: 1,200 Microsoft Points ($15) • RELEASE DATE: June 6, 2012
+ Each character’s fighting style is super-different from the other combatants’.
+ Easy to pick up, extremely hard to master.
– Antiquated graphics, menus, and audio.
? Does the “Final” in Final Showdown signal the end of the franchise?
AndyC
June 10, 2012 at 4:25pm
Oh yeah, I've just noticed the "4 buttons" that the Reviewer says the game uses.Buttons that Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown actually uses:
- Punch
- Kick
- Guard
Grab (or throw) is a combination of pressing Punch and Guard together.This review is just horrible, DO THE GAME SOME JUSTICE AND GET ANOTHER REVIEWER IN!!
AndyC
June 10, 2012 at 4:21pm
220 words...is that all Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown is worth to the Official XBox Magazine? Poor review.
CamChattic
June 07, 2012 at 1:08am
This Reviewer is not only horribly misinformed but also Completely biased and it shows through his blatant omission of many of the games features. All in all from an informed point of view it looks like the reviewer is flatout lying. The reviewer states that It dose nothing that other fighters havent done which is completely wrong. The training mode alone has the frame data within it you can learn the game in it most truest form without any out side aid, the dummy has functions no other fighter has even come close to matching (a 3 way mixup record trainer thats with modifiable playback tendencies?). There are several other things he is completely missing that I am not going to get into just because the features are so robust in this game its mind blowing. And this reviewer mentions almost none of it. He dismisess all of the changes in the game as simple animation improvements which is true. But he completely omits the complete system changes that make this a completely new game. The removal of multiple throw escapes and there replacement the new eay throw system, the addition of hundreds of completely new moves,to the entire cast, the changes to the current moves. It is more of a new game than Soul Calibur V was, which the same reviewer gave an 8 and that game cost 60 dollars retail. Hell its waaaaaay more of a new game than Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix was and that game was given a 9 on this site. The icing on the cake was when he stated the game had 4 buttons. Really? Are you serious? Did you even play the game? Have you ever played VF it is known as THE 3 button game. I've read his other fighting game reviews they were pretty much just as misinformed. As far as I'm concerned this reviewer as well as this website is clueless when it comes to fighting games. Not reccomended reading.
