REVIEW : Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown (PS5)
Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown is the fourth incarnation of the fifth mainline entry in Sega’s iconic 3D fighting game, and the first since the 2010s (now strangely dubbed Final Showdown). Ultimate Showdown’s primary goal is to rekindle Virtua Fighter’s admittedly limited competitive environment, providing players with an alternative to FGC titans like Tekken and Mortal Kombat 11. These are formidable foes. Still, if any game has the pedigree to make a resurrection, it’s Sega’s classic slugfest.
Carving out a prominent position in a crowded esports industry is a difficult endeavour, especially given the current global climate and the unpredictable nature of its eventual consequences. Sega will have to go all-in on marketing and, more importantly, supporting Ultimate Showdown as a title deserving of a new chapter in the premier league of competitive fighters.
While no one would argue that Virtua Fighter is one of the best and most important games ever made, Virtua Fighter 5’s first release was a bone-chilling 15 years ago.
Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown is a collaboration between Sega’s pioneering AM2 division and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, which had previously worked on the Yakuza and Judgment franchises. The two brilliant teams have recreated Virtua Fighter 5 within RGG’s Dragon Engine, perfectly keeping the gameplay and mechanics of its previous editions while giving the decade-old aesthetics a fresh coat of paint and refining its under-the-hood technologies.
Virtua Fighter 5 has never looked better. RGG’s work to improve the fighter’s light and shadow effects is outstanding, and individual textures for material, hair, and skin – always a VF hallmark — have also received an improvement. Furthermore, Virtua Fighter’s gallery of sun-streaked battlegrounds, which are among the most idyllic in the game, shines like never before. Sega’s love of neon-lit cities, beautiful blue skies, glistening seas, and sun-kissed beaches are on full display.
Despite this glow-up, some of the character models fall short of the standards set by other 3D fighters. While pugilists like Akira and Eileen look terrific, others fail from time to time, feeling like a step down from their previous appearances. Perhaps we were spoilt by Team Ninja’s amazing work on VF’s turn in Dead or Alive, but while Ultimate Showdown’s texturing and visual effects are unquestionably improved, mileage on the characters vary. Overall, Ultimate Showdown looks fantastic, especially when using the fun VF 1 throwback models, which are available separately as paid DLC.
The meat of any fighting game is the blood-pumping action that occurs when fists and feet begin to fly. Ultimate Showdown has lost nothing in the transfer to its new engine, giving the same rewarding and fascinating gameplay that has been a trademark of the franchise since its start in 1993. Virtua Fighter has always been a joy to play, with its innovative three-button interface providing all of the innovation it has ever required. While the fighting game genre has reinvented itself numerous times over the years, VF’s mechanics have been crystallised and are as solid in Ultimate Showdown as they have ever been.
A potential disadvantage of the new engine is that the fun customization choices of previous iterations have been lost in the process, with things such as unlocking things, character crossover skins, and hidden win poses no longer available. While the costume textures are beautiful, this is Virtua Fighter 5’s poorest customization mode to date. What’s the point if it can’t transform Vanessa Lewis into KoF’s Leona Heidern or Sarah Bryant into Space Channel 5’s Ulala?
The limited customising options reflect a major flaw in Ultimate Showdown: a scarcity of single-player content. Ultimate Showdown is initially and mainly a Vs.-centric release, having been designed primarily as a tournament tool. Players may design intelligent and extremely configurable lobbies that are filled to the rafters with bracket builders, spectator options, passcode locks, emote windows, and a plethora of rule variables for all of your tournament needs. That is quite commendable. However, the options available to single players are relatively limited.
The limited customising options reflect a major flaw in Ultimate Showdown: a scarcity of single-player content. Ultimate Showdown is initially and mainly a Vs.-centric release, having been designed primarily as a tournament tool. Players may design intelligent and extremely configurable lobbies that are filled to the rafters with bracket builders, spectator options, passcode locks, emote windows, and a plethora of rule variables for all of your tournament needs. That is quite commendable. However, the options available to single players are relatively limited.
Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown’s PlayStation Plus release will handle a lot of the heavy lifting. There’s no disputing that Ultimate Showdown is a fantastic fighting game, but its stripped-down release, niche branding, and concentration on PvP warfare would make it difficult to market to anyone who wasn’t a die-hard Virtua Fighter fan.
However, as a PS+ title, Ultimate Showdown will undoubtedly find its way into the libraries of nearly every single PS4 fighting game player on the planet, providing the release with a broad introduction to both new and returning gamers. One wonders how much larger that audience could have been if Sega had not made Ultimate Showdown a platform exclusive.
Ultimate Showdown is a fantastic release, though one with dubious intentions. There appears to be an odd retraction with each of its advancements. The new graphics are fantastic, however, the personalization is lacking. The lobby and online alternatives are excellent, but there is little opportunity for offline interaction.
Ultimate Showdown finds Virtua Fighter 5 to be as engaging as it was 15 years ago, retaining the game’s long-held reputation as one of the genre’s classiest and most enduring fighters.
