Stu's Virtua Fighter 4 Impressions

[Perfect Stu]

When I brought home this highly anticipated title on Wednesday, I was in for a couple surprises.

When I first started playing, I started losing. Badly. I was mashing buttons and getting raped while doing so. The game was too hard, too frustrating, and boring at that.

Then I marched back to my local EB and bought the guide book. I picked a character that was suited for beginners. I learned a couple of her simple but VERY effective combos. I learned how and when to block. And then, I entered "Kumite" mode. Kumite, to put it simply, is a never-ending single player tournament, which keeps track of your wins, losses, experience, and most importantly, RANK. In order to achieve a higher rank, you must win a few fights in a row, then you'll enter a "ranking" match. It's quite simple. If you win, you move on to the next rank. If you lose, you'll have to pull off a few more wins in a row until you get another chance. It's the best single player mode in a fighter I've ever seen. Pure fun.

I've studied a few simple combos, and I've made my way through Kumite with a 25-6 record so far. But I'm starting to lose. It's getting tough. I can tell this game is by far the deepest, most playable fighter I've ever played.

The graphics in this game as also a big bonus. Huge polygon counts, animations that are poetry in motion, nice shadows, lighting, water, and special effects. The game does have alaising issues though. But overall, a very nice looking game.

What would I rate this out of 10? About a 9.2. So far. And I'm not even a fighter fan. My suggestion? Buy this game. Study the combos. Enter Kumite. Then have a blast.

-P~S