It doesn’t get its due often enough these days, but SEGA’s Virtua Fighter genuinely changed the landscape not just for fighting games but arcades as a whole. Anyone of a certain vintage would be talking out of their arse if they denied being blown utterly away when they first clapped their eyes on AM2’s delectable polygonal confection in an amusement arcade. Highly influential, it seemed that in its wake every company wanted to dip their bread n the 3D gravy in the ensuing years – for better (Tekken) or worse (Final Fight: Revenge).
But Virtua Fighter spawned many great sequels in its own right, and remained a highly technical staple in Japanese arcades for decades. The last time we saw a canonical sequel was in 2021 with the excellent Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown. Now, with fighters once again experiencing a wave of immense popularity, Yu Suzuki’s classic franchise returns with this enhanced Windows port of the ’21 banger, entitled Virtua Fighter 5 REVO.
Engineered on the same engine as Like A Dragon, and with the entire cast of characters in place from throughout the series, this is perhaps the ultimate (no pun intended) refinement of VF5. Virtua Fighter 5 REVO runs impeccably well on the Steam Deck, although I did whip out a compatible arcade stick whilst testing this one out, as VF always feels better played the way nature intended. For the uninitiated, Virtua Fighter has always been about a more pure fighting experience, eschewing the more spectacular special moves, projectiles, and flash of its peers and focusing on particular fighting and martial arts disciplines, meaning that each character has their own unique flavour depending on what form of arcane fisticuffs they employ. Sumo, ninjitsu, wrestling, even Mexican Lucha Libre – the gang is all here.
A superb tutorial allows you to learn the many nuances of each style as well as the fundamentals of Virtua Fighter 5 REVO, and unlike many fighting games it is actually quite easy to learn, with a smaller number of buttons employed and accessible combos – however thanks to the wide range of fighting styles there is a crazy amount of depth and it will take you a fair bit of trial and error to actually settle on your favourite character and learn how to effectively kick some ass with them inside the Virtua Fighter arena.
Matches are fast. Virtua Fighter has always been, dare I say, more “realistic” than most – the focus is on damaging your opponent as swiftly as possible or knocking them out of the actual “ring” in the arena, and there is something refreshing returning to this after a few years hunting down Shadaloo and dancing with Arc Systems Works titles. You punch, you kick, you guard, that is it – and it is great.
The dedication to pugilistic purity in Virtua Fighter 5 REVO doesn’t end with the lack of bombast, fireballs and supers – there is nothing here to speak of in terms of a juicy plot. Don’t expect a sprawling storyline or overarching plotlines – this is a tournament fighter and it means business. Of course there is a Big Bad – the monstrous robo-ninja Dural who you have to outclass in Arcade mode, but the reasons why are irrelevant. And bloody hell, he is still an absolute bastard to get one over on.
There is rock solid rollback netcode in play which enables fighters around the world to enter tournaments, ranked matches and leagues, and not once did I experience any lag or connection issues whilst testing this one out. You can also watch other people fight online – which is a surprisingly entertaining feature and gives you the opportunity to see some pretty impressive performances from high-end players that actually inspire you to want to get better rather than dish out feelings of inadequacy.
It has never stopped being a “thing” in Japan, and as a fighting connoisseur I totally get that. Virtua Fighter 5 REVO is technical, fat-free arcade combat at its best, and this polished PC port deserves to put a ton of new eyes on the product, and hopefully get plenty of people around the world back onto one of the finest arcade games SEGA or any company has ever crafted.
