Hot Dog! Yessssss!
HIGH The latest Virtua Fighter 5 edition, with rollback, finally available on Steam.
LOW The single player component is pretty barebones.
WTF Kage’s flying headbutt down attack looks absolutely lethal — to himself.
Rejoice, ye faithful, for the grand Virtua Fighter resurgence is nigh! Hooray!
For those who missed the recent news, Virtua Fighter 6 has finally been announced after almost two decades of waiting, so what better way to celebrate this momentous occasion than for Sega to release a new version of Virtua Fighter 5 on Steam — along with some swanky new rollback netcode, a new intro song by legendary Sega vocalist Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and assorted balance changes? It may not be a brand new game, but still — nice.
Despite being based on a title that’s almost two decades old at this point, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. looks amazing. Stage design in particular is downright spectacular, offering sweeping grasslands, vibrant rain-slick cityscapes and a raft that carries players past soaring pillars of rock as players attempt to dunk their opponent into the drink. Characters are large, well-defined and sharply rendered to take advantage of modern 4K displays.
In fact, the presentation is generally great overall with big, colorful menus that hew closely to PlayStation’s Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown release from three and a half years back. It pops just a little more vibrantly, however, and seeing the main menu screen rolling continuous high level matches that can be enlarged at the touch of a button is as fantastic a feature now as it was back then, as a great way for new or learning players to see how certain characters can operate in skilled hands.
Speaking of characters, there’s a roster of nineteen playable characters, all with distinct and viable martial arts styles on offer. From MMA and Jeet Kun Do to Bajiquan and Drunken Kung Fu, there’s a style to suit nearly every taste. Though, let’s be honest — anyone who isn’t using Vanessa Lewis is probably doing it wrong, as her grapple-based beatdowns are poetry in motion.
The beauty of Virtua Fighter is that all of these fighting styles somehow feel reasonably authentic to their source material, even when someone’s being uppercut six feet into the air and punched five times before they hit the floor. It just works and feels strangely realistic, though arguably filtered through the lens of a Hong Kong kung fu movie.
Additionally, there’s a purity to R.E.V.O.‘s pugilism that’s downright refreshing at this point. In a genre where progress seems to be trending towards tacking on as many Supers, Rage Arts, Drive Rushes and Heat Gauges as possible, it turns out that there’s a lot to be said for simply focusing on the fundamentals. It’s all easy to understand on a visual level too, with no lingering hurtboxes or similar idiosyncrasies throwing players for a loop. Controls are simple – a punch button, a kick button, a guard button and various combinations thereof are all that are needed to delve into an extremely precise fighting and technical experience.
If I had to summarize Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. ‘s matches in a single word, it would be ‘explosive’. It’s not a game that rewards all-out aggression, but when fighters do clash their health gauges can be stripped down in astonishingly short order. However, there’s less of a focus on rushdown than in some competing games as defensive options are strong, most non-specialized attacks won’t hurt downed opponents, and maneuvering around the arena is also incredibly important. A huge lead doesn’t mean much if a player gets sloppy and winds up being tossed out of the ring.
As for the balance changes, they’re subtle. Weight classes have been tweaked so Taka Arashi’s a little more vulnerable than he used to be, and Eileen isn’t such a temptingly lightweight target. Some older moves have been returned to a character’s repertoire, and it’s all just a little more balanced than ever. Not that it was badly tuned before — quite the opposite — but nearly twenty years of digging away at a game’s core will often result in uncovering a few rough edges.
While it’s an excellent offering overall, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.‘s biggest weaknesses tend to occur outside the fighting. Namely, as a modern fighting package, it’s lacking in extras needed to lure in casual players. Not everyone wants to spend all their time online, and aside from a training and arcade mode, there’s not much else for solo players other than watching high-level matches stream in through the main menu. There’s nothing here on par with the extensive single-player offerings seen in recent titles such as Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and recent Mortal Kombat titles, and even character customization options have been pared back significantly since the days of the original Virtua Fighter 5 release.
Worse, though, for a title that focuses so much on online competitive play, there’s no cross-platform play with the PlayStation version of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown, which has already been updated to maintain balance parity with R.E.V.O. Steam may be a huge platform, but with an older game like this Sega really should be casting the net as far and wide as it’ll go — and that includes an Xbox release too. Get everyone in on this party, dammit.
With those foibles noted, Virtua Fighter 5 is still a peerless fighter even after all this time, resulting in a game that’s still a joy to play. It’s the best version of a legendary fighting experience, and even if it doesn’t check all the expected boxes of a modern fighting game package, it still kicks ass.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Disclosures: This game is developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega. It is currently available on PC. A similar version is available on PS4 and PS5, but is missing certain new additions such as rollback netcode. This copy of the game was obtained via paid download before a key was provided by the publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 3 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed with multiple characters. 7 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes. Furthermore, I’ve played a lot of VF5 over the years in its various forms.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, and Violence. The official description reads as follows: This is a fighting game in which players choose from a large cast of international fighters to compete against others in one-on-one matches. Players punch, kick, and throw opponents as they attempt to drain their health bars. Combat is highlighted by impact sounds, cries of pain, and brief replay sequences of knockouts. These replays are shown from various camera angles, some of which are slightly zoomed in. Some female characters are designed with revealing costumes (e.g., deep cleavage, bikini-like tops); one character is depicted in a mannequin-like style with nipple-less breasts and buttocks. One character is described as using “Drunken Kung-fu” as his fighting style and can be seen drinking from a gourd during fights; some of his moves reference his drinking, letting players know how many drinks are needed to perform those attacks.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles. Characters have a few intro and win quotes delivered in various languages, none of which are necessary to enjoy the game or story. After all, there is no story aside from the background lore. Some audio cues can help discern certain moves, such as a swooshing noise signifying that sidestepping certain attacks isn’t possible, but there’s no need to rely on them. It’s a very visual game.
Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.
The chance discovery of a muddy, burnt out copy of '50 Shades of Grey' in a hunting pit gave him an appreciation for complex plots, characters and overarching narrative, and the unexpected gift of a Spectrum 48k allowed him to indulge in these newfound sensibilities with intelligent, highbrow games such as 'flee from the badly animated spinning turquoise dolphins' or 'avoid the deadly glowing bricks of doom'.
The fusion of both these interests finally culminated with Darren teaching himself how to write by basically guessing at what words might look like when jotted down on paper as opposed to being howled inarticulately at the skies.
Now others occasionally get to read his scribblings. Lucky them.
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