Virtua Fighter 5 Online (Xbox 360, 2007)

Sega delivers the goods with its latest installment of the Virtua Fighter series, now (finally) with online play.
Virtua Fighter has never been the flashiest fighter, but with the exception of the 3rd game, has always been the deepest and most rewarding in the genre.

Each character is well balanced, and most can be picked up and played rather quickly. But it's in the more advanced characters, like Akira or Shun, where the game truly shines. The truth is, if you can master these characters in Virtua Fighter, you can conquer any other fighting game within minutes. The challenge of VF sets the enthusiast of this series above any other, demanding dedication and skill that I'll willingly invest.

You can learn a few combos and move your way into the Dan ranks, but after that, only the truly skilled survive. Just how I like it.

Every frame of the action is crisp, responsive and engrossing.
Some moves require absolute perfection from your fingertips to execute, but when you get it right, it's brutally satisfying.

My only complaint is the stiff Xbox controller's d-pad, which seemingly wasn't made to handle this game. I'd recommend buying a Hori arcade stick, you can find them on ebay for around $60 shipped.

Virtua Fighter 5 offers a super intuitive, helpful training mode, with a very addictive single player (Quest) mode. It's here where you'll hone your skills and customize your character an infinite amount of ways (each has 4 outfits to modify).
Then, when you think you're good, bring your A-game online. One thing I noticed is that if you HOST a match, you'll have much better luck with connecting to an opponent.
I also noticed that more involved characters like Akira are quite uncommon online. As an avid Akira player, it took me only a few matches to find out why- even minimal lag (which only occasionally occurs) will cripple an Akira player verse a faster, more button-mashy character like Sarah or Lei Fei. Counterattacks are unreliable, and moves like the SPOD- that must be implemented precisely within a few frames- you can practically forget about, online. Still, it's an absolute blast, especially during the other gloriously lag-free matches.

The sound effects are very familiar and always spot on. The music is forgettable, and the story still doesn't exist. But Sega knows what the player wants, and that's brilliant fighting. Virtua Fighter 5 Online is exactly that.

First of all I had heard of this game back in the Dreamcast days, because of a game called Shenmue which another game made by the same developers of the Virtua fighter series and that is what caught my interest in the game because the fighting ingine in Shenmue 1 & 2 was made from the engine in the virtua fighter games of that time, so when the game was anounced back in 2007 at first i was a bit sceptical because i have been a fan of the Dead or alive fighting games since the dreamcast but since the game was coming out on Xbox 360 i decided to try the Demo sega brought to the market place over in Xbox Live the following year, and well after testing our the demo for some time with a regular Microsoft xbox 360 Controller and an Arcade stick controller i really fell in love with the very precise way you had execute your moves in the game, to be fair this games has no story mode or any background scenes or story line for any of the characters that i know of, to put it simple this is a straight port from the arcade version of virtua fighter 5 that came out in the Arcade machines of Japan but an added plus that this has online multiplayer capabilities which is very fluid and awesome depending if your apponents connection is decent to play against. bottom line is that if your looking for a game to master and get really into it and study every moves so you can pull out some crazy juggles and chain of combos then go for it buy it its worth a the price your getting it for But if your looking for a good story with some cool Cutscenes then you should pass on this game i say go with Dead or alive 4 if you dont have it yet :) well thanks for your time and reading this leghty review take care ;)

Love the new graphics, like the new moves, still getting use to them all. Such a simple way to play but with lots of variety to make it fast and fun to play. Who would have thought a 3 button game would go this far. Now I just have to get my gaming style back for online play and take the action online. For years before online gaming I wanted to be able to play games like this from the comforts of home because when it got late you could just sign off and go to sleep, no driving home sleep and feeling beat up for real. Keep'em coming

Having been a fan of the Virtua Fighter franchise from a young age, I was obviously excited about the release of the newest installment in the series. I own it both for Playstation 3 and XBox 360, and although it is perfectly playable on either system, I prefer to play on the PS3 because the controller's D-pad is more precise, which comes in handy when I need to execute specific moves with expert timing.

I don't recommend this game to everyone: it's very technical and it takes hours of practice to be able to play it well. It is not the sort of game you would pull out at parties for everyone to play. If, however, you want a real fighting game challenge, then find a friend to practice with or employ the online vs. feature, and buckle down for a deep fighting game experience!

Lots of options and customization features are what you'll find in this excellent translation of arcade to home port. You'll enjoy the Arcade mode and also like the various features that allow you to customize each fighter's clothing and also the statistical tracking of fights with each fighter.

If you are a fan of the VF series, you'll enjoy this game. However, an arcade stick is highly recommend in order to get full control of your fighter. The control pad just doesn't cut it in the button mashing sequences to pull off some of the more complex moves.