Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution

It is important to note at the time of writing this review that Evolution is not the final version of Virtua Fighter 4. Final Tuned, the arcade exclusive-update that released in 2004, is not present on Glitchwave at the moment. The two versions are different but not radically. I'll be focusing primarily on Evolution's Ver. B update in this review because of this.

Evolution is the result of a critical look at how Virtua Fighter 4 should be balanced. The vanilla version carries a lot of what made Virtua Fighter 3 weird by today's standards. Knee launchers were only jab punishable, characters had recycled movesets from VF3tb mixed with new moves and a new system that often did not let characters reach their full potential, and your turn was over pretty much instantly if something was blocked unless it was a jab. It was, however, a fast and tightly designed game, especially for 2001. Virtua Fighter 4 was what Tekken 5 was for that series, and Evolution thus is what Dark Resurrection is for Tekken as well.

Two new characters, Brad and Goh, while a fair bit underpowered and underdeveloped compared to the rest of the cast, claim unique spots on the roster still. These are not like today's DLC characters, instead AM2 were quite conservative with what moves these characters were given. Brad has a number of great moves all locked behind stances, and becomes a defensive striker-type who plays tightly within the rules until he decides to break the notion of nitaku with a slip. Goh yearns for counter hits, and is a grappler that has a more stripped down throw game compared to someone like Wolf in exchange for brutal counter hit tools that opponents must learn to respect. They're smartly designed and only get better in Final Tuned where they are given better properties on moves and more incentives to take risks.

The main cast also gets redesigned a fair amount. Moves have become far more unified in this iteration. No more +9 jabs that guarantee throws for example. The reward for making good reads is increased as the combo damage that weaker characters could get was strengthened with new moves and a refined float system. Many characters were also given brand new stances which often didn't fully come into their own until Final Tuned, but were still welcome additions to try and trip up opponents. Everything that Virtua Fighter 4 did well is strengthened and anything that didn't work was thrown out. There's just more things one can do in a match but the game never makes it feel like any character has too much. Sure some were a bit stronger than others, but never to an overwhelming degree thanks to the system that the game has in place. Strikes still beat throws, throws still beat guards, and guards still beat strikes. Basic reads and safe play can be performed by everyone and a player can get to victory using that system.

All of this creates a great video game to plunk a couple quarters in and get to playing. It's not a game that really incentivizes wacky play, you're still going to be negative a lot of the time and the pace of battle is very defined. Doing cool stuff isn't an often occurrence until you get really good, but when you do get a nice read and launch someone for 40% of their life, it feels really good. The Virtua Fighter 4 series set the bar for how not only Virtua Fighter but other 3D fighters would work from here on out. Dead or Alive, Tekken, SoulCalibur, they all took cues from this game and its' balanced philosophy. You could pick up this game today and if the graphics were of today's standards it's possible many would think it came out today.

In short, it's a must play game.