So, anyway, history lesson and high-level subjective praise aside, why did Sega release this? Well, with nearly ten years since the last release of the game, two console generations ago, there are a lot of nostalgic players and lots of newcomers who haven’t tried the franchise at all to make an appeal to. I’m pleased to have a pretty vast fighting game collection, and I find Virtua Fighter a great compliment alongside series’ like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and SoulCalibur, as well as more obscure titles like Battle Monsters and Way of the Warrior.
That’s not to say I’m great at it or play it all the time, in fact, I hadn’t played a Virtua Fighter game in years, but there’s something about its simplicity and responsiveness that makes it easy to pick up and play. A 1v1 fighting game with ring-outs, I liken it to games like Tekken, Dead Or Alive, and SoulCalibur, though I like Virtua Fighter the best, even if barely, out of that bunch.
#Virtua fighter 5 ultimate showdown series#
The Virtua Fighter series is an old one, first gracing arcades in ’93 and then home consoles afterwards. That said, with about a week’s notice before the game was released on PSN and also free for those this month with PS+, Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown closes out the 60th anniversary celebration of Sega in fun arcade style. I think I reviewed the original game, but I for sure reviewed Final Showdown in 2012, though the ravages of time and server failure have made it only visible via. Sega pulled this trifecta off recently when they announced Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown, the remaster of the 2012 re-release which itself was an updated version of 2007’s original release of Virtua Fighter 5. Surprise game announcements are topped only by surprise game releases, which themselves are topped only by a great (or altogether missing) price.