I played a lot of Virtua Fighter 2
years ago. However, I never fell in love with the series; I was always
a Tekken fan. When I bought VF4 for the PS2, I was determined not to
compare it to Tekken. But I just couldn’t do it. VF4 is a great
fighting game, but it’s not as good as Tekken.
First off, the character roster in Virtua Fighter is much smaller than
Tekken’s (depending on the version). You might make the argument that
the VF crew have many more moves and subtleties to master. However, I
didn’t find that to be the case. As I learned their moves, I realized
that there’s a small subset that are useful in a fight. Tekken suffers
from the same affliction, as a lot of character moves are too difficult
or slow to pull off in the heat of battle. So, you and your friends
will jam on the same combos until someone falls. With fewer characters
to master, there’s even less variety in the combat. The new character
Veronica, is especially cheap as she will counter a lot attacks without
any button input. Sure, you can get around this pretty easily, but it’s
frustrating to have a character who can catch your leg without even
hitting a button.
Combat itself is as smooth and controlled as it ever was. The VF series
has consistently had great controls, and you characters respond quickly
to any input that you tap. The move sets for the characters seem to
have been sped up as well, which makes battles more frantic and fun.
The computer gets nice and hard to fool as you progress through the
story mode, though the AI can never compare to a human. I found VF’s
combat to be pretty simplified compared to Tekken, but there are some
thing about Tekken’s controls that I’ve taken issue with as well (for
instance, left punch+right kick moves are hard to pull off on the PS2
controller). I’ll concede that combat comparisons are a matter of
personal taste. I just like Tekken’s better overall.
The graphics are great on this game. I like Tekken’s character models a
little more, but VF4 boasts some great visuals. You can also customize
your characters with different colored outfits and accessories. This is
basically a throw-away feature, but it can add a bit of personality to
your characters. The backgrounds are also very good, though not
distracting.
I’m sure that a lot of VF purists would tell me that I’m way off base
with saying that Tekken is a better fighting game. However, I did try
VF4 and it wasn’t to my tastes. I doubt that there will be a clear
winner between these franchises, but for my part I can’t call VF4 a
better game. However, I can say that it is very good.
