.

The last game provided me with enough fighting game fury to make the Power Rangers batty. So when I hear that all I’m getting is a “Quest Mode” and two new characters I freaked a little, but really, for that price tag, this can’t be beat.

That same super realistic and complex gameplay remains. This time with the company of Goh, a Judo master, and Brad Burns, an Italian kick boxer. I’m still trying to master these characters today, and I’ve been playing for quite a long time. That’s definitely a good sign, especially for you other obsessed fighters out there.

Not to mention a very cool quest mode addition. You play through all the major arcades in Japan trying to become the top VF4 player around. You play against real Japanese players, though it’s only an A.I. version of them. It does add hours of gameplay, and it’s interesting when you think, “So this ‘Chibita’ guy is a real person…”

The many ways you can customize your fighter is just icing on the cake. Everything from hair color to new accessories. It’s very cool to see what kind of concoctions you can come up with. Can you beat my silver-haired Goh? Or how about that funny hat I have?

I wish you could play your custom characters in 2 Player Vs. though, but that’s only a minor complaint. Well, it’s true that you can, but only the ones on the same memory card. If I could pair my customized character against another, that’d be extraordinary, but unfortunately, they didn’t set that up. Bad Sega, bad!

The only real question is whether or not this will be enough to hook you guys who have already played the original VF4… Well, I played quite a bit of the original, and this was enough to tide me over. The game is a very fair competitor against behemoths like Soul Calibur, so it’s surely worthy of your attention if you haven’t already playedd it.

At times some of the effects can be pretty wowing. The character models and everything are as good as ever. It’s probably not technically as sweet looking as say… Soul Calibur, but it’s nice. You can tell they put plenty of work into it.

Every character has full voice-overs, each in their respective language, and the music is pretty good. What can I say? It’s certainly not going to amaze you, but it gets the job done. I don’t really have an opinion about something so miniscule. Fighting games don’t need to sound awe-inspiring.

Certainly different than most fighters. You’ll immediately notice that combo attacks are so much harder to link together. It’s not so much a flaw, just being realistic. In reality one couldn’t link 10 hits together in less than 3 seconds. You will have some trouble if you’re a new kid on the proverbial Virtua Fighter block; I can’t lie to you. But it’s not a flaw at all. This is just one of those games that requires training. Once you reach 1^st Dan you’ll have it down pat.

This is truly where the game excels. With hours of training, and hundreds of items to find, you will be playing for hours. Where many fighting games end with the “Arcade Mode”, this one does so much more. Not only that, but the ever competitive 2 Player Vs. Mode. Even though you can’t load your custom character from a separate memory card, it can still be just as good.

When it all comes together we have a very fine game. I wish they could have given us a true sequel, but this works good enough. Overall I express very high recommendations, especially for those of you who haven’t played it yet. Add on the fact that this game will only run you 20$ and you’ve got, right along with a heavier wallet, a nice addition to your collection and many hours of fighting wrath.

Graphics: 8.0 | Sound: 8.0 | Control: 9.0 | Replay: 9.5 | Overall Game Score: 9.5/10

Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution for PS2 screenshot 2