Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Review (PS4)- The Return Of The King

After being absent from the world of fighting games for over a decade, SEGA has dusted off the Virtua Fighter license and thrust it into the modern age. While we all knew SEGA was working on a Virtua Fighter esports project, we didn’t know it would mean the company would re-release a familiar face. Yet that’s exactly what happened with Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown… I mean, Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown.

Game Name: Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown
Platform(s):  PS4
Publisher(s): SEGA
Developer(s): SEGA AM2 / Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio
Release Date: June 1st, 2021
Price: $29.99, Free with PlayStation Plus/PlayStation Now

Oh how I’ve missed this game

If you played the heck out of Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, you’re probably wondering what’s changed here. I’m happy to report that, in terms of gameplay, nothing has changed. If you were a beast in VF5FS, you’re going to be a beast here as well. SEGA hasn’t touched any of the gameplay, and all of the moves, balancing, and everything else are the same. This was smart on SEGA’s part, as it means both old and new players can jump in and start smashing buttons.

There’s something to be said about the mechanics of Virtua Fighter. Despite being left in the past, while other fighting games have seen several updates, the formula is still as solid today as it was when it was first released. While not as flashy as, say, Tekken, there’s still a lot of combat to be had here. Lots of small strings leading to ground jungles or wall bounces into the fists or kicks of the punishing character. Even today, I’m amazed at just how well this game has aged and how it can still stand toe to toe with fighters that have been released in the past 2-3 years.

As for what did change, there’s plenty to talk about. So let’s address the visual changes – every character has been given a visual upgrade. Gone are the decent-for-its-time, but still somewhat blocky looks. Other characters that looked odd, including Eileen, have been given a more natural look, while some have pointed out that Akira looks a bit younger than he previously did. The characters aren’t the only ones to get a visual bump, as the stages also look crisp and detailed. It’s a huge difference if you played, well, Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown. The animation of every glorious blow looks incredible and is the biggest upgrade in this version. Gone is the 720p, replaced with silky smooth 1080p at 60 frames per second. Yes, it’s not 4K, and that’s fine. Not everything needs to be 4K, and for a fighting game all that matters is the frames, and what SEGA did is fine in my eyes.

In terms of character customization, things have changed for the worse. Gone are the quests that would award you for your efforts with items that you could use to customize your character. Instead, you’ll have to purchase the Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Legendary DLC. Priced at $9.99 and is only available for those who purchase the game. Yet, there aren’t as many options here to customize a character as there were in the previous game. Where you could recreate characters from other games or anime shows, now you’re severely restricted. This is a stripped-down version, and it hurts as someone who loved spending time crafting bizarre and interesting customizations.

Seeing how SEGA wants to push Virtua Fighter as an esports game, there have been several changes to the game’s UI. When you start the game, you’re presented with a slick yet focused menu that highlights all of the available modes. This includes the arcade mode, offline versus mode, room match, tournament (which is not available yet), and training modes. The training modes are surprisingly well done and help get you into fighting form by teaching you the basics if you’ve never played a Virtua Fighter game before, as well as showing you more advanced mechanics. They’re appreciated more than ever, especially when certain other fighting games lack explanations on how to play them.

However, several beloved modes available in prior games, such as time attack, survival, and quest mode, have been dropped. Again, this is an “esports” game, and thus everything included in the game is meant to capitalize on that attempt. I can’t say I agree with this move, but the damage has been done.

Lastly, something that may not be a big deal to some, but I loved it, is the ability to change the in-game soundtracks. In the options, you can select from all of the previous Virtua Fighter soundtracks, instead of just listening to the VF5 soundtrack. For me, I have a crush on the Virtua Fighter 2 soundtrack, so being able to listen to it while playing the game was a nice touch.

Let’s talk about the online experience

One of the biggest concerns with any fighting game is the netcode. What type of netcode is being used, how is it implemented, and ultimately, does it suck? Unfortunately, this is something that Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown does suffer from. Depending on how close or far you are from certain locations, these factors will dictate your online experience. As you can see, certain regions are fine, while others are completely screwed over.

For example, if you play VF5US in North America, you’re pretty much going to have a good experience. The same can be said for the UK and most of the Eastern hemisphere. However, South American and Australian players aren’t going to be saying the same thing and will likely have a terrible time playing online.

As for my experience, I’ve yet to encounter a laggy game. Of course, I’m also right next to one of the relay locations, so that’s expected. However, that was also before the game was officially released, and not many people were playing it. Thankfully, you can restrict the connections of who you fight against and avoid lagged-out players. The cost is that you miss out on fighting a bunch of different players. I hope SEGA revisits this because I think it’s an issue regarding the game’s longevity—assuming it lasts that long and SEGA actually cares.

Creating rooms or inviting friends for a quick match is more of a pain than it should be. First and foremost, there is NO way to invite anyone to your game. A feature present in Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown is gone, and it’s a complete miss on SEGA’s part. As for room matching, it’s not much better. Sure, you can create a room and customize it to your liking; that’s all good. However, when it comes to getting people into that room, this is where things fall apart.

There’s a room browser that randomly shows about 15 rooms at any given time, and when you refresh this list, you get more random rooms. So if you’re trying to find a friend’s room or vice versa, it becomes an exercise in frustration. You’ll have to keep refreshing and searching before you find the specific room, and that’s terrible—especially for a game being pushed as an esports title. What’s the point of having the ability to play online when matchmaking is this busted? Other games such as Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, and others have this ability. This is as bad as the lobbies in Guilty Gear Strive that I experienced in the beta a few months back.

SEGA, please address this. If you want this game to thrive for online play, this needs to be fixed.

Exclusivity hurts

I’m just going to come out and say it – making Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown a PlayStation exclusive was a dumb move. A remake of a game that did well on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, now excluding an entire console for one reason or another, is bad. At best, you’ll have fewer players playing the game; at worst, this game could die out quicker than Battleborn due to excluding players who don’t own a PlayStation console.

To rub salt in the wound, it isn’t even being released on PC (Update: As of January 2025, that will be addressed with Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.). I can see why not on Xbox, especially since the brand doesn’t do well in Japan – a country where Virtua Fighter has a strong following. But it also isn’t making its way to PC, a platform that SEGA has been supporting more and more over the past year. It’s definitely an odd move to me.

Getting In That Final Punch

Virtua Fighter was a powerhouse when it was first released. The second 3D fighting game, and one that helped create the 3D fighting game genre. And despite being absent for more than a decade, there’s little doubt that Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown has brought the title back to the forefront. The king of 3D fighters isn’t something I’d toss around lightly. And yet, if you asked me if I’d rather play this or Tekken (no disrespect to Tekken), I’d play this all day. SEGA has worked its magic, and I’m happy to see that I’m not the only one enjoying this game.

My only concern is three-fold: does the game have staying power, is this merely a test to see if the fighting game world is ready for the next chapter in the series, and lastly, and not to beat a dead horse, did this really need to be a PlayStation exclusive title?

Review Disclosure Statement: Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown was provided to us by SEGA for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.

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