My favorite feature inVirtua Fighter 5 : R.E.V.O. , a new PC porthole of Sega ’s classicfighting secret plan , is n’t its rollback netcode or 4 thousand visuals . It ’s that you may check other people play matches from the main carte du jour .

I do n’t cognize how this works ; whether it ’s real - sentence , whether it ’s displume replays , or some other sort of wizardry . I kind of do n’t want to know , to be reliable . All I have it off is , whenever I fire upVirtua Fighter 5 : R.E.V.O. , and I ’m determine what I want to do ( do I want to practice some combos with my boy Jean ? See if my friends are up for some games ? Venture online ? Try out somebody new ? ) , I have to actively pull myself by from that silver screen . you could even watch the matches in full - screen if you really want .

It ’s a great feature , and I wish every contend biz had it . Every time I watch another match , I learn something new , whether it ’s something I want to try myself or something I need to ascertain how to beat . That ’s what makes fight games great : mastery , view yourself improve , seeing something new , and saying “ I wanna do that . ” And it ’s right there , front and center , as soon as you bring up it up . Players from all over the worldly concern , playing Virtua Fighter together .

MaybeR.E.V.O.is trying to make up for confounded time .

Virtua Fighter 5 : R.E.V.O.is kind of weird ; it ’s the in style edition ofVirtua Fighter 5 , a video biz that first released on cabinet in 2007 and in arcades in Japan in 2006 . It ’s important that you empathize this . Street Fighter IVis widely credited with reviving the combat game literary genre after a ( relatively ) thin decade in 2008 . I ’ve never liked this story ; there were raft of safe scrap game during that time : Guilty Gear , Tekken , Soul Calibur , and yeah , Virtua Fighter , had first-class entries during that period , among many others . There just was n’t any Street Fighter .

I do n’t severalize you this because I think you need a history lesson ; I ’m trying to help you understand how oldVirtua Fighter 5is . When the first variant of this game came out , George W. Bush was prexy , the iPhone was new , and World of Warcraft , whichjust lionise its twentieth anniversary , was just over a yr and a half old . Virtua Fighter 5is one-time , and its designing is from a different era .

You would n’t love it by look atR.E.VO . , which is the PC release ofUltimate Showdown , a visual update to 2012’sFinal Showdown . Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is in the driver ’s ass now , and its Dragon Engine upgrade ofFinal Showdownis pretty gorgeous , though the in - biz sound effect do n’t seem to have get the same level of making love . It feels uncanny to play a game that looks like this but sounds like it ’s playing a twenty - year - old MP3 single file when you hit someone . And that articulation acting ? Good Lord .

Okay , so it looks better and the sound effect do n’t have the succus when you plug somebody . But under the cowl , this is stillVirtua Fighter 5 , though it ’s a little more barebones than former releases . You ’ve got a received colonnade mode , local and online versus modes , an official tournament that ’s prevail every weekend , a canonical training musical mode , and … that ’s it . If you ’re looking for single - role player stuff , it ’s not here . You ’re here to struggle , rather online , against other people . And that ’s whereVirtua Fighter 5 : R.E.V.O.sings .

See , Virtua Fighter 5 ’s sauce occur from the genuine core gameplay , and that ’s as good as ever.R.E.V.O.is the first major balance fleck Virtua Fighter has seen in thirteen years , making not only major equilibrium changes but actually returning moves characters had in previous iterations of the serial publication . flux that with new rollback netcode , which has its issues ( though it ’s put to work just fine for me ) , but is far in effect than the wait - based netcode that ’s appeared in previous game , and this is a big pile .

All of this , to be clear , is grand , and it pretend it easier than ever to toy Virtua Fighter with people from all over the world . But what pretend Virtua Fighter unique is its gameplay . This is a high - harm plot . It moves fast , but it ’s far more grounded and realistic than something like Tekken , focalise intemperately on real martial arts . There are no demons or powerhouse here . It ’s also incredibly easy to nibble up and take on . Virtua Fighter has three buttons : slug , kick , and block . Everything you do come up out of those three buttons or some combination of them .

Virtua Fighter ’s real profundity is in its justificatory systems . you’re able to elude most attacks by stepping lead , right , or backward and that open up up a world of counter - play in which transitioning from an evade to an offensive move and canceling that into an attack will allow you to attack from the side , give you a peachy advantage . And that ’s before you get into character - specific defensive options .

Virtua Fighter , at its upright , is a dance between your character and your opponent : you ’re looking for openings , places you could evade , a predictable moment in their offence while try out to keep your opponent from finding holes in yours . A single fundamental interaction can flip a unit of ammunition in Virtua Fighter , and every 2d is intense as a result . It feels unbelievable , nigh 20 geezerhood later , even if you ’re not playing at a high-pitched level . And somehow , despite all this time , nothing else plays quite like it .

R.E.V.O.is the first clip thatVirtua Fighter 5is available on PC and the first time most hoi polloi will play it . But I ’ve seldom project more excitement for a re - discharge . Virtua Fighter is something of a forgotten fighting game outside of music genre enthusiasts , despite inventing the three-D fighting secret plan and its popularity never fade in Japan.R.E.V.O.represents a new rental on life for a classical serial publication , an opportunity to pick itself up off the mat and prove it still has what it takes to be a contender .

WithVirtua Fighter 6on the apparent horizon , R.E.V.O.feels like a statement from Sega , a rollout of the red-faced rug for musician old and new alike . Do n’t call it a return . Virtua Fighter was always here , just a small early or a niggling deep to really catch on . But now , at last , it ’s got a fortune to remind us why it ’s bear at just the right time .

Virtua Fighter 5 : R.E.V.O.is usable now on PC .