`Just a fighting game?`

Well, any gamer displaying this kind attitude towards the fighting genre perhaps shows an ignorance of the fact that the best fighting games around happen to offer some, if not the, deepest play mechanics available in gaming. VF4 Evo just happens to be the best in not only this generation of fighters (ousting the sublime Soul Calibur 2 by some way), but also in the entire fighting genre. Quite simply put, it offers by far the deepest, most technical and most balanced combat system of any fighter ever created. In Japan, a country where dedicated arcade players seek immense depth in their games, it also happens to be the most popular arcade game since Street Fighter 2, and has gone some way towards reinvigorating the somewhat flagging arcade scene there.

Gamers looking for a fairly simple and accessible game, where they can gain immense satisfaction from button bashing, should avoid this game. The wide variety of options open to the player and precise timing required, as well as the more deliberate pace (compared to Soul Calibur 2) renders this a game for thinkers. Those who dedicate their time to it will find it perhaps the most enriching experience available in gaming today.

The inherent problem with VF4E lies in the fact that few (especially in the West) will deeply appreciate the stupendous depth and subtlety of it. By its very depth and nature, it is an inaccessible beast of a game; accessible only to those who are very patient and don’t expect immediate and fast progress, as well as those who have the potential to think in a deeply tactical sense, are good lateral thinkers and mentally tough in the face of mind games and competition. This may sound intimidating, but it is more than possible for many gamers who have never played a fighter to a large degree of depth to become good players. The player must work hard, but they’ll be rewarded for the dedication and effort they put in. The excellent training mode helps to smooth the learning process immensely, with a move list available from which the player can pick and choose moves to practice. At the touch of a button, a demonstration of a highlighted move is performed and lets the gamer check that they are executing the command correctly.

"Surely this game can’t be that good?" Many may question how a game which lacks accessibility to all except the most dedicated of gamers can be compared in terms of quality to genre defining platform and RPG games (‘experience’ games such as Zelda and Mario). VF4 Evo, with regards to the depth of its mechanics and (lack of) accessibility, could be described as the antithesis of a typical Nintendo game. However, whilst ‘skill-based’, as well as ‘experience’ games, are at seemingly opposite ends of the spectrum, they both work beautifully in their own distinct ways. An ‘experience’ game, such as Mario 64, while featuring wonderful level design, holds simple, balanced and accessible play mechanics, and serves to make the player feel right at home almost immediately. These kinds of games are much more immediate, their 'quality' apparent to all and sundry, and so are often viewed in a more positive light than ‘skill-based’ games, amongst the majority of the Gaming community. Conversely, VF4 Evo requires hours of dedication and practice before the player can feel some achievement and bear significant fruit from their efforts. Some may indeed dismiss Evo as ‘just another fighting game’, as the inherent problem with skill-based, non-experience games (including many fighters and shooters) is that the true power, beauty and magnificence of games such as these are hidden from people, until they achieve fairly high levels of skill within these games themselves; a point which relatively few are likely to reach. For Evo, someone who isn’t ‘feeling’ the wonder of tactically beguiling and out-thinking their opponent may sadly not see the value of what the game has to offer to the gaming medium.

VF4 Evo is totally inaccessible to anyone who wants to button bash. For one, the game will punish players for imprecise movements or bad timing, unlike a game like Soul Calibur 2 which is much more forgiving in this respect. In Soul Calibur 2, mistimed moves and bad timing are commonplace in a match because of the lightning speed the game moves at, coupled with the fact that 1 or 2 mistakes in a match are not certain to see a player lose the round. Not so with Evo. In a match between 2 advanced players, the pace, mind games and cautiousness of each opponent is often more akin to a Go match than to the generally fast and attacking nature of a typical Soul Calibur 2 match. A mistimed evade or mistimed kick can see a player lose as much as half their energy bar to a good player, who can pull off one of the sickeningly devastating combos at their disposal (or if the player is Wolf simply perform his roundhouse throw). Also, unlike Soul Calibur 2, the high-priority (key) moves of each character are often quite hard to execute, and require much practice to be able to consistently pull these off.

The technical level of control, the seemingly endless tactical possibilities, as well as the harshness of the game once mistakes are made, serve to make a game of intense psychology and, therefore, wonder. These factors serve to engender feelings of utter elation so often amongst players who are fairly skilful at the game. The feelings from executing a difficult combo, or completely confounding their skilled opponent with even more complex and beautiful tactics, are emotions that few games can live up to.

In order to reach a high level of competence at the game, players need to have an active and applicable understanding of the ‘framerate advantage’ and how it fundamentally affects the whole game. What is meant by the framerate advantage is simply the advantage player A has over player B in terms of frames of animation. At the beginning of a match, neither player has a framerate advantage. If player A performs a move that takes only 4 frames of animation at exactly the same time as player B performs a move that takes 6 moves of animation, player A will obviously connect his move.

The framerate advantage shifts in certain situations, though. If player A hits player B and he fails to block, player A will then have a framerate advantage over that player (for example, player A now has 3 frames advantage over player B whose character is now slower at performing a move). The better players will take advantage of this and use appropriate moves (and in this example, player A is likely to then perform a swift/low animation move). As for the player on the defensive (player B), he has to understand the situation he is in and take appropriate measures. Moves that might have connected while neither player had a framerate advantage won’t now, and he faces several options.

One option is to counter player A’s next move by simply grabbing his forthcoming leg or arm (although the execution of this counter is far from simple and must be precisely timed to be successful). Another option open to him is the counter hit, which simply means that while player A is in the middle of performing a move, player B manages to outdo player A's move by performing a faster or more appropriate move. If player B goes for the safest option, he will simply block and, in doing so successfully, he now holds a framerate advantage of one frame. Another option is to evade - something which will be dealt with in more detail in the next paragraph.

Let us assume that player B blocks. Usually, then, player B will then try to take advantage by performing a swift attack on player A. Player A now has the same options previously open to player B, including an option of evading player B’s forthcoming attack. Evades are performed by a swift tap upwards or downwards of the stick (previously in Virtua Fighters 1-3, this move was performed by a fourth button). These can often be pivotal in the context of a high-level match, because the potential for making a big mistake should the evade be mistimed is large, but also because successfully evading an opponent’s move shifts the framerate advantage completely to you (by a great many frames - therefore giving the player who successfully evades a good opportunity to perform a throw). The player that evades also must pay attention to his opponent's stance (these are interchangeable, and this simply means whether the opponent is leading with his left or right foot) and, consequently, the likely positioning of an opponent’s attack. For example, if player A attacks with his right leg, were player B to attempt to evade to his left (and player A’s right), he would be struck by the kick as he would be moving into the kick, rather than away from it.

Added into the deep combat mix are throws and throw counters. Unlike Soul Calibur 2, throws can be performed in a number of ways, and although all throws are performed using G + P (Guard + Punch), each character can perform a variety of different throws. These are performed by quick shifts of the stick before the pressing of G + P. Throws are also very significant in a match, simply because they tend to cause immense damage.

One significant change from the original Virtua Fighter 4 and this game is that throw counters are considerably more difficult to perform. In VF4, the windows in which throw counters were performed were much easier. Now, understanding when to perform a throw requires an applicable understanding of the frame advantage a player has. To counter an opponent’s throw, one must replicate the last part of the opponents throw command. So for example, imagine you were playing someone who is using Jacky and he attempts his ‘Dragon fist’ throw (forward, forward, G + P). To counter the throw, the player would have to perform the command (forward, G + P). The difficult yet fair system that AM2 have implemented in countering throws adds an extra layer of depth to an already beautifully complex game, rather than an unwanted layer of complication. The throw counter system serves to make players a better all-round fighter by making those who want to excel at the game consider and understand the commands of the high-priority throws of all other characters.

In divulging these mechanics, this review hopes to convey the depth, complexity and myriad of mind-games apparent in high-level Evo fights, and therefore show that this game, when played properly and with expertise, offers an experience that is quite possibly unparalleled. The greatest players can achieve levels of near epiphany. Because it may cost a player the match simply by making one or two errors, high-level games are very often psychological cat and mouse like affairs, with each player attempting to coax the other into a mistake.

The very title of this game implies that this game is merely an evolution over the original VF4. In fact, this game is remarkably more different to VF4, than say Soul Calibur 2 is to Soul Calibur - an astounding achievement considering the gap between Soul Calibur 1 and 2 stands at nearly 4 years, and the gap between VF4 and Evo, stands at merely a year. While Soul Calibur 1 was clearly the best 3D fighter of the previous generation, it is a testament to how much AM2 have advanced the series with VF4E that it can now, without doubt, claim to be the pinnacle of the fighting genre.

The most immediately obvious change is the addition of 2 excellent new characters, Brad Burns (an Italian Thai-style kick-boxer) and the mysterious and strange Hinogami Goh (a peculiar Japanese Judo master). Expert players have immediately begun to take a big shine to Goh, who is undoubtedly one of the stronger characters in the game. Every character has seen additional moves added to their combat engine, as well as some moves removed. Some other characters have seen more radical overhauls of their fighting styles, with Jacky being given much more of a Jee Kun Do emphasis than in VF4. The changes have served to make each character all the more unique, as moves which certain characters previously ‘shared’ have been replaced with unique moves for each character. For example in VF4, Jackie and wolf had a jumping knee attack (forward + K) but these moves were taken out because other characters had the same moves and have been replaced with Jacky now performing a groin kick. The changes that AM2 have made for VF4 Evo are more than welcome, and only serve to balance and refine the game even more than it already was in VF4.

Gone also is VF4’s Kumite mode, which has been replaced by a new Quest mode. Some who haven’t played VF4 Evo yet may bemoan the apparent culling of Kumite mode. However, the principles of Kumite actually exist within the Quest mode, except in a greatly enhanced way. Instead of simply sparring against AI opponents, like players did in Kumite mode, players now have the choice of sparring against greatly enhanced AI opponents with almost human qualities, within the environment of virtual arcades and tournaments. The Quest mode and the enhanced AI is an enormous achievement from the part of AM2, as the AI serves to mimic actual human players' playing styles extremely well. AM2 spent months studying and attempting to replicate the combat styles and nuances of expert players, and it really shows. Players playing the Quest mode will be astounded at the raft of styles their opponents show, ranging from 'Turtlers' (overly cautious players, and players who simply run away) to those who attack constantly, and to those who change their style in the middle of a match in an attempt to confuse the player. Whilst to enjoy the game to its full and to get amazingly good at the game it remains a prerequisite to find good human challenges, this is undoubtedly the first fighter ever made where the solo player can become genuinely good at the game simply by sparring against the AI opponents.

In spite of its difficulty and immense depth, it is still a game which gamers can approach in an aspirational sense. Even though they may appreciate that it can never be mastered, rather than lessening the aspirations of players, it may serve to motivate them more; much like the learning of any martial art. The fact that perfection is perhaps impossible only serves to enrich the motivations of those who practice them. The similarities to martial arts don’t end there however, as each character in the game is very different, with each having their own distinct fighting style. Few moves are ‘shared’ between characters, and there is a wide and exotic range of these, from Wolf’s Pro-Wrestling style, to Lei-Fei’s Shaolin Kung-Fu, to Akira’s Kakkyko-Ken.

Should the game be marked down for its very nature? It's a fighter, so it follows that for any gamer to get full satisfaction from this title, they need to have a friend (or, ideally, a community of friends) to play the game with regularly. In Japan, this isn’t a problem, with a vibrant arcade and tournament scene, so why should the inadequacy of UK gaming in this respect be used as a yardstick by which to judge the title's merits?

Likewise, in spite of its intimidating depth, should the game be marked down for its inaccessibility to novice gamers? The answer surely must be a resounding 'no'. The fact that it arguably offers the deepest mechanics ever seen in a game means that within the medium, it can perhaps be viewed in a high-brow sense. Should a film like “3 Colours Red” be marked down, simply because it is inaccessible (in terms of meaning and depth) to the majority of people? Should the fact that most people find it tough to appreciate operatic music be held against the form? Surely the factor of accessibility should never count against a piece of entertainment (or dare I say it, art); merely only how good the piece of entertainment is.

Why, then, should VF4 Evo be any different? It is quite simply the pinnacle of the fighting genre and a technical masterpiece of game design, even if it is just a fighting game...