ONE MORE ROUND

VIRTUA FIGHTER 5 REVO resurrects a fighting game legend

- Will Borger

What is a legacy? I've struggled with that question as I've tried to write about Virtua Fighter 5 REVO, the latest entry in the series that invented 3D fighting games before eventually fading from the public consciousness. REVO, a new version that hit Steam in late January, is a chance for one of the most beloved fighting games ever made to find a new worldwide audience.

The first thing you have to understand about Virtua Fighter 5 is that it's old. The original game released in Japanese arcades in 2006, a year after the Xbox 360 launched; Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare were still a year away, Street Fighter IV was two years out and Apple's App Store didn't yet exist.

"It's hard to describe the feeling to someone who's never played it before because it's not flashy like a Tekken or Soulcalibur or even Dead or Alive, but everything about the fighting system just clicks," says domaug, a competition player since 2001's Virtua Fighter 4. "It's like you're watching a kung-fu movie unfold in front of you. I think why it's survived this long is because its fluid fighting system hooked its players, never letting go. It's a fighting game that's truly unique; no other fighting game 'feels' like Virtua Fighter."

Commentator Lawrence 'WingedRegent' Maldonado describes the series this way: "Virtua Fighter is a lot more grounded ... if a game like Tekken or Soulcalibur or even Dead or Alive is your favourite shonen anime, then I would say Virtua Fighter is your favourite martial arts movie." Nicely put.

SETTING THE STAGE