Options, Options, Options. With so many options and modes to fight and unlockable goodies, one might think that Virtua Fighter 4: Evo was a gift sent from God. And at first glance, it would probably seem so. But once you dive into the actual gameplay, everything just seems to fall apart so quickly.
Nothing could have saved this game, nothing in the entire world. Even if some of the unlockable charectors included Sonic, Toejam, or even the driver from Outrun could save this peice of garbage from failing. The control scheme trys so hard to be innovative it seems cluttered and unpolished. Even the simplest manuvers takes months to get use to. Some of the counter moves takes precise timing (which I don't mind at all), but when you need 3 thumbs to pull it off, it just gets frustating. Battles are often slow and really close ranger, offering button mashers to get in quick and cheap attacks that'll bore you to death. Pulling off some of the more simple commands takes up so much time, by the time you finish pressing buttons, the beginner you are playing against could have learned the entire command list. Maybe that's somewhat exaggeration, but everything else stated above isn't.
Aside from the broken gameplay, Sega did a nice job rounding out everything else. The animation is almost to smooth. If you do manage to pull off those awkward controls, then you charecter will resemble a fine example of fighting. I wouldn't say the music is great, but the quality is top notch. Every blow just sends a chill up your spine because it sounds so meanacing. Heck, Sega even managed to pull off the best sound fx and graphics for menu's I have ever seen.
But in the end, it's obvious that presentation really doesn't make a good game. Even at it's valued price, I still strongly recommend that you pick up a better fighter, ecspecially Soul Calibur II. Unlike VF4:E, that games fighting engine doesn't suck. Maybe Sega can learn a thing or two by talking to Namco.
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