With thousands of people to beat, there’s only one mission…. ….fight. Virtua Fighter 5 is a 3rd person fighting game that sets itself apart form others in the genre, such as Mortal Kombat, which is known for the detail, and the other Virtua Fighters, which are known for the same things as the newest addition to the series, which are the amazing graphics, the characters, and the combinations that allow amazing fluidity.

In Virtua Fighter 5, you star out choosing a character, and one out of two starter uniforms. After that, you start fighting characters in arcades. Each fight will raise your experience points, which will get you to a higher rank. In addition to that, a fight might also be an item battle, which will award you gold, items, or orbs (which unlocks an extra-special costume). These battles are rare, but the prizes more than make up for the occasional appearance.

Virtua Fighter 5 has the clearest graphics of any third person fighting game for any system. All of the controls flow with each other, which allows realistic movement and control. The commands of the controller match what the person is doing. The only thing this game is missing is an in-game plot, which is included in the instruction manual, not the actual video game.
Compared to other games in the genre, Virtua Fighter 5 wins against anything. Put up against the Mortal Kombat series, the first Virtua Fighter is better than the most recent Mortal Kombat. This is because the controls in Mortal Kombat are more complicated than those of Virtua Fighter, and there are less characters. Although Virtua Fighter is missing the all important blood, (which Mortal Kombat has plenty of) it only makes the game more universally acceptable; proving that you don’t need blood to have a good violent video game. From out of the rest of the series, Virtua Fighter 5 has all of the good aspects of them, and more; but none of the bad parts slip through the cracks.
This SEGA instant-classic is a welcome addition to the family. The story, play, and stunningly realistic game deserves 4.5 out of 5 stars. The only thing stopping it from a perfect score is the long wait time when you first load the game.