Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Worth playing"

I got Virtual Fighter 5 back in January for barely five dollars and got more than my money's worth. It's easy to get into and it's in depth without being rocket science. The game's got interesting characters who sound like they came straight out of a badly dubbed anime, the ones that speak English at least.

But something was missing. Something every game this generation and this genre should have, online play. It took about five years but Sega managed give online play to the fans of this franchise. But why it took this long? Who knows?

I think it was done get people prepared for the Virtual Fighter / Dead or Alive crossover coming in September. If that's the case they could have gotten farther and added jiggle physics to all the ladies. But that's pushing it.

Final Showdown isn't Virtual Fighter 5 with online play. It's little more to than that. They improved some of the hit animation and jumping in the air doesn't feel like you're on the moon.

Another new feature is two new characters; you have a typical run-of-the-mill sumo wrestler named Taka-Arashi. The other is Jean Kujo, some white-haired bishonen who looks like the love child of Dante from Devil May Cry and Ken from Street Fighter.

The online play is done like the quest mode in Virtual Fighter 5 except it's online. This leads to my biggest issue I have with this game. Unlike the quest mode where you can buy pieces of clothing with the points earned as you progress in mode. If you want to buy new outfits you actually have buy them; I mean spend real money for the outfits and they're not cheap. The downloadable content in bundle packs that are $15 per pack, $12 if you're member of PlayStation plus. They have packs for individual characters which are $5 but getting them in a bundle is cheaper overall. However I don't know if the prices are the same on Xbox Live since I don't have it.

Virtual Fighter 5: Final Showdown is the same game with some new features. You'll be spending $15 as appose to $5 on the original, but you'll get more out of it.