Soul Calibur 3

Description
In Soul Calibur 3 you'll return to the world of Soul Calibur 3 and follow your favorite characters, to see how their fate unfolds. The unholy sword was sealed by the destined one, but a mysterious individual revives the azure knight, Nightmare. The legendary battle of Soul Calibur and Soul Edge moves to the next phase. Which sword will ultimately prevail? What is the motivation of the three new souls who join the fray? Get ready for the latest installment of the most dramatic weapon-based fighting franchise available.

Review : By Lisa Shea "LisaShea.com"
Soul Calibur III is the latest release in a great line of fighting games. The graphics are really impressive, and the character customization adds a great new dimension to fighting gameplay.

There are whole complex back-stories to all of the characters, developed over the game series. You can go into the 'museum' in this game to learn all about that, if you haven't been keeping up with the series. That will help you really understand the interactions between the characters. It's like being a part of a complex, epic story.

The graphics are simply gorgeous. There are pirate ships, where the floor moves and sways beneath you. There are elegant Chinese temples with mosaic tile floors and lovely mountains in the background. You've got renaissance mansions in flames, cages in grimy port towns, and much more. Each environment has moving elements to add to the realism.

The sounds are pretty traditional. Most of it is BASH - SMASH - YAAAAH! along with the background music, themed to match the environment. I do love this kind of background music far better than games that have rock music.

Gameplay itself has good and bad points. On the good side, there are a GREAT combinations you can learn for your character, so if you are diligent you can come up with awesome fighting sequences. You can learn which combos match well against your enemy's weaknesses and exploit them. On the other hand, if you're more the type that likes to button mash, you can have a fair amount of success with that, although you will get frustrated in the higher level battles.

The game is marked for teens, although it's far more tame than other fighting games I've seen. Many of the females *gasp* actually wear clothing. There really isn't any blood involved in the combat, although some parents argue that little tykes shouldn't see swinging swords and flails at all. There's no swearing.

That being said, the game is fairly challenging, and unlike the previous game, there's no way to set the difficulty up or down. If you play one on one you can adjust the difficulty so the younger person can have an easier time, but for regular gameplay you're stuck with "hard". I find this to be a shame. While experienced players will get along OK, it really would've been nice for new players to have an 'easy' option to go through the game in, to learn the game and have fun. They could always have upgraded through 'normal' and 'hard' later on.

With the customizeable characters and multitude of opponents, you can really replay this game for months without getting bored with it. There are always new combinations to learn and perfect. Well recommended!

Virtua Fighter 4

Description
This new version of the definitive hand-to-hand martial arts sim features fully optimized graphics designed to harness the power of the PlayStation2. Virtua Fighter 4 also delivers an extremely deep fighting system, highly tuned AI, and two new characters hungry for their place at the top. If you are new to the Virtua Fighter series, the in-depth training system will teach you the art of combat, move by move. Rewards await those who master every move, and you can expect to unlock a few secret techniques along the way.

Two new characters (Lei Fei and Vanessa Lewis) join 11 VF veterans for a grand total of 13 fighters, each with his or her own unique styles based on real martial arts. New counters and defensive moves allow players to switch up their stances and fighting styles midbout. High-polygon character models, exquisite detail, and brilliant light sourcing combine to create breathtaking visuals. You can also train a computer-controlled character through sparring and an easy-to-use rewards system, then pit your character against a friend's, or challenge the arcade mode. A new accessory system allows you to customize your character's clothing, sunglasses, hairstyles, and more.

Review: By Bert Rinderle
A bold statement, but true in every sense of the word. The Year of the Fighter has started off with a big bang with the home release of Sega's Virtua Fighter 4. With a new Mortal Kombat game on the horizon, not to mention Tekken 4 and Soul Calibur 2, fighting fans have a lot to look forward to in 2002. However, the race may already be over - VF4's competitors have a gigantic mountain to climb.

Graphically, VF4 is a masterpiece. You won't see any multi-tiered environments a la DOA or flashy effects like Soul Calibur. The Virtua Fighter series has always been grounded in reality, and the newest incarnation is the most realistic fighter yet. The characters are modelled with compelling accuracy and astounding, lifelike animation (no fireball casting here) - clothing wraps around limbs, flaps in the wind, and flows with breathtaking movement. The arenas are spectacular creations: Pai fights in an underwater aquarium with sea life swimming outside its glass walls, and Jacky battles on the roof of a skyscraper with several circling helicopters creating some amazing lighting effects. You might find sand or snow underfoot, or be knee-deep in water. You'll be in a cage surrounded by a shouting crowd. You'll see leaves softly falling, or birds overhead. These are perfect places in which to battle. Most of the arenas contain incredible animation, and although they don't really affect the gameplay, they make the fights that much more involving. Walls can be broken in some places, and ring-outs happen, but not as often as in Soul Calibur. The dreaded PS2 "jaggies" are present, but they're only noticeable if you're looking for them. The combination of realistic fighter animation and beautiful environments make VF4 the current best-looking home fighter.

As amazing as it looks, however, the gameplay of VF4 is what vaults it into Soul Calibur territory. The controls consist of three buttons: punch, kick, and guard; and the d-pad. That's it. The PS2 controller allows you to map button combinations to a single key (i.e. P+K+G = R2) if you so desire, which can make pulling off more complicated moves easier for beginners. Each character has literally hundreds of individual moves at his or her disposal; throws, reversals, rising attacks, combos, etc. There are only 13 fighters, but they are all perfectly balanced, and each is very different from the other. Lei-Fei is a Chinese monk who features several stances; Kage is a ninja who sports airborne throws; Lion uses Mantis Fist style; Wolf is a pro wrestler. Button mashing won't get you far against a VF master or the higher difficulty CPU settings. You're required to explore your fighter's capabilities, using strategy for victory. It may seem overwhelming at first, but the game's perfect control makes maneuvering your fighter second nature after a few matches. The Virtua Fighter system is deceptively simple, and as you get used to the timing of a side-step followed by a vicious counterattack, a perfect reversal of an incoming combo, and throwing, you'll discover how much attention Sega paid to it. Unlike past VF games, beginners can get the jist pretty quickly, but the artistry of the fighting engine becomes more apparent over time, and rewards the patient.

VF4 features several modes. Arcade mode pits you against all 13 fighters with progressing AI difficulty, and Vs. is for multiplayer. Pretty standard stuff, although there's nothing quite like a human vs. human VF match. Its replayability is infinite, and it works best when the two combatants are of relatively equal skill levels, making fights a match of wits as much a match of reflexes.

One new addition is Kumite Mode, a tournament of sorts. Pick a character, and fight an unending stream of CPU opponents, progressing in rank along the way. The better you do, the harder the enemies. Perform well, and you unlock customizable items like sunglasses, jewelry, and headgear. It's like a souped-up Survival Mode, and is highly addicting. You can eventually take each fighter through the entire Kumite Mode - a daunting task that will take many, many hours to complete. The higher difficulty levels are brutal, and require mastery of your character.

Training Mode is a fantastic creation. It's split into three sections, one of which allows you to practice combos to get your timing down. The second lets you practice against a CPU dummy, which can be set at several difficulty levels. You can even program the dummy to perform a specific combo to practice countering or evasive tactics. The third section contains different challenges that teach you the basics of the VF universe. This mode is highly recommended for beginners, as it teaches the skills necessary for success. It also gives you a glimpse at how deep and refined the VF engine is, like peeling back a layer to find many more underneath.

AI Mode allows you to train a "blank slate" fighter yourself, and set it lose against your friends or even in Kumite Mode. It's a novel idea, but isn't quite as compelling as the other modes. Still fun to play around with, though.

Virtua Fighter is a more involved, strategic game than, say, the Marvel vs. Capcom series. It relies on technique rather than flash, in both gameplay and visuals. It's been made more accessible for newcomers (after all, this is the first time a VF game has appeared on a non-Sega console), but still retains the complexity of previous installments. VF4 is a labor of love. In comparison to Soul Calibur, the extras and flashiness of SC are balanced out by VF's incredible fighting system and Kumite Mode. Some may argue that DOA3 is prettier, but Tecmo's series doesn't come close to the sim aspects of Virtua Fighter. Sega has drawn first blood in Year of the Fighter, and it currently sits beside Soul Calibur as the best fighting game available.

- Tekken 2

I'm certainly no big expert on video games, so the professionals who appraise "Tekken 2" will have to excuse me for not finding it so outsdanding it breaks any major barriers. The multitude of characters seems to alienate them from the gamer unless he gets very much involved into it and manages to familiarize himself with everyone. About the characters, I notice a distinct lack of creativity and ideas begin to be mixed up (see King - a puma in a blue shirt and tie? Excuse me, but is there something wrong with the picture?). Special moves are often repeated between characters, and, having a little fun with it, the ones that look the best always lose. It seems sort of sluggish and trivial overall, far from the fantastic premonitions that I've heard. The game does have a number of great features: first of all, the graphics are outstanding, better than I've seen in (literally) almost all other games, probably the best, and second of all, pretty responsive controls that nevertheless manage to bring you into the game. To make a long story short, "Tekken 2" is worth buying, but don't expect a revolution.

- Tekken 4

Tekken 4 is almost here. Some people will say it is the same old Tekken, just a prettier Tekken 3. This is simply not the case. Tekken 4 has evolved more than any Tekken to date. Perhaps only us Tekken veterans will notice, but the fact remains, Tekken 4 brings some major changes and enhancements over previous games in the series. Tekken 4 is the result of a lot of years of tweaking into something quite polished.

First, the visuals. Tekken 4 looks extremely good. If you played PS2's VF4, you'd notice the rough visuals as far as textures and jaggies. Tekken4's visuals puts PS2's VF4 to shame with no jaggies of shimmering and detailed textures with very expansive backgrounds. The characters arent quite as detailed as VF4 but the animation seems a bit better. Easily the best looking fighter on the PS2. Tekken 4 is also the first progressive scan compatible game for PS2. Lets hope this trend continues. There is also an option to flick on/off the flicker filter of the game. Put it on and the game has no jaggies or shimmering and everything has a smooth look. Turn it off& everything will be really sharp but there will be some shimmer. Either way, the game is beautiful if not a little barren in a couple stages. But the reflections and water in the mall arena, from the glass in the windows, or the floor, or the gold lining in the shops, I've been heartily impressed. The smoothness and detail of the statues, its surprising how much it imitates the real sculpture's attention to human skin. The little details like the hatch being open to airplane, or "Geken" playing at the movie theater in Shinjuku...the game just looks amazingly clear and sharp.

- Virtua Fighter 5

Virtua Fighter 5 lets the graphics prowess of the PlayStation 3 shine. The question is whether great graphics alone can make a fighting game worth playing.

First, the good. The graphics in Virtua Fighter 5 are spellbindingly beautiful in many situations. The landscapes are lush. The movements of the fabrics are fluid and natural. The physics engine is quite impressive. Yes, sometimes the textures can be shiny, and the water more mercury-like that truly watery. Still, this is beautiful to watch.

The characters are each very unique. The look and feel of each character seems true to their background. Not only that, but each character's movements and actions is distinct to them. It's not that you have a "kung fu" style that is replicated 30 times across 30 different blue-green-yellow characters. They put a lot of work into ensuring that the characters are extremely differentiated.

That being said, the main gameplay is very restrictive. The square you can fight in is extremely small. There is limited interactivity - the snow moves away from where you step, the wooden walls might dent a little - but it is very small changes compared with what other modern games offer. The spectators in the background look like animatronic robots on a short movement loop.

There is a standard mode where you go through a series of rounds to win, and then an 'arcadey' mode where you are pretending to go to different arcades to challenge other players. In the arcadey mode, you can unlock new items and outfits for your characters. I would have appreciated a much greater depth of options here. It would be nice to have a story mode, where you can learn more about a given character and their background. Maybe a career mode where you learn new skills along the way and build up your reputation.

I think part of the problem was that the gameplay itself was great to watch, but rather easy to play. I realize this is great for new kids and new fighting gamers - but there should be more complexity to how the enemies react to you and start to pick up on your patterns. I could use the exact same three keystroke pattern to defeat all of the first 6 enemies I faced, without them ever learning to guard against me.

Which leads into the next problem. Usually in fighting games, you do all your training against the enemy AI to learn the keystroke combinations, so that you can face your real challenge - human opponents. Enemy AI is rarely as much fun to fight as a real, live human who has honed his or her skills to a razor's edge. But you don't have that option here! No online gameplay at all. So you can build up your character, learn the skills, perfect the techniques, and then ... what? Earn a new pair of sandals?

I really appreciate what they've achieved with the graphics and movements here. I give them kudos for that programming. Now it's time for them to take that work to the next level, and to bring it online, and to add in more complex gameplay and arenas.

- Tekken Tag Tournament

Yes, they've finally done it! In the past, you'd see the cut-scenes of a game and then be disappointed by the actual blocky characters you had to move around. With Tekken Tag Tournament on the PS2, the characters are fluidly smooth, the backgrounds are INCREDIBLE and the combinations of moves for each character both reflect the personality of the fighter and are executed flawlessly on the screen.

The Tag Tournament aspect might seem distracting before you've tried it, but in the game it adds another entire strategic layer to how you play. You can choose two players who have opposite skill sets, so that you choose which one to kill off your opponents with. Or, you can choose with matching skills so that you continue to hammer on your foes with a certain style of play.

Even better, certain combinations of characters can do a special tag move, so that one player does something on his/her way 'out' and the other character finishes the move while coming into the arena. Very, very cool!

And those graphics! Your characters can wear different outfits. The fire in the torches looks like REAL fire - one of the hardest things to do on a computer. The leaves on the ground actually scatter when you slam your enemy into the floor.

Definitely a game to get if you enjoy fighting games at all, and one which will knock the socks off of your friends when they see it on your TV!

- Tekken 3

A follow up to what was probably the best fighting game on the market for the time, Tekken 2, this game doesn't let you down.

The storyline is incidental but for interest, after the last tournament, Heihachi is back having defeated his son Kazuya in Tekken 2. He then throws him into the same ravine that Kazuya threw him in after Tekken

1. However, Jun Kazama (from Tekken 2) and Kazuya have gone on to have a son Jin (don't ask me how) and then Heihachi's company has unearthed some powerful force which goes on to kill Jun. It doesn't really make a great deal of sense but it is an excuse for another tournament.

Some of the characters are sons or daughters of the original 2 Tekken's (ie:they're more or less the same) though Paul is back (and looking older) and for some reason Nina has been in cryogenic stasis for 20 years (which doesn't explain why her sister Anna hasn't aged though). There are some new characters with distinctly new fighting styles, other new characters have similar fighting styles to characters they replaced in Tekken 2.

The graphics are excellent and are very close to the arcade version. There is also the added bonuses of having a number of different game modes and also when you complete the game, this releases an animated movie sequence for that character, as well as a new character you can use.

A few characters are released by different means. Doctor Boskonovich (who rebuilt Yoshimitsu) can be accessed if you complete the Tekken Force option 3 times. It is worth the effort both because Tekken Force is practically a game in its own right, where you fight armies of henchmen and an end stage boss (one of the other characters), all against a fast disappearing time limit. Also, Doctor Boskonovich has a fighting style quite unlike any of the other characters available to use, so he is worth getting. The Tekken Force option definitely helps extend the life of the game with the player instead of if this had just been another Tekken retread.

Also, something you might miss is that after enough characters have been released, pressing the Start button on Eddy will allow you access to the character Tiger (which is more or less still Eddy but has his own animation).

All up I think there are 22 characters. You get Gon when, after releasing enough characters you get and win the Tekken Ball mode.

A few drawbacks, one is that to get most of the hidden characters, you have to just keep playing and winning the game which despite the excellence of the game, does eventually start to get a little boring. Especially since this is what you had to do in Tekken 2 and the games aren't radically different. As a result, I found myself losing interest sooner than with Tekken 2. I think it would be worthwhile for a different approach with the next Tekken where distinctly different things have to be done for accessing each new character than just finishing the game over and over. Also, essentially the game is still 2-D in the sense that the characters still fight in a line, apart from now being able to side-step (which you couldn't do in Tekken 2) which has mixed results in evading attacks. It will be interesting to see if the series will move to true 3-D arena fighting like Ehrgeiz or Tobal for example.

Another small gripe is that the version I've played in Australia, after the Ogre is defeated, the animation showing the transformation into the True Ogre seems to have been edited, it simply shows the Ogre raising Heihachi into the air, the screen going white and then the next fight starts. I'm sure I'm not imagining this, I could swear I remember in the arcade that the Ogre actually goes on to "consume" Heihachi's body and turn into The True Ogre. Why it would be cut at that point is beyond me, it was not a graphic scene at all anyway, more bright lights, electricity and metamorphising than anything else.

However though, Tekken and Tekken 2 were the sole reasons I bought a Playstation in the first place and the only games I have. Tekken 3 hasn't disappointed as a follow up and there's enough new stuff in the options, characters and animations to make it worthwhile, even if you've finished the arcade game.

- Tekken 5

Tekken 5 is the latest in the Tekken fighting game series. The graphics, gameplay and customizable outfits make it a game well worth buying!

We really enjoy fighting games and have played most that have been released. It can be easy to start comparing them to each other and to look for the best of all possible worlds in each game. Tekken 5 really does a great job compared to most of what is on the market today!

First, of course, the fighting. There are 20 characters to start with - plus a number of unlockable. The game does a GREAT job of offering you male and female, young and old, a variety of races. And unlike some other modern games, the females are actually clothed and earn your respect. You fully get the sense that each character has a background, a style, an attitude.

Every character has his or her own moves and combinations. You can master one character, and move on to learning the next character's talents. The more you learn about each character's style, the better you get in any of the combat situations. There are plenty of moves to keep you entertained for weeks, and each executes flawlessly on the screen.

Which brings us to the graphics. I really have to say that this is one of the best looking games I have seen on the PS2. Normally I give the XBox the edge on graphic quality - but there are some arenas that are just stunning. The dark chapel with orange stained glass stands out in my mind. Yes, the backgrounds are in action, the clouds move, birds fly by. You find that in just about any game in modern times. But the quality of the scenes are sometimes just amazing. Sure, there are some arenas that are a bit boring and look repetitive - there's one with dirt, dirt piles and dirt tornados which isn't graet. In general, though, someone spent a lot of time on the worlds you play in.

The graphics for the characters is also quite well done. The braids move with your action, the scraves blow, the attack moves are smooth and flowing. When you slam into the ground or a wall, it creates impacts. Sure, being a PS2, there are some limits. The ground-pieces that fly up are sometimes rather jagged looking. Still, it's about as good as I've seen.

The game has a wide range of difficulty settings, and you can choose characters that are easier or more difficult for you to play with. There's a challenge even in the easiest modes though - don't expect to button-mash your way to victory. It really pays to spend a fair amount of time in training mode, to learn the specific talents of each character.

I do have to say that when you are fighting a tough boss, it gets REALLY annoying to have the boss laugh at you - to have to sit through 5 long seconds of a replay of your failure - to then see and hear "YOU LOSE!" and then another few seconds of start-up before you try again. It's fine the first time or two, but there should be a way to skip it after that. We know we lost, already. There isn't a need for the game to grind your face in the dust for 15 seconds.

That being said, even the main boss is beatable once you learn the counter-moves to his attacks. It's a matter of study, and learning your character's unique talents. There is definitely a way to win with every character. Again, button mashing won't do the trick. It takes strategy.

Also, even though you have a 'circular world' to fight in where you can side-step left or right, it's a very close quarters game. You can't back up to set up a strategy, you can only mince a step or two back. There aren't other levels to jump down to or take advantage of. It's sort of like a sumo match, with a narrow circle to mince around in.

The sound is fast-paced fighting music. There are different styles, to go with the different arenas, but all of it is generic and repetitive. I really like some of the other games that have "real" Chinese and Japanese music, say, for temple battles. But I realize of course that some people ignore the music completely, so it all depends on what interests you. I happen to appreciate having a great music track with my game.

There are a nice variety of game options to keep you playing for months. There are of course the story modes where each character goes through stages and meets their friends and foes. There are one and two player random matches. There are all sorts of unlockables, customizations, and even a bunch of mini-games.

Highly recommended in general!

- Tekken - Dark Resurrection

wow, it feels like playing PS2 Tekken 5 on the PSP with same type of graphics and loadtime. Personally the only reason you would want this game is to play Tekken anywhere you go, other than that its almost identical to the PS2 Tekken 5, all the ending are the same all the moves are the same. you do get 2 new characters. To sum it up: I love it, its gotta be the best fighting game on the psp and the best port from ps2 to psp! now if only they can port god of war to the psp with this kind of quality!

This game is one of the best reasons to own a PSP. Period. The graphics are the best I've seen and the gameplay matches it perfectly. The load times-an issue with alot of PSP games-are minimal. The game is very polished and has a ton of features. This and Street Fighter Alpha 3 are the very best fighting games you will find on the PSP or any portable system for that matter. Just accept the game for what it is- a version of Tekken that looks and plays the absolute best it can under the limitations of a portable system.