Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Review (PlayStation 4)

by Jim Smale · June 11, 2021

The legendary fighting series returns with our Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown review! Challenge the greatest fighters in the world in the ultimate remaster of the classic 3D fighter, now featuring gorgeous HD graphics, new online features, and all the bone-crunching, martial arts combat of the renowned original.

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Review akira

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Review Pros:

Crisp HD graphics.
16.52GB download size.
13 Trophies.
Fighting gameplay.
Works on Playstation 5.
Five game modes- ranked, room match, training, arcade, and offline versus.
Demo matches play when you are on the main menu and you can go fullscreen.
Can rebind controls for both the controller and a fight stick.
Music- have it randomly pick songs or pick a playlist from all the games.
Match UI can be set to default or retro.
Full character customisation- four slots for each person, choose costume type, head, upper body, face, arms, and lower body.
Very fast loading times.
Tight familiar controls.
Full stats section with filters.
Title card- can unlock new ones.
Set your active player choice for online.
Can play against the CPU when waiting for a ranked match.
Full online leaderboards.
Rank search settings- similar rank/higher rank, connection quality (any/good/best) and disconnect rate (any/not frequent/infrequent only).
Player room- search or create. Can set up the room with the- type of match (normal/Kumite/single elimination/double elimination/league match), round count (win 1/2/3/4/5), time limit (30/45/60), number of players (2-16), number of spectators, passcode, connection restrictions and any room tags (optional).
Player room search has filters and a room browser showing basic rules.
Training mode- tutorials, command training, and free training.
Arcade is the story mode for each character.
Arcade mode settings- 5 difficulties (very easy/easy/normal/hard/very hard), round count (1-5), time limit (30/45/60), health bar for you and your opponents (200/220/240/260).

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown cast of 19 characters-

Akira, Pai, Lau, Wolf, Jeffrey, Kage, Sarah, Jack, Shun, Lion, Aoi, Lei Fei, Vanessa, Brad, Goh, Eileen, El Blaze, T-Arashi, and Jean.

Feels just like it did back in the day, possibly better and smoother.
Robust combo system.
Feels good to be back playing a Virtua Fighter game.
You can buy retro music and character skins.
Arcade mode randomizes who you fight and in what order.
Arcade game presentation.

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Review fight

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Review Cons:

You have to pay for the retro aesthetics.
Takes a while to learn a character.
Online is a seems to be populated with nothing but pro players!
Plays like the original so it may take a short while to reacclimatize to the flow and speed.
Only on Playstation.
No PlayStation 5 upgrade or version with enhancements.

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Review arena