Characters can do Down attacks, where you capitalize on a downed opponent for big damage. It’s just as strict for more advanced offense, too. Down attack recklessly and risk getting hit, or worse. However, you only get one shot at pressing the buttons per knockdown, since if you press it too early or late it won’t count anymore and your character will be victim to whatever your opponent does next. When you get a hard knockdown, players can press all three buttons to quick recover, freeing them from pressure. It even does this with the game’s quick recovery system. The result is that the game is *really* strict about the timing and execution of these, since pressing Punch one time too many or not connecting your kick right means you’re going to get a different combo. Virtua Fighter uses a dial-a-combo system, meaning all your combos are going to be some combination of Punch into Punch into Kick, with minimal command inputs and no motion inputs. The gameplay is wholly unchanged from Virtua Figher 5 Final Showdown- meaning it still has all that Virtua Fighter discipline to it. CombatĪs an actual fighting game, Virtua Fighter is an amazingly strict time. It’s practically a part of the Virtua Fighter identity now, so it’s here to stay. I can see that it would have been really tempting to get the voice actors back in the studio for higher quality recordings, but I’m glad they didn’t. The soundfiles sound super compressed, and give me all sorts of fond arcade memories. One thing that might sound like a backhanded compliment is that the audio sounds laughably bad, and I love it. Still, it’s a great effort to get people back into Virtua Fighter, because it really does look like a modern 3D fighter, almost on par with Tekken. Characters have that Yakuza-esque semi-realism to them, and it shows. Follow one hilarious nitpick is just how blatantly obvious it is that the game shares an engine, since the artstyle kind of bleeds through, too.