Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown revives the franchise with a focus on competitive play

Launching tomorrow (June 1st, 2021) as a free title for PS+ subscribers, Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown is a fair bit more than just a port of a decade old PS3 game. This enhanced remake of 2012’s Final Showdown has been developed in-house at SEGA by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the same studio responsible for the now-flagship Yakuza franchise, and features updated high resolution models and textures thanks to the use of their proprietary Dragon Engine.

"Make no mistake, this is set to be the most accessible and content-rich version of Virtua Fighter ever made.."

Virtua Fighter is an interesting series to explore, and now that the bar for entry has been lowered to almost nothing (if you’re a PS+ subscriber, which if you play any games online you likely are) most fans are expecting a resurgence in the player base akin to the recent revivals of other games like Guilty Gear +R and KOF 2002 thanks to their rollback implementation (more on that in a moment.)

To the uninitiated it may seem like an impressive graphical overhaul and some fan-centric extra content, but there’s more at play here than the updated visuals. Marketing for the game originally teased the release with the tagline “Virtua Fighter x eSports,” and looking at the expanded list of features it’s clear that the team took that aim to heart during development.

The main attractions for hardcore competitors are the new League Matches and Tournament Mode, which facilitate structured online play with built-in streaming support and tools for organizers to create brackets and keep viewers updated on results without them having to look away from the stream while also allowing them to interact through live chat and a sticker/emoji system reminiscent of Twitch’s alerts. While League Matches serve as the ranked mode and are formatted in a round-robin style, Tournament Mode will support a variety of rulesets for use in official play, and for more casual outings the game features a private lobby system supporting up to 16 players.

With all this focus on online functionality the community was waiting with bated breath to hear those two words that would nigh-on guarantee a healthy post-launch community, which is why it’s doubly crushing to hear that not only will Ultimate Showdown not launch with rollback net code, it would instead be running on an updated version of Final Showdown’s 10 year old delay-based code which would incorporate “a mechanism to absorb the delay by a method other than rollback,” a confusing statement and one that does not inspire hope for stable net play at launch.

In terms of post-launch support from the studio, the game will be launching with the Legendary Pack DLC available for purchase at a modest 10$ price tag which nets buyers a surplus of over 2000 customization items, a collection of music spanning the entire series, and almost 40 skins between the roster’s 19 characters. Based on comments from producer Seiji Aoki in an interview with Gamespot players can expect more content down the line, including more customization items and additional features that were left on the cutting room floor.

While subpar net code certainly stands as a potential hinderance to Ultimate Showdown’s longevity in the competitive scene, it has a lot of factors working in its favor, namely its free release and timed exclusivity for PS4 and PS5 owners as well as its newly tuned visual fidelity and wealth of content and features.

Make no mistake, this is set to be the most accessible and content-rich version of Virtua Fighter ever made, and could very well herald the storied franchise’s return to the forefront of SEGA’s release catalogue, Aoki-san outright declaring his hopes that their efforts will make a true sequel a possibility down the line. Whether or not that future comes to pass is uncertain, but tomorrow’s launch is sure to deliver a taste of what’s to come.

Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown is available as a free download June 1st, 2021 to PSN users with an active PlayStation Plus subscription.

Images courtesy of PlayStation Blog.