Vs.

  As I've written before, I'm not really a fighting game fanatic. I play one now and then, and I generally have a good time, it's just not my favorite genere. I usually pass on these and buy a racing or shooting game.

Lately though, I have been playing an awful lot of fighters. Matter of fact, In the past couple months I have played (and in most cases reviewed) Marvel Superheores, Dynasty Warriors, Fighting Vipers, Virtua Fighter 2, and this game Vs. I am by no means a fighting game expert (remembering button combinations makes me nauseous), but I have been getting a good idea of what to expect from a good fighter.

Now, on to my semi-amateur review of THQ's Vs.

Vs. is an ultra fast, super smooth polygon street fighting game by THQ. The characters are divided into 4 California gangs, each gang has a total of 4 members. This makes a total of 16, with an additional 4 characters available after beating the gang's boss member. As with most fighters, each character has his/her own special moves available (3  each), and a special meter available to all fighters. In this game, the meter represents the "defensive fire", which is the ability to block and counter throw moves. The fighting contains the same multi-hit combos that are found in many of today's popular fighters.

The gangs and their members are:

STREET GANG- Mia is a gang banger who is forced to protect her home. She must  poor because she only has 1/2 a shirt, and her pants are so baggy that they expose half her panties. Her fighting style is a form of Kung Fu. Oleg is a city cab driver with the perferred fighting style of a pro wrestler. Slim Daddy is a business man.....i.e. Pimp! His favorite method of inlicting pain is Karate. Vikram is basically your ordinary rowdy club goer. His fighting styles are Kung Fu and Aikido.

HOOD GANG- Ramos is a street rapping street fighter. Jalil is a recycler, who is also a self taught master of Tae Kwon Do. Thana is a costal Shrimper...or so he says. Most believe this to be a front. He is also a master at Tae Kwon Do. Paco is a mechanic who is also a nasty street fighter.

CAMPUS GANG- Harold an exchange student with knowledge of Pi-Kua Kung Fu. Kathleen a sexy schoolgirl skilled in Aikido. Leath (My personal favorite) is a cheerleader fighting with martial arts. A classic example of a good girl gone bad. O'doul former inner city principal who now fights for the campus gang. His style is Pi-Kua Kung Fu.

BEACH GANG- Kenny is a bodybuilder who is also a pro wrestler. Calucag is just a Karate loving limber athlete. Mineo, the street mime. Kara is a mild mannered tatoo artist. Her skill is Pi-Kua Kung Fu.

The game has all the options you'd expect from a well written figher. You can fight against a friend, the CPU, or enter any of the other fighting fests the game lays out for you. A few modes are Rumble, Survival, Challenge and Exhibition. I won't explain them further, as events like these are standard to the fighting genere.

Graphically, the game looks decent, but is not of the quality we've come to expect in current fighters. All the backgrounds look decent, but the fighters themselves use far too few polygons. The game tends to remind me more of Virtua Fighter, then it does of Tekken 3. Although shaded well, the characters look far too blocky. The only notible exception being the female fighters legs. All look very smooth, and quite shapely.

Initially, when I first began to play, I hated this game. It looked blocky, the moves seemed too few, and it was hard to get into. After awhile though, I began to really like it. It was fast.. very fast..., had a decent mix of characters, plenty of panty shots (heh heh!!), and felt very fluid. I also liked the fact that there were only a couple of buttons combinations for me to memorize. Some may not like this, but for me it was great. This became a game I wanted to play again and again.

So how does it stack up against the current fighters? Well, it falls alittle behind the current crop. It's got a few flaws that must get some attention.

Outside of the graphics, which I mentioned before, there are still some things that keep it from the top. For instance, there are no difficulty settings. Only the one you start with. If your very inexperienced, you'll go nowhere in this game. If your real experienced, you may finish it too quickly. A difficulty option should've been included. If not in the tournaments, at least in the 1P vs CPU mode. Next, after a game was over, you had to go through this long drawn out loading sequence, and selection of fighter. It was just too slow to start a new fight. It should've been set up more like the Capcom, Sega, and Koei fighter(s). Another problem is the difficulty. It is very hard to pull off moves sometimes. THQ definetely need to do some more work in this area. Also, each fighter only has 3 special attacks. Compared to most, this is very sub-standard. And last but not least, the sound was awful. The music stinks and seems out of place (Yes, I know other reviewers are saying it's great.), and attack sounds are not pronounced enough. Play this after playing a game like Dynasty Warriors, you will really notice a difference.

In the end though, I still recommend this game. For no other reason then it is FUN!!!! (Well, maybe for the game babes too!) It has some major shortcomings, but games are about fun. If you have that nothing else really matters.
 

RATINGS
GRAPHICS 70%
SOUND 65%
GAMEPLAY 90%
ORIGINALITY 75%
REPLAY VALUE 92%
OVERALL 78%