A good remake if you like the original.
It can be easy to be overwhelmed so taking things slowly is my only advice. By that, I mean not running which is a sure fire way to not run into traps (Stage 8 cough.)
Weapons like the kali sticks and the nunchucks are kind of overpowered lol. Takes more skill around crowds but still. Once I took out the final boss's mooks, I pretty much stunlocked him to death.
Additions from other games are nice from the way they're implemented for the most part. They seem more balanced around the enemies. Though with how many enemies there are on screen, I hardly use the block/parry at all.

Another one of those weird fighting spinoffs.
This one seems the coolest in theory.

Platforming is pretty stiff. Not the biggest fan of the R-stick being relegated to that laser whip thing and not controlling the camera.

Combat while not AS stiff is pretty simplistic, though that by itself isn't a bad thing but its the type of combat where that one trick works on 90% of the enemy list. While I don't mind how Virtua Souls are implemented, I think its a grave missed opportunity to have something like a custom combo system. Sort of a virtua soul mechanic but for basic combos since almost every enemy has animations lifted from VF including Sei's canned combos. I don't know. Maybe its just me.

Levels can take a little too long for my liking, especially with the way extra lives work.
While the overall control is pretty stiff and levels from later on can be pretty lengthy, I can't say I was bored barring a couple of instances.

Presentation is kind of bland but I guess it works. Music is pretty nice at least.

This game is very "can be enjoyable."

Humble beginnings, as they say.

This old PC port is pretty cool for letting you choose between the old models and remixed models just like that.

For the game itself, it's okay.
Not the most polished fighter but nothing entirely sluggish.

Product of its time sort of deal.

















Shut up, Dark Edge seethers. VF has REAL 3d!

Really good sequel mechanically and visually.

Fighting is a lot snappier and character movesets are further fleshed out.

One thing about the combat I don't like is how obtuse some inputs for throws are (which is true for VF1 as well) especially when throws are pretty important tools. Some of those good throws can immobilize the opponent to be capitalized on. Thankfully the series moving forward would relegate all throws as P+G which is a lot simpler to wrap around.

BIGGEST issue is how unforgiving the AI is. Like Mortal Kombat 2 and Art of Fighting 2, the AI reads your inputs pretty early on and it gets worse going up (though, MK2 does it at the first fight so it's the undisputed king of cheap.)

And sadly, no home versions of the game (even the PSN/XBLA versions) have a training mode of any kind to actually learn the game properly.

To me, playing VF2 with friends and playing VF2 alone are vastly different experiences and even quality as weird as that might sound. By itself, I believe VF2 is a very good game (mainly for its time.)

Funny thing about the old PC version is that the AI in that game is the complete opposite. Probably wanted the difficulty to come from the Expert Mode which captures your play data over time which is cool.

This is a slightly more divisive title than the rest. Me though... I dig it.

Stages are uneven as hell which is definitely new (and rare) for a traditional 3d fighter. Only other example I can think of is Tekken 4. Stages themselves look cool. Not only did the stages get an overhaul but the movement in gameplay as well did. The Evade button!

This was an interesting addition at this point. The 3d in this 3d fighter isn't just for show anymore. But the addition of an extra main button that isn't an advanced input might prove to be a bit more convoluted than complex which I understand. But I do like moving around in this game.

But man, it can be unfair with a good Kage, a character with more mobility options than any other character since the beginning. But this time he has even more movement options now!

One step down I feel is the presentation. Music isn't as cool as 2. While graphically impressive for the time, I feel this VF has aged the worst. 2 has a great style and 1's graphics are outright iconic. Everyone just seems bugged eyed and then you have Aoi who I think looks terrible lol.

Not a bad sequel. I'll even say its just good. Depends on your tolerance on the E button and the uneven stages.

Kino has arrived in the 21st century.

Great fighting game. Fighting feels both fluid and snappy. Simplifies 3's evasion but getting rid of various movement tech unique to 3. I could do without unsuccessful evades being slower than 3's. Crouch dashing isn't as strict. This makes moves performed from crouching easier to pull off. Throw Escapes have a bit more dynamism to them for better or worse. However, jumping attacks are the most cumbersome they've been now that evades are UP and Down.

Character movesets are even more diversified with some having multiple stances for different purposes like newcomers Vanessa and Lei-Fei.

Then we have the new Sabaki mechanic. Basically a parry that can deflect other moves. VERY useful tool even when you're not the type to do normal reversals.

Presentation is great. Great graphics for its time even on the slightly downgraded PS2 version. Stages look great with my favorite ones being Jacky and Akira's. Even the menus look great in the PS2 version's case. Pretty sleek looking overall. Music isn't amazing but they're still cool and fit the stages well.

PS2 has quite a few cool features. There's the Kumite mode where you fight a bunch of dudes, rise up your rank like in a dojo and get items to customize your player. I believe it's the first fighting game to have custom cosmetics and a ranking as far as I know. You can also unlock old victory poses, unlock new ones and even unlock a VF1 styled character skin even for those that weren't in VF1.

There's the A.I. training mode which is my favorite mode in the series personally. You make an A.I. of the certain character and you can either train it yourself or have it watch replays whether it be yours or otherwise. Then you can sic it out on Arcade, Kumite or Versus with a buddy. It's no doubt the weirdest mode and pretty vague in how it works. But I enjoy this mode quite a lot. And I made some monster CPUs out of it.

If that isn't enough, it has the a̶l̶m̶o̶s̶t̶ greatest tutorial in fighting games in the form of its Trial mode. Teaches long time VF basics as well as its new ones.

Great game overall

Kino has evolved.

Gameplay has improved and introduces two new characters, Brad and Goh who feel outright unfinished in terms of moveset. Especially Goh. But still, they're welcome newcomers. Character moveset changes, more moves added, animations redone and touched up.

Overall the presentation wants to go for a slightly more edgy route. Stages are slightly different. I'll just straight up say most of the changed music is traaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash. It bloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooows cock.

Graphically, it's slightly improved. Better anti-aliasing. So that's nice. The added weather effects for some are pretty nice.
There's no A.I. training so that's sad for me especially.

There's the new Quest Mode which personally isn't for me with how much of a grind it can be. But it's cool nonetheless with more items to unlock than vanilla 4. A.Is are copied from tournament players. Sega did this and it is very cool. First of its kind as well which inspired Namco to do something similar for Tekken 5, another fighting game that's fucking awesome.

There are extra modes of battle you can turn on in the options and they're nice and diverse for VS mode.

Replay feature is probably the coolest it has been. You can pause, frame advance, turn on visible inputs to see what each player is doing. There's also the replays that are built into the disc with nearly 4 hours worth of matches from pro players in the arcade scene.

Now that we're here, I can now say it contains the greatest and in-depth tutorial in any fighting game to this day. Albeit with some boring presentation.

So yeah. A cool game made ever cooler.

Pretty cool. Plays better than what you'd expect. Mocapped animations were done very well to capture that fluid movement without slogging the gameplay down.

Control scheme and gameplay are very similar to Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers but weapons based. So a lot of knowledge from those franchises apply here.

A pretty great fighter that's fast, snappy and just plain looks cool.

Fuck your plushies, wita