XBLA Reviews: Virtua Fighter 2/Fighting Vipers

Virtua Vipers…

Virtua Fighter 2, Sonic the Fighters and Fighting Vipers all came out on XBLA the same day at a cost of 400 Microsoft Points each. Each game has a similar list of achievements, the same interface and even plays almost identically to the last. I already reviewed Sonic the Fighters here and thought it a decent, albeit short experience worth getting for an easy 400 Gamerpoints and nostalgia. The other two games also suffer from this, but that doesn’t necessarily make them bad games…
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Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers have a good roster list, although they are both on the short side. Fighting combos are pretty much identical through both games, it almost even looks the same. I breezed through both games within 30 mins, although the 4th and 5th rounds of the Arcade Mode did take a bit longer than in Sonic the Fighters, some opponents are brutal in their execution. It’s actually quite difficult to review these games as they are almost identical and very short. They are good value for money at 400 MS Points a shot and you’ll easily earn all achievements in less than an hour, especially if you have 2 controllers to help with some of the more obscure ones.
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Visually, both games look decent but not groundbreaking. You can stretch the game to fill the screen or keep it at its original resolution, the load times are really short and the music is a mixed bag, while the sound effects aren’t too shabby.

 The Verdict

Both Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers are decent beat-em-ups, filled with the arcade nostalgia that it should have. I just wish it had more content and that both were more different from each other, as a result I have decided to award both games the same score. I’d recommend trying the demo to see if you like it first and if you do then its worth a quick impulse buy.

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