Over the last fourteen years, Sega's Virtua Fighter franchise has improved graphically, but never strayed from its realistic hand-to-hand combat; discarding fireballs, 100 hit combos and fatalities in exchange for good old fashioned brawling. This year, developer AM2 continues this tradition with the stellar Virtua Fighter 5 for PlayStation 3.

Fighters from previous games return, along with two new faces -- the versatile Eileen and the suave Lucha Libre wrestler El Blaze. Each of these characters sport powerful, unique fighting styles. Shun Di, for instance, wavers around unpredictably with a drunken fighting technique, which becomes more impulsive every time he takes a swig from his bottle. Jeffrey McWild prefers WWE-style wrestling moves, slamming opponents to the ground and howling like a madman. None of the fighters exploit an advantage over the others, keeping things balanced.

Players can access a Command List for each character by pausing the game. Here, people will discover combos and power moves; along with grapples, described here as "offensive maneuvers". They can also learn how to break out of a throw with a quick defensive maneuver, done more realistically here than in the counter-riddled Dead Or Alive 4. In addition, gamers shift movement upwards and downwards with a double-tap on the directional pad. This sets up opponents for a good counter-attack, while dodging an incoming punch or kick.

As for controllers, Virtua Figher 5 works fine on Sony's SIXAXIS, with responsive buttons. However, some may prefer a good old-fashioned fighting stick to perform some of the more complex motions.