found this in the review of PRIDE 17, from the official site.

Tekken 4

The first thing that struck me was that there were not many people playing this game and that is kind of odd, because Tekken is house hold name for gamers, but anyway I took place on a empty seat and put in my 100 yen coin. Now I know that there is a character in this game that has Vale Tudo Moves, but how do I find him if everything is Japanese? So I thought, well I take Kazuya Mishima. I can never go wrong with him. So I took this character and took the game for a test-drive. First thing that struck me was that the qualities of graphics were hardly changed from Tekken Tag Team. I really expected more for a new fighting game, but oh well. Most important is the gameplay. So here we go. After beating 3 opponents I was shocked by the terrible AI. I easily defeated all 3 opponents by only using basic moves. The reason why I was using basic moves is that it was about 13 months ago when I played my last game of Tekken and only after the sixth opponent It became to tough for me and I got beaten, but damn by a first try, I expected to be beaten much faster. So after this small shock, I thought lets play it again, this time I found out my Vale Tudo character named Craig Marduk. He is a big guy that reminds me of a mix between Gary Goodridge and Mark Coleman (no offence guys /versus/images/icons/smile.gif. In the beginning I could only punch a little bit and kick, but where were the Vale Tudo moves? Suddenly I found some and I took my opponent down with a shoot, went for mountain position and gave the guy some punches from this position. After I was finished punching I set up the armbar. The only problem was that after the armbar the game is not finished, because my opponent still had some health. This was a little bit disappointing though, but alright we continued the fight and after some punch kick combinations I beat the guy. Anyway after some more fights I was beaten and had enough of Tekken 4. My overall impression is that the game is still a nice beat em up, but it didn't change so much as I had hoped. Also when I just finished my game I looked on my right and saw some Japanese guy finishing the game in a total time of 7 minutes. So this made clear for me that I was right about the weak A.I. and that is why I also think not so many people played the game. Anyway after Tekken 4 it was time for an other Beat em up to put in for a testdrive.

Virtua fighter 4

I looked around me and saw my eye falling on a Virtua fighter 4 Arcade from Sega. The problem was that almost every Japanese guy was playing this game. So I had to wait, but that didn't matter so much, because I could watch the game and the game looked incredible! I almost freaked out. The graphics looked amazing and the animations of the characters were amazing too. Also there was a special slot in the arcade machine where I could put a special card inside. So far as I know. The card is made to keep your static's, how much fights you have won. Also you can check out your ranking on your mobile phone, because every card has a special number and when you have a Japanese telephone with internet connection you can go the webpage of Sega and then put that number of your card in to see what your ranking is. After waiting for 5 minutes, there came a seat free and nobody wanted to sit on it. So I thought guys are you afraid. I will do it. So with my enthusiasm I took the seat and chose my character. I am big fan of Lau. So I took him and then I saw on the right side of the screen my opponents characters attributes, did I see that right 870 matches already fought???? Now I understand why nobody wanted to sit on this seat. This guy is on a killing spree and I am his next Cannon fodder. I was thinking Eelco look in what mess you got yourself, but anyway I tried to make the best out of it and here we go. The first round ended faster then I could blink with my eyes. The second round was the same thing I got beaten up badly, but with the third round I found my confidence and my opponent took me a little bit to easy. So then it was my time to strike back and with some lucky new found moves. I defeated him in this round. It was now 2-1 for him and 1 round to go for him and 2 rounds to go for me. So the fourth round began. In the beginning I totally destroyed the guy. And when I had almost finished him, I forgot that with Virtua Fighter you can also be kicked, punched, thrown outside the ring and then you also lose the round. So what happened, I got a little bit too much confidence and gave a high kick. He ducked and swept me and there I felt outside the ring!!! I was like arggggggggghhhhhhh. Don't let this be true, but so it happened. I lost the fight 3-1. So ashamed of my stupid fault I left the seat and went on searching for Richard. I found him playing Virtua Tennis 2. He was totally addicted to this game. I said how is it? He said yeah I like it. The only thing I don't like is that the game play is a little bit to realistic, he said the movement of the characters are very nice, but man even if I have a good chance to score a point, I hit the ball quit slow. Maybe it is because of the slice, but still if I would hit it with full topspin I should get the ball past the opponent. So after I heard this I tried the game and I had to agree. Sometimes I got so furious, because you want the ball to be hit hard, but maybe because of effect, the ball goes very slow. I really didn't understand why that happened, because with the first Virtua Tennis game. I didn't have that problem. Anyway after playing 1 hour more of computer games we went back to the hotel. It was about 10 o'clock in the evening when we arrived back at the Hilton Hotel. When we entered the hotel, I saw my good friend Kawasaki-San. And he said Eelco, Richard would you like to join me and go with me, to get Japanese food. Mizutani-San and some people from that work for Pride were also there. I said of course, if it is no problem. He said no problem at all, please follow me and so we did. We followed him and we walked outside and went to some underground passage which I have never seen before, after 5 minutes walking we entered this Japanese style restaurant. The first thing we had to do was to take of our shoes. After that we followed Kawasaki-san and there I saw my good friend Mizutani-San and a girl from the pride desk and I saw my other good friend Kiyoshi-San!!! I said Kiyoshi how is everything? Eelco is it really you he replied? Yes I said, so far as I can remember I am still called Eelco . After greeting everybody it was time to sit down, order our food and of course talk about the upcoming Pride and slowly my first day since my arrival in Japan came to an end.
quick edit: the guy went back to the arcade the next day and raved about it again, while getting his ass kicked.

 

Josh,

Given both Tekken 4 and VF4 have been out for a while now, what's the point of this? Tekken sucks and VF is better? If so, then do we really need that here?

-Jason

 

I think it involved the fact that Elco or whatever his name is can write at all. That was simply painful reading. Kinda stream of consciousness, but not quite.

 

Just something I thought was interesting...if nothing else, than to show VF is more in the media and what-not....I mean, with the zillion and a half chibata threads, is this really as bad?

 

hahaha that is funny, I am Eelco and I wrote that article when I went to Pride 17. I actually totally forgot about it, it is that shadowdean mentioned it. anyway I looked with an openmind against both Tekken 4 and Virtua Fighter 4. I hadn't played both games at all. but since then I became totally crazy about Virtua fighter 4. I am sorry for my bad language in that article, but I Come from Holland so that is why. Also it is the truth that Virtua Fighter 4 is played much more then Tekken 4.
and anybody with an open mind can understand why. also the sales of Virtua Fighter 4 both arcade and console versions are much better thern those of Tekken 4.

anyway tomorrow there is Pride 20 in Japan. don't forget to watch it guys. it will be great! and maybe in the future when I will go again to Japan. I will hold a small VF4 tournament where the winner and finalist can win 1 or 2 RRS Pride tickets ( 25.000 - 30.000 yen tickets). or maybe even a backstage pass. I think that would rock !?

 

Yeah, I'm sure Pride 20 will be good. I am going to watch it.