Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage is a marvelous appetizer to the series’ grand return

It’s almost hard to believe that the original release of Virtua Fighter 5 is 20 years old. Sega’s 3D fighter has had almost as much staying power as Street Fighter 2, with a dedicated fan base that’s continued to keep the torch lit for two decades now.

It’s a title that has received not one, but two revisions in 2025 alone, as part of a series revival that will culminate in a brand new entry expected to arrive sometime over the next couple of years. Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage is the latest rendition, bringing the Steam release of R.E.V.O. earlier this year to modern platforms, including PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and soon on Nintendo Switch 2.

While mostly a straight port of said PC version (which has also received a free update adding in the new content), World Stage does bring new elements worth checking out. The titular World Stage mode is a substantial piece of single-player content, and it’s joined by a new playable character (who is unfortunately paid downloadable content), full crossplay between consoles and PC, and the reintroduction of customization items from earlier versions of Virtua Fighter 5.

It’s an impressive package for the low price of $19.99 / £15.99 / AU$27.95, and an easy sell for folks looking for a new 3D fighter to get into; perhaps even those who’re burned out on Tekken 8’s controversial Season 2 changes.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage isn’t brimming with content necessarily, but I have been enjoying World Stage mode in short bursts. And ultimately, in terms of play, VF5 simply remains one of the best fighting games out there, with bogglingly complex and technical gameplay that stretches far beyond what its three-button system might initially imply.

Virtua insanity

So first, a quick introduction for those who might be largely unfamiliar with Virtua Fighter 5. It - along with the series in general - is a 3D fighter with just three main buttons: punch, kick, and guard. It sounds simple, but the game’s overt complexity comes from its characters’ incredibly diverse move sets, and what it does with various combinations of those buttons.

Each of the game’s 20 playable characters are masters of a specific martial art and largely plays wholly differently from one another. Jeffry, for example, hits like a truck with his Pankration style, while Pai’s Ensei-Ken is faster and more elegant.

Then you have more specialist characters. Vanessa is essentially two characters in one, able to switch between stances for two completely different move sets. Aoi’s Aiki Ju-Jutsu is more of a defensive style, prioritizing parries and reversals for big damage cashouts. And if you’re looking for something flashier, Wolf and El Blaze fill out the pro wrestling and Lucha Libre styles, respectively. Then there’s Taka Arashi, a sumo wrestler whose large size makes him entirely unique in both offense and defense.

Virtua Fighter 5 is much more grounded than other 3D fighters like Tekken or Dead or Alive, with relatively few fantastical aspects. A decidedly more ‘realistic’ fighting game experience, matches can be over in a matter of seconds thanks to small health bars, quick round times, and blisteringly fast-paced gameplay. Button mashing and input mistakes are heavily punished, as is forgetting to guard, given that’s an action assigned to its own button here.

Around the world (stage)

Let’s talk about the new, then. Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage’s biggest addition is the titular World Stage mode. This is an entirely single-player piece of content that aims to emulate Virtua Fighter 4’s excellent Quest mode. In World Stage, you travel to various venues from a menu where you’re pitted against random AI opponents. Each new venue scales upwards in difficulty, with some opponents even being based on real-world players’ signature playstyles.

It starts off simple enough for beginners to enjoy, and keeps the training wheels on while encouraging them to try out a bunch of characters. You’re even incentivized to do so, as there are hundreds of challenges that each unlock a piece of clothing or an accessory for you to customize characters with. It’s a snappy, fast-paced mode that queues up fights one after another in rapid succession, and it’s really enjoyable in short bursts.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage also adds ‘Costume E’ - a fifth outfit for each playable character, and the bulk of World Stage mode’s unlocks are related to these outfits. Sadly, customization still feels lacking overall, with most options being simple recolors, and there aren’t all that many different styles per character. You can’t mix and match pieces of clothing between characters (you can only do so with certain accessories) either, and there are no custom color options for clothing or hairstyles.

That’s a real shame, especially because older versions of VF5 had even more customization options that are still absent in World Stage. It’s a step in the right direction with the addition of Costume E, for sure, but I’d like to see future patches potentially adding more. Of course, it’s not the end of the world; VF5 remains an unbelievably fun and rewarding fighting game to just play, and nowhere is that more apparent than in its online suite.

Hop on VF

Online play in Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage is stronger than it’s ever been, thanks to its release on modern platforms with full crossplay support. That means PlayStation and Xbox players (and soon to be Switch 2) can play against each other as well as with those on Steam.

Rollback netcode is also great here, allowing for smoother connections between players online. Though I’d still recommend investing in an Ethernet cable if you haven’t already, Wi-Fi and fighting games just don’t mix well, no matter how good the netcode here is, due to the inherent instability of wireless connections, and especially when fighting players who live overseas.

The suite of online options is pretty standard, but not really missing anything major except for unranked quickplay. You have ranked matches, as well as room matches, for when you want to set up a lobby with multiple players. There are also tournaments that happen periodically that you can sign up for.

I’ve been playing on PC on and off since the release of Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. back in January. Now that I’ve tested the game on PS5 via the World Stage revision, I’m happy to say that online connectivity holds up just as well on that console as it does on PC.

The only real issue I’ve run into is occasionally slow matchmaking times. The playerbase here isn’t as lively as it is for, say, Street Fighter 6 or Tekken 8, so it’s not uncommon to be waiting upwards of a minute to get into a match. But now that the game is available across all platforms, I hope this issue diminishes as more people discover the game.

Should you play Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage?

Play it if...

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Accessibility

There aren’t any dedicated accessibility settings in Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage; nothing in the way of things like colorblind modes or visual or audio cues like we see in other modern fighting games like Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6.

How I reviewed Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage

I’ve played Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage for a combined 25 hours across PC and PS5. Some of that playtime also came from R.E.V.O.’s initial release back in January. For World Stage specifically, I played a whole bunch of the new World Stage mode and tried out the new crossplay features, which open the game up to console players.

My controllers of choice were primarily the Razer Raiju V3 Pro on PlayStation 5, as well as the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 and Corsair Novablade Pro on PC.

First reviewed November 2025