Virtua fighter 4 is Segas first beat-'em-up for the ps2, and it turns out to be the best so far. Firstly the graphics are some of the best seen on the ps2 so far, there's always some thing going on in the background from the cheering fans around the wrestling ring to the helicopter flying round the rooftop arena and they all look fantastic. Not that these backgrounds detract from the arenas themselves, some of them are walled that you can smash your opponent into, others aren't so you can knock them out of the arena and automatically win the round.Then there's the floor, now normally they're pretty boring but here tiles smash, water splashes and sand gets trampled, and it stays like this for the rest of the fight.And then there are the characters themselves each are well modeled and the collision detection is some of the best I've seen.   

  The controls for virtua fighter 4 are amazing, I mean with just 3 buttons (kick, punch and guard) and the d-pad they manage to fit WAY more moves than tekken tag which has 4 buttons and tag moves. the only problem with the control system is it's incredably hard to dodge an attack, its really easy to block it but for some reson dodging is hard.

  Minor niggles aside they're are a few game modes available from straight forward arcade to kumite (a survival mode where you improve your ranking and gain extra items) and A.I mode where you train a fighter to do your work for you.

  There are some problems with the game though, it takes a long time to master a character and each one is very different. The extras in the game although numerous are a little underwhelming compared to the effort involved. Though despite all this it's the best ps2 beat-'em-up there is.