You no longer have any excuse not to play a "Virtua Fighter" game. "Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution," an update to "Virtua Fighter 4," isn't just a great deal. It's the best fighting experience available on home consoles.

Paging Mr. Darwin
"Evolution's" most notable change is its two new fighters. Brad Burns is a tough-talking kickboxer, and Goh Hinogami is an assassin with painful-looking judo attacks. Brad and Goh look like they'd be more at home in a "Tekken" game, but their play styles mesh nicely with the "Virtua" universe.

Tweaks to the gameplay balance have evened the playing field substantially. For example, Wolf can no longer run roughshod over the rest of the crew.

Each "Virtua Fighter" game adds more to the characters' back stories, but don't look for cut scenes or fancy CG endings in "Evolution." Like its predecessors, "Evolution" is all about the fight. What you lose in flashy extras you gain back several times over in deep, complex gameplay.

Fight like you want to win
What makes "Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution" so impressive is its levels of complexity. You can play on a basic level, simply punching and kicking, or you can dig further into the fighting engine.

If you're a "Virtua Fighter" newbie, you may feel overwhelmed the first time you fire up "Evolution." Luckily, an extensive training mode offers trials in special moves, combos, advanced tactics, and overall game strategy. This mode makes "Evolution" accessible to vastly more people than were any of the previous "Virtua Fighter" games. It's a necessary feature. The challenging AI forces you to improve quickly or die, and many of the computer opponents are based on real-life VF4 champions from Japan.

Smooth operator
"Virtua Fighter 4" was no slouch in the graphics department, but "Evolution" is still an improvement. The jagged edges that plagued the previous game are now smoothed out, and everything looks much cleaner. There are also subtle alterations to the environments, mostly in the form of different times of day and weather effects such as a violent rainstorm in the previously sunny Great Wall of China stage.

Stop talking. All of you
The music is standard electronic fighting fare, though not particularly memorable. Sound effects feature bone-crunching cracks, smacks, and thuds, along with the trademark "passing jet plane" whoosh that accompanies a spin kick. Perhaps the only weakness in the sound is the voice work. Jacky's inexplicable exclamations of "I done handcuffed lightning!" will leave most players scratching their heads.

Go quest, young man
A new quest mode replaces the Kumite mode of the original VF4. This new feature sends you trawling through various arcades in Tokyo, challenging increasingly difficult opponents for rankings and items. The items you win or purchase let you customize your fighter. Nothing says "VF fanboy" like a personalized Kage.

"Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution" offers a ton of value for its $19.95 price. There's a massive amount of technique to learn. When you're playing solo, there's no shortage of things to do, thanks to quest mode and the dozens of training challenges. If you love top-shelf fighting gameplay and don't fear a learning curve, pick up "Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution."

"Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution" (PS2)