head to head

Street Fighter IV cover artvsVirtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown cover art

Street Fighter IVvsVirtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown

Street Fighter IV leans Execution (Grand Arena); Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown leans Execution (Grand Arena).

EXECUTION9 /10READS8 /10VARIANCE1 /10OPTIMIZATION6 /10
Street Fighter IVVirtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown

Axis by axis

Execution9 vs 9

Even - both lean on execution about the same.

Reads8 vs 9

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown leans harder on reads: Constant throw-tech guessing and option-select reads against human opponents

Variance1 vs 1

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

Optimization6 vs 8

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown leans harder on optimization: Frame data study and throw-tech percentages are among the deepest in the genre

Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.

full breakdown

Street Fighter IV

full breakdown

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown