Vs.

Fighting games are pretty scarce this holiday season, what with Tekken 3 and Dead or Alive not coming out until next year. THQ has taken the opportunity to release its first fighting game for the PlayStation at this time, and while it's by no means unplayable, it does leave a lot to be desired.

Vs. focuses on American fighters, namely gangs. There are four gangs, each with four members, that range from schoolgirls to surfers to other, less conventional, stereotypes, such as the pimp and rave DJ. These characters are amusing at first, but begins to wear thin after a while. This, however, is the least of this game's problems.

Where Vs. really falters is in the fighting itself. Although it moves at 60fps, the motion of the fighters is extremely jerky, resulting in spastic movements that look nothing like real fighters. The moves themselves are entirely too simple as well -- while a limited punch/kick/block combination of buttons may have worked for Virtua Fighter, it acts as a drawback in Vs. There just aren?t enough moves. One cool function, though, is the evade button, which allows you to sidestep or reverse an attack.

Graphically speaking, Vs. is very lacking. The fighters are made up of big, chunky polygons that would've looked decent back in '95, but look severely dated compared to today?s advanced fighting games. The backgrounds are decent enough, with some animated arenas, but it's the characters themselves that really count.

Vs. is a decent start for a company looking to get into the fighting market, it?s just not as accomplished as other fighters, even Tekken. On to round two...