Virtua Fighter 5 marks the return of Sega's mixed martial arts brawler that verily invented the 3-D fighter genre back in 1992 and continued to set the benchmark for it with each successive generation.

Its first showing in the new-generation console realm on PS3 (coming "soon" to Xbox360, apparently), VF5 debuts anew in high definition glory, raring to show everyone who's boss (again), how a multitude of wicked fast, fastidiously precise button combinations can unleash an impossible flurry of pain upon one's foes.

Obeying the basic tenets of sequelhood, VF5 features all the fighters of the franchise, each from a different school of fighting -- Shaolin Kung-Fu, Aiki Ju-Jutsu, Jeet Kune Do, Lucha Libre Wrestling, what-have you --, each sporting some new moves to augment their already considerable skill sets (along with an expanded arsenal of verbal taunts that range from cheesy clichés to hopelessly hokey, non-sequitur quips), plus, two new tenacious characters making their debut, as does your own self-created character should you choose to self-create one, all them inset amongst a variety of fresh environments surrounding the otherwise ubiquitous square circle arenas, sometimes caged, sometime wide open, usually interactive -- as in slam opponents against the fence and then pummel away because they can't fall down. Catharsis incarnate.

Which brings us to VF5's persistent flaw, better described as an old-school shortcoming. First though, visually this is clearly the next level in videogaming (albeit at 720p HD, with the PS3's overly-touted 1080p hypothetical capabilities left to hypothetics yet again). The environments, from lush tropical to pristine mountainous -- and many locales in between --, look good enough to eat; details such as snow packing down with each foot step or stomp are exceedingly well attended; and the actual fighters, wow, eyes that seems to contain a real soul, skin with a palpable sheen of sweat or maybe body oil, intricate stitchings on a martial artist's grand-master garb worthy of historian's Ph.D dissertation...

Too, when it comes to each fighter's moves, from simple one, two, roundhouse punch combos to elaborate foots of fury followed by a backhand and an exuberant toss over the shoulder -- not to mention such combos strung together with rhythmically enduring exactitude -- it all looks as fluidly painful (albeit bloodless) as the real deal you'd never want to happen across. But that's all pre-scripted; beautifully pre-programmed moves and countermoves, blows and blocks, Heimlich-like shoves and celery-snapping bonebreakers...

The persistent shortcoming manifests itself thus: Following a particularly nasty, upwardly inclined punch or kick or full-strength body-throw that sends an opponent airborne and unconscious results in said same opponent's graceful, slumbering return to earth, seemingly at half-gravity, which affords the opportunity to get in a few more shots, maybe even a finishing move when they're knocked silly and unable to defend. Dirty dog fighting, sure, but really, really fun. The problem is, for all VF5's wondrous mimicry of furious fluidity in the mano a mano (or elbow a thorax, if you prefer) fighting part, floating and otherwise lifeless bodies are as stiff as boards; hitting them again has all the grace of whacking at a non-articulating mannequin or solid mahogany effigy of a sleeping brute.

Pop! goes the illusion, crack! goes the suspension of disbelief, wake up, you just kicked a 2x4 in mid air and look, it's still floating there, punch it, grab it, toss it again, you bane of slumbering lumber you.

Invented and incorporated into many games sometime ago is a little piece of programming technology known as "ragdoll physics." Like it sounds, such code allows the CPU to assume responsibilities of lifeless bodies in motion, bound by parameters such as joints and tissue flexibility and thus easily and eerily displaying the happenings of cold-cocked, stupefied bruisers arcing through the air -- maybe getting redirected by a knee along the way -- in real time, limbs a-flailing, skull all a-wobble. It's not revolutionary technology; even B-grade games are known to incorporate it (there's even an excellent little low-budget indie title called Ragdoll Kung-fu that seems a generation ahead of this big-budget blockbuster when it comes to manhandling the listless), yet Sega, or better said the development team at Sega's AM2 Studios, simply (or for reasons unknown, at least) ignored the opportunity to use it and went with shiny sweat, compacted snow, horrible voices, and one-plank-fits-all knock-out animations. Where's the next-gen in that?

When Virtua Fighter made its debut all those years ago, the fighters themselves weren't much more than animated collections of geometric shapes with faces painted atop; blocky heads, cylindrical limbs, cubicle torsos, spherical fists and so on. Revolutionary at the time but not particularly lifelike, which is why the floating plank of unconsciousness was so forgivable -- Zen-like in its own way --, because it befit the level of sophistication (or lack there of). Now, three or four console generations later and a whole lot of Moore's Law behind it, you'd expect something a little more in tune with all the other life-like fluidity and authentic pummeling so masterfully on display. And you'd be disappointed.

Meet the new Mother of All 3D Fighters. Same as the old Mother of All 3D Fighters. Except prettier. And really, only prettier. Oh sure, there's a "quest" mode that let's you fight people in a town full of gyms and spend your winnings on a new hair-do or alternate booties, but please... Still waiting on the real "next generation."

• TIP: In Virtua Fighter 5, powerful, hulking brutes like Wolf or Jeffery can easily lose to small but fast opponents. Though it seems counter-intuitive, have your big guy act skitterish, backing away lots, then moving in for a grapple or power punch after the opponent has finished a pre-scripted flurry of misses.