Veering away from projectiles and ranged-based attacks found in 2D fighters at the time, Virtua Fighter was one of those games that really paved the way for 3D-based fighters. Its latest installment, Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown, released last year for the PS4 to the delight of fans.

Since then, many titles have followed in its footsteps over the years. Titles like Fighting Vipers, Battle Arena Tohshinden, Tobal No. 1, and Soul Edge/Soul Calibur encompassed the 3D fighting space and while many have come and gone, one stood out from the rest.

With a memorable cast of diverse fighters, many of whom have become iconic video game personalities, Tekken has cemented its position as one of the most celebrated fighting games today.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that these two icons would come together in some way, and we have that in the form of the Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Tekken DLC, which includes the following:

• 19 TEKKEN 7 character costumes
• 20 TEKKEN 7 BGM tracks
• TEKKEN 7 battle UI
• 2 TEKKEN 7 collaboration titles

Watch – Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Tekken DLC Trailer

The concept of alternate skins in games is nothing new, and for $9.99, Virtua Fighter 5 is offering a rather unique collaboration. However, the game takes it to the next level by not only giving its full roster alternate Tekken 7 skins but also letting you change the UI to make it resemble Tekken 7.

It’s basically putting the Tekken 7 roster in Virtua Fighter or putting Virtua Fighter mechanics in Tekken 7… You get the point.

Do take note these are completely cosmetics, which means just because Virtua Fighter protagonist Akira Yuki can look like Tekken’s Kazuya Mishima, doesn’t mean he’ll gain Kazuya moves and abilities. They look good, all things considered, and you might even mistake it as a Tekken game at first glance.

This brings me to some of the unusual choices of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Tekken DLC.

While every combatant in the Virtua Fighter 5 roster has an alternate Tekken skin, some choices are actually a bit of a mixed bag.

Some skins do make sense, like Sarah Bryant getting a Nina Williams skin and her brother Jackie Bryant getting to look like Paul Phoenix. In terms of designs, they do look rather similar, so the transition from Virtua Fighter to Tekken is a logical one.

The similarities don’t end with the looks, as some fighters like Wolf Hawkfield and El Blaze get dressed up as Armor King and King respectively. This is another logical choice since both characters play as grapplers/wrestlers.

On the other hand, some Tekken skins look rather awkward on certain Virtua Fighter 5 characters. The first one that comes to mind is Shaolin Monk Lei Fei who, for some reason, gets Eddy Gordo from Tekken. Eddy not doing Capoeira is quite a jarring difference, especially when you see it in action.

Another one that comes to mind is Eileen, who uses monkey-style Kung-Fu. Of all the Tekken characters that she could have been, Alisa Bosconovitch was a rather unexpected choice.

This is, by no means, the fault of either franchise. Obviously, while there will be similarly designed characters with overlapping disciplines, not everyone will have a direct counterpart, so some choices will be understandable.

As this is a purely visual DLC, $10 sounds like a small price to pay to get a full set of alternate costumes for the Virtua Fighter 5 roster. They’re visually appealing, and if you can look past some of the awkward choices, the skins are actually well made, mixing 2 iconic IPs into an epic battle. More than the skins, the UI gets an overhaul too, which is a fantastic touch.

Fighting game DLCs usually revolve around new characters that add actual playable value to the mix, so this might not be everyone’s cup of tea. For those deep into the Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown experience, the Tekken 7 Collaboration DLC is certainly one to consider.

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown is now available for the PS4 and PS5.