Street Fighter IV

"Another great Street Fighter"

The fourth main installment in one of the most critically acclaimed fighting game series, Street Fighter IV has a lot to live up to. Given how long it has been since a brand new entry in the series has appeared rather than an updated version of Street Fighter II or Street Fighter III, there was a lot of catching up to do for the series. At the same time, changing the series too drastically would obviously spell ruin. So this is the fine line Capcom has tried to walk with Street Fighter IV: Bring Street Fighter up to date and accessible to new players without having it become lifeless and repulsive to longtime fans. So let's analyze how they've succeeded and failed.

When the player first starts up the game, they are greeted with an introductory video. The graphical style is quite beautiful and unique and looks like a watercolor painting come to life. The video's coupled with a catchy pop tune that eventually fades into a more traditional Street Fighter song. But then it's gone. For the rest of the cutscenes – which play at the beginning and end of arcade mode – the art style reverts back to a generic anime style that isn't exactly ugly, but at the same time feels just as stale as the mindless and cheesy plot behind it. If you want a story in your fighting game, you have come to the wrong place. Street Fighter's plot has never been particularly spectacular, and it feels silly to even expect a good plot out of a fighting game, but it still boggles the mind how the story can be so crammed full of cliches, stereotypes, and cookie-cutter two-dimensional elements. It should come as a relief then that the game includes the option to skip the cutscenes with the press of a button to get straight to the meat of the game: the fighting.

When in an actual match, the graphical style is an almost cel-shaded sort of 3D. Not altogether too impressive, but it gets the job done. What the developers have done with these, on the other hand, is worthy of applause. The projectile attacks – such as the famous hadouken – look great, and the characters all move with a grace and precision that puts the sloppy animations of most games to shame. What's more, the characters themselves have the most ridiculous facial expressions when hit that lend a touch of humor to what could otherwise become a bit too intense of a game. But all of this is just the icing on the cake. The combat itself is just as in-depth and entertaining as its predecessors.

Though the dial-a-combo method of pulling off different moves can be difficult at first, once you get the hang of it pulling off attacks quickly becomes second nature. The only real problem here is that the different motions the game requires – quarter/half/full-circles or a zig-zagging Z-shaped motion usually – are simply made for an arcade stick. The 360's joystick is a poor substitute for this, but it does its job as best it can. The d-pad, on the other hand, is simply unusable. The fact that the regular controller is so poorly suited to the game can be quite a turn-off, especially to those frustrated at learning the controls in the first place. The alternatives – a fightpad or arcade-style joystick for the console – are rather expensive, too, leaving the player in a terrible position of being forced to choose between less-than-satisfactory controls or shelling out even more money. Speaking of shelling out more money, Capcom elected to make alternate outfits for the characters downloadable content that must be paid with no way to unlock them through simply playing the game. This too can be quite the turn-off considering the extra price and inconvenience.

But back to the fighting itself. Each character has three kicks, three punches, various unique moves, one special move and one ultra move. The kicks and punches are just short jabs that will knick off a bit of health quickly. The character-unique moves are pretty widely varied and give each character a feel all their own. The game also features two meters – a revenge meter and an EX meter – that determine when a character can activate their ultra and super moves. The inclusion of the super and ultra moves, as well as the ability to eat up a quarter of the special bar to perform a more powerful regular move, add one of many layers of complexity to what might seem at first glance to be a simple game. The addition of the focus attack – which can be used to counter moves in a somewhat unique fashion – just keeps the game even more interesting. What this all adds up to is a fast-paced test of skill that makes every match engaging and a pure rush of adrenaline. It helps that each character is different enough that, though to some players various characters may seem overpowered, the roster has the diversity to accommodate any type of player.

The game itself includes a number of modes ranging from the traditional practice and arcade to online play and challenge mode. To start this off, the arcade mode is a bit disappointing. The computers in fighting games are traditionally pretty bad, but in Street Fighter IV the AI is just ridiculous. On the easier levels, the computer is so dumb that it's nigh impossible to lose. But on the harder levels, the computer becomes so ridiculously hard that the player is practically forced into using some sort of cheap strategy. What is terrible about this is how easy it is to use one of these. Anything from spamming a ranged attack to simply timing out your throws or charged attacks can take down any computer opponent regardless of the difficulty. What this means is that arcade mode, rather than being a place for new players to learn how to play effectively instead rewards them for spamming simple moves and not learning how to perform more complicated and effective moves and combos. And it shows.

The online portion of Street Fighter IV has a lot of ups and downs, some of which might die down as the hype around the game settles down after having been out for a while. But as it stands, the quick match option is quite poor. It takes many tries to connect with someone through this option and the end result is only getting to play one match. Creating your own room usually solves this problem, as you can wait for other less patient people to try their luck at quick match to get in a fight with you. But the problem should not exist in the first place. Also, for those who want to fight people on their same level, tough luck. The game's ranked match option is very poor at picking out others at your skill level and though player match tries a bit harder, it still does a pretty poor job too. Your best bet is just playing with your friends or dealing with plenty of weaker/stronger players.

Despite all this, however, the online still has many strong points. First of all, you can customize matches to your liking. Want to play a quick one-round match with a sixty second time limit? Sure, you can do that. Want to play a gruesome best three out of five match with no time limit on each round? You can do that, too. Playing with a friend who hasn't quite managed to unlock everyone? Don't worry about it; you can still play with everyone you've unlocked. Lastly, and it may sound simple but it is very important and sets Street Fighter IV apart from many other fighting games with online portions, it is very rare for there to be any lag at all. In a genre that relies on split-second reactions, this is a godsend. This alone makes up for almost any other faults the online portion has.

So at the end of the day, is Street Fighter IV a good fighting game? Sure. It's action-packed, complicated but not to the point of absurdity, has terrific multiplayer options, a large and diverse yet fairly balanced cast, and it's fun to both watch and play. But there are a lot of shady things about the game that can bog down the experience, which at the end of the day keep the game from being a sure classic.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/24/09

Game Release: Street Fighter IV (Collector's Edition) (US, 02/17/09)