Street Fighter IV

"Sho Ryu Ken Dan Gouki!..... Gouken"

It's rare that I pick up a video game when it first comes out let alone at full price. It's even rarer that I pick up a game that makes me watch/read gamefaqs like a religion and makes me want to leave work early to get home to continue beating on players.

In short this game is the most fun I've had in a fighting game since the release of Capcom vs SNK 2. Not only does the game have a large cast of of unique characters, not only old favorites but new characters as well, but has excellent 3D level design and a great soundtrack (something I found sorely lacking in SF3 and CVS2) The art style of the game is excellent and I'm astoundingly happy that Capcom has chosen not to create a 3D fighter but instead went old school creating a game with a modernized feel of SF2 Turbo which makes a nostalgic gamer like me every so happy inside.

But not all is gold in Street Fighter 4. The Super combo system seems awfully redundant, with all characters but 1 (Dan) being limited to only 2 supers with one super, one ultra, which are usually variants of the same move as opposed to the 3-4 supers I've become accustomed to. Since Super combos can take almost two rounds to build up let alone if your using your super bar for EX moves its a wonder they ever get used. Where-as the Ultra combos revenge meter is damaged based so ultras are able to be performed once or sometimes twice a round.

The Ex cancel and focus move system feels like a gimped version of the parry system from SF3. SF3 players could feel insulted but I for one am happy because the learning curve is greatly reduced. That makes this game much easier for a new player to jump into.

And what is with that J-pop "Indestructible" intro music!? Yuck! At least the intro video is good to watch.

I only found 2/6 of the new characters even remotely appealing but the addition of Street Fighter Alpha and street fighter 2 characters as unlockable characters in the home version has made me a happy man. The characters show only mild behavioral changes from the originals (which of course includes less supers than before) so an experienced street fighter player can jump right back in with little learning curve.

The anime intro and ending cutscenes are very nice to anyone into Street Fighter cannon and despite the addition of English dubbing players have the option of selectively switching specific characters back to the original Japanese because some classic characters just don't sound right in english.

The greatest surprise in the game to me was the addition of the legendary Shen Long character. A long rumored character believed to be Ryu and Ken's master that actually started off as an April fools joke in IGN magazine back in 1992! Gouken finally making an appearance in a street fighter game is definitely a tribute to the fans, despite the fact that it technically breaks canon by bringing him back from the dead. BUT WHO CARES IT'S A VIDEO GAME! When I found out I was so excited that I played the game non-stop for 6 hours when I got it in order to unlock him.

SF4 includes a number of single player Trial modes and Challenge modes which I found excellent for learning the in and outs of the game in general and the specific characters. I would highly recommend that all players, experienced and non-experienced to take advantage of them. Just remember to hit the back button to display the actually step by step rather then having to go to the pause screen to look up the move definitions every time.

The difficulty curve for the game is quite high, which even as an experienced street fighter I found rather challenging but I find this increases its replay value so long as you can get past the frustration. The last boss Seth is a total bastard and I wish he wasn't in the game. There is nothing more irritating than a boss that has the best moves of all the characters and unblockable attacks. That and he looks like a malformed ice cube with a ying yang sticking out of him.

This difficulty is increased by a factor of ten due to the crappy ass Xbox 360 controller. Possibly the worst controller imaginable for a fighting game, it has taken me weeks to adjust and still makes me want to hurl it at my TV whenever I jump instead of doing a hadouken. If your wanting to play SF4 at a high level consider the PS3 version or an arcade stick. Don't waste your time with the 360 controller.

The online play feature is excellent and there are always plenty of opponents. I've picked up an Xbox live! account just to play SF4 online. The game match setup is a tad tedious, no matter how fast I am every time I pick a quick match game it tells me the match is already full? I've just gotten used to always hosting. LAG is always an issue with fighting games but you just have to suck it up. But as a word of advice to new SF4 players online DON'T PLAY KEN. 50% of matches online are against Ken in the pimp skin, its boring and it's predictable. Please pick someone else already! As always the icon / titles and achievements are amusing to try to collect although they serve no actual purpose in gameplay terms.

Overall I'm very much impressed with the game and despite a number of mild irritations I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the street fighter series or fighting games in general. Just be warned the game can very hard / intimidating to new or inexperienced players. Just practice hard against people on your level and use the challenge and trial modes to your advantage and soon you to will be able to intercept Ken's EX hurricane kick with

SHIN! SHORYU-KEN!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/09

Game Release: Street Fighter IV (US, 02/17/09)