Street Fighter IV

"So, SF"4", huh? More like 2.5 in 2009..."

• Introduction

Ah, Street Fighter IV. For years the Holy Grail for fighting gamers. Back in October 18th 2007 I learned that this was coming out. As I had celebrated my birthday a week earlier, I couldn't help but thinking it was the greatest present ever. However, the very next week things started to go in a downward spiral; it was going to be a prequel with no new chars, no returning chars from SFIII/SFA, no new mechanics and only a ST overhaul with 3S elements and what is worse, it wasn't even being made by Capcom; it was being made by DIMPS under the orders of Yoshinori Ono (OHNOES), the man who has never made anything of worth while working at the company and always blames imaginary unnamed friends after every interview he makes expose his repeated fiascoes (ahem, CFJ, Onimusha DOD, MvC and so on). In the very few next paragraphs, you'll learn what to expect from this game.

• Gameplay – You have placed Super Turbo, right? You've played this. This game is gameplay and storyline wise nothing else than SF II.5 Super Turbo. People will spam special moves, will not rely on comboing, will not attack in the air because you have no defense there and the speed is the same as in WW. There are no parries; in their place, a “focus attack” system was put in here, but it requires to press two buttons, then dash then cancel into anything, lose life and expect to not get hit in order to regain it way later if you want it to act as a quasi parry.

Compare all of that with pressing forward. The same? Also, you will fin lots of people who like to spout nonsense on how this game has 3S features as EX moves, dashing, target combos, personal actions, kara throws and whatnot, but when confronted that these things are nowhere near as useful as they used to be they will conveniently forget this issue and spout on how grateful should I be because they finally released this and look at the graphics, music and whatever to avoid counterpointing. The control is still solid, thankfully; however, the XBOX controller is not. Every time you want to pull a Metsu Hadouken you'll have to try like 3 times because you end jumping or stuff. Finally, difficulty is not a synonym of this game.

• Story – As I told you, this is SF 2.5, not “IV”. You will find every single SFII WW character here, and nothing else. No wait, there's something else: uninspired new challengers: A Rey Mysterio lookalike, an Angelina Jolie lookalike, Eggman in disguise, and a generic grappler. Also, we get a generis boss and a fanservicey bonus zombie who was edited into a non shoto in order to unsuccessfully try to avoid criticism. Also, in consoles, OHNOES was ordered to insert SFA characters, but he made sure to screw very well the canon, so no one gets any graphic update of any kind, resides the huge steroid overdose for the males.

• Graphics/Sound – This is a DIMPS game. This therefore looks like a current gen DBZ game, and the sound is quite bland. Heh, the intro makes you want Infinite return to make new music.

• Play Time/Replayability – This is a fighting game; you only need like an tour to beat it, and the replan value lies in VS matches, but then again there are many other SF games for a VS session that leave you with a more fulfilling feeling. Play if challenged in this only.

• Final Recommendation – Buy it if it's for PC and it's not expensive or if your godmother gives it to you for your b-day. Don't waste your hardly earned money in getting a console just for this, if you can get a copy of Alpha Antology, Anniversary Edition, or Turbo HD Remix which are vastly superior. And my recommendation for any Capcom exec who might read this is to avoid putting Ono in charge of anything ever again!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/09

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