"One of the worst fighters I've ever played"

Alright, before anyone reads this, I've got something to say, just hear me out. I've been playing games for years and some of the stuff I say, might seem ludicrous, but let me ask this... Are there not people who like Final Fantasy 7 just because they saw Advent Children and never even played the game before? Yes, there are. What's that prove? That some stupid crap can happen when it comes to video games and it's fan base. Anyhow, enjoy.

I've been playing fighters for some time now and I must say, Street Fighter 4 is one of the most disappointing fighting games I've ever played. I'm not sure whether people don't value a game that takes some effort and decency, however, Street Fighter 4 is obviously a painful game that was made to please anyone that hasn't played any real fighting games. What do I mean? Basically, they just made a crappy game knowing that everyone would enjoy it as long as their favorite characters were there. Let's start off with the basics than, shall we?

Graphics - The graphics are probably some of the crappiest polygons I have ever seen, especially considering the generation of console. The only reason people seem to believe they're better is because Capcom made a transition from 2D graphics to 3D, and that's about it. People are ignorant when it comes to details such as this (We are all ignorant in our own way so, nobody should take that into offense. I'm ignorant when it comes to mathematics.) It was possibly one of the easiest things for Capcom to do because A) They know that most gamers don't realize 3D graphics takes less money and time to make. B) Capcom also realizes that gamers believe 2D graphics are inferior to 3D graphics. Now, I'm not saying 2D graphics are better, however, if you're actually going to make 3D graphics, I wish Capcom put effort into it. The only reason I can let it go is because they had to make an arcade release first, however, it's still no excuse for doing such horrid work. Most of the backrounds aren't memorable and are probably a disgrace to the Street Fighter series as a whole. Anyhow, the only interesting thing is how you can affect the backrounds somewhat, even then they did that in 3 and it didn't look like crap.

Sound - The music is probably one of the worst that I've heard in a fighting game, especially Street Fighter. They truly weren't thinking when they did the music and honestly, I could have done a better job with my bass guitar alone. I will say this, the remixes were alright, however, nowhere near as good as Street Fighter 2's soundtrack. One huge problem I found is that the only time those song plays is during a Rival Battle. They honestly should have given you an option to choose what songs you would like to play and what you wouldn't want to play because more than half of the soundtrack would have been turned off. They were really lazy with the music and that introduction song has some of the most generic lyrics I've heard. Everything else that plays in the game (other than the rival songs) really does not fit in with the environment. I'm told over and over again to turn the volume off if I don't like the music, however, when I turn it all the way down, the music is still barely audible. That's not all, to make it worse, the voice acting is probably worse than House Of The Dead 2. I honestly did not think that was ever possible, however, it's true. If you do intend to watch the stories, I highly recommend setting it to Japanese voice dubbing because if there was any effort put into the voice acting, Capcom got if they even gave those actors a penny.

Storyline - The storyline is probably one of the worst things about the game both surprisingly and unsurprisingly. The reason I say surprisingly is because everything else was so bad, how was that even possible? The reason I say unsurprisingly is because the Street Fighter series was never popular for having a good story. Street Fighter 2's stories weren't the most unique, but they were pretty decent for their time, not to mention it had alot of charming qualities about it. Street Fighter 4 lost all those charming qualities and decided to just make the storyline the worst thing possible in the history of any video game. Almost every single storyline is generic, humiliating, or just disgusting. It doesn't help much to have the poor voice acting, but the horrible story to top it off? One huge example is El Feurte's who thinks that by fighting the greatest fighters, he can create one of the greatest meals. This brings the question of "Was Capcom even trying?" Of course not! Most people are satisfied to know their favorite characters are back. I know some of you may be thinking "Who cares about the storyline?" Well, I assure you there are people who DO care, and even so, doesn't having a good storyline just make a game BETTER?

Characters - They brought alot of the old characters back while downgrading some of their personalities. One example being Dan, who's no longer as funny as he use to be and is now just annoying. Ryu isn't as much of a badass as he used to be. Moving on, the personalities of the new characters are nothing too interesting. Abel is kind of odd and his personality is inconsistent. Rufus replaced Dan is the funny character and he's still not all that funny. El Feurte is annoying. C. Viper is kind of interesting I guess, however, she's not all that cool either. Most of the characters have the same moves they had before with some additions, however, the properties of most moves have been changed immensely. Now, I know that it seems like that's not a big deal, however, in a fighting game, if you change properties of moves, it can change a character almost completely. Example: Blanka is a hold character and has been one, however, in Street Fighter 4, his hold moves have so much priority that using him any other way would be unheard of. In Street Fighter 2, his holds weren't as useful, however, he could be used somewhat as a rush down character. Anyhow, the characters have alot of the same moves otherwise, however, the way the moves are used have been changed quite a bit. In my opinion, Rufus has the best fighting design out of all the new characters that were added.

Gameplay - After seeing all the crap Street Fighter 4 had to offer, I was hoping the gameplay would make up for it all. Had it met my expectations? Not even close... I'm guessing that around 95% of the people who play Street Fighter 4 had very, very, very low expectations. One of the problems I find to be a huge issue in Street Fighter 4 is that I honestly don't believe it's all that balanced. People will say "This is probably the most balanced fighter ever." however, it's been proven that Guilty Gear XX Accent Core, King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match, and other games are more balanced than this game. Characters such as Gen, Dan, and Fei Long suck in the game (This is without bias either. I wanted to main Gen and Fei Long. Sadly enough, I'm good with Dan, that or everyone online sucks, which doesn't surprise me.) They honestly did not think through the EX feature of the game, the reason I state this being that a character like Balrog can zoom through projectiles, get hit during his rush in, do heavy damage on you, and combo afterwards without any punishable frames due to the fact that he was built to combo after his charge moves. Ryu and Ken's shoryukens have been given virtually no frames of start up and reach farther than ever before. Akuma can spam fireballs all day and when you reach him, just teleports across the screen. Guile is considered a crappy character in Street Fighter 4, however, he's suppose to be one of the more balanced characters, meaning that anyone that's labeled worse is probably really crappy. The grabbing system, like in almost every single Street Fighter, really sucks and has caused too many problems due to how far it reaches and how some have better grabs than others. Zangief has been made a slow character which doesn't even matter due to the fact that he can zoom across the screen with his glowing hand that does a lot of damage and stops projectiles.

I still ask, why do people like this game? Is it because everyone's favorite characters are overpowered? Perhaps it's due to the advertisement of Capcom and that most of these so called "gamers" have played so few fighting games that this is their conception of a "perfect" fighting game. Maybe they just have low standards, who knows?

Online play - This is probably one of the biggest humiliations to the Street Fighter 4 series. I say this because most of the people online A) Suck really badly. B) Spam the same stuff over and over again. C) Use alot of the same characters (Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Sagat, Balrog, and maybe sometimes Zangief). D) Try to exploit the cheapest tactics they can find and try to pass it off as skill.

I will say this though about the online play, it runs pretty well and doesn't usually lag too often for me, however, it's rare to find someone that might have a green bar. Either way, all you'll be facing are scrubs or people who exploit something about an overpowered character, but, that's why I switch to Dan if some guy playing Ryu or Ken shows up, to show them how much they suck and humiliate them. I don't play the game that often because of how big a disappointment it is, however, I beat a Sagat that had around 4,000 to 5,000 points and was shocked that this was a "High place" Sagat player, especially since all he did was spam his Tiger Knee.

Final Words: If you're a gamer that has played plenty of fighting games and knows the difference between a fighting game that took time and effort to make and this, I highly recommend you don't get it. If you're just a casual gamer that's looking to have fun with your friends online, I recommend you give it a chance. Personally, I think this was one of the biggest let downs I've ever had in the history of ever playing fighting games and I have never been so disappointed with Capcom. Have fun.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10 | Originally Posted: 07/09/09

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

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