Street Fighter IV Review. Capcom has brought one of their best franchises back with Street Fighter IV and it packs a punch, kick, and much more. Advances like high speed internet and awesome online console support via Xbox Live and the Playstation Network have elevated fighting games from being fanboy favorites to mainstream monoliths of gaming today. Capcom has managed to cater to the hardcore fans and make the game very accessible to new players. If you have not traditionally played many fighting games, now is the time to start.
One of my favorite features of SFIV is the trial mode in which players perform moves and combos. The trials for each character get harder as you continue to unlock them. This is a great way to familiarize yourself with each characters normal moves, specials, and combo mechanics. For the more serious fighter there is a training mode that allows you to display attack data such as damage and your controller inputs. In this mode you can practice against a dummy, CPU controller opponent, or even against a 10 second recording that you can make and playback. Other challenge modes include survival mode, and timed attack. In survival you keep fighting in stages without regenerating health, or regenerating a small % of health. In the timed attack mode you have to try to finish your opponents against the clock.
If you want to forego any training or challenge modes, no matter what your skill level is you can hop right into the game and have fun. There are 8 different difficulty levels in the arcade mode ranging from easiest to hardest. Each character has their own little hand-drawn anime story that includes an intro and ending, but to be honest they are my least favorite part of the game. Most of the stories hardly make any sense and they are super corny. There is a portion of the game where they use the in game engine for some story telling right before you fight your “rival”, right before the final boss fight. In my opinion the whole game’s story telling should have been in this manner. The single player mode offers up a good amount of challenge, but there is not much to keep you coming back in terms of storytelling. However, you do have to beat the game with varying characters to unlock the 9/25 hidden characters. If you want to unlock them as soon as possible you can set the difficulty to easiest, rounds to best out of 1, and time limit to 30 seconds. Personally, I don’t mind having to unlock characters, but it becomes a problem when you want to play the game at a friend’s place. If you bring your copy of SFIV to your friend’s apartment you will probably find that your favorite character has not been unlocked yet! The unlocks are linked to your specific console and cannot be copied over on a flash drive.
There are some new gameplay mechanics in SFIV that have not been in the previous titles. There are two meters at bottom of the HUD. The EX meter fills up as you attack and can be used to perform your character’s super move when it is full, or EX moves for ¼ of the full meter. EX moves are stronger forms of normal special moves performed by hitting two or more of the attack inputs while performing the same joystick movement. These moves perform more damage and some generate armor that can absorb one attack from your opponent and still come out. Super moves are unique attacks that do a lot of damage. It is fun to try to strike a balance between using the EX moves and when to save for your super. There is also the revenge meter which fills up as you get hit and can be used to perform the very cool looking ultra combos. These are unique attacks that have amazing animations that can rotate the camera angle and inflict loads of damage if pulled off correctly. The presence of the revenge meter means that the tides of battle can turn very quickly, but if you miss your ultra you leave yourself wide open for counterattacks. In addition to the meters SFIV also implements focus attacks. In order to perform a focus attack you hold down medium punch and medium kick. Your character begins to glow with a shadowy aura and you can release the buttons when you want the attack to come out. What is unique about the focus attack is that it can absorb one of your opponent’s hits, similar to certain EX moves. Landing a fully charged focus attack crumples your opponent and leaves them open to a big combo or an ultra/super attack. You can also cancel the focus attack by dashing out of it. This technique is used to absorb fireballs, fake out your opponent, and perform more complicated combos.
After unlocking your characters and getting used to the new gameplay mechanics you can hop into online play. You can play in non-ranked matches called player matches or you can play ranked matches. The ranked matches award battle points. When you beat an opponent with more battle points than you, they lose points and you gain points. The greater the disparity of battle points, the more is transferred. Capcom has also patched in championship mode, which is basically a tournament mode. There are different tier levels that you can work your way up as you continue to win. Sometimes it is hard to find a game in championship mode because you have to wait for someone who has also won x amount of previous matches and is in the same position as you in the tournament. Fortunately SFIV has a feature where you can play in the single player while still waiting for an online game. When a game becomes available you are pulled out of the singleplayer straight into the online lobby just like in the arcades. One of the things lacking is support for group lobbies. You can’t join a room with your friends and play your own little tournament. You are limited to playing with one friend at a time, and you cannot watch other people fight online. The netcode for SFIV is done very well and provides for a smooth online experience, but there can be some lag during peak hours if you are playing someone that is located far away from you. There are players of all different skill levels online and the challenge will keep you coming back for more. If you like the game and are looking to improve your skill the online portion of this game offers near endless lasting appeal.
Street Fighter IV is dubbed as the first 3D street fighter experience because the characters are rendered in 3D as well as the backgrounds. However, with the exception of the ultra combos the gameplay is limited to a 2D fighting field. At heart it is still a 2D fighter, except it is animated in 3D. Still, the character models and backgrounds in SFIV are brilliant and bring a fresh new face to a classic game franchise. One gripe I have with the character models is that some of them are just too buff! Half of them look like body builders that can barely scratch their own heads. The game has a lot of style and each character is unique. The ultra combo animations are very cool and allow you time to take in the beauty of the game.
Some say the only way to truly enjoy a fighting game is to play it on an arcade stick. Not everyone is going to dump the extra cash on a Madcatz Tournament Edition Fightstick, but there are cheaper alternatives such as the Hori Fighting Stick 3 that pack a lot of bang for their buck. With all that said, the game is perfectly playable with a normal PS3 or Xbox360 controller. It is all about personal preference. No matter what you use to play this game it is going to be fun.
One of the great things about this game is the devoted online community. There are several websites and forums such as Eventhubs and Shoryuken dedicated to Street Fighter games that you can use to learn and explore the true depth of this fantastic fighting game. Street Fighter IV is one of the best games this generation and is a must own for any fighting game fan, or casual gamer.
This game scores a 4.5 out of 5 in my book.
Guest Blogger: Oliver K.
its da best