Street Fighter IV

Review from Jae and Jae - Thursday, 19 February 2009 @ 7:35pm

I love it when a game gets your hands all sweaty, makes your heart beat faster and puts a permanent smile on your face. Yeah I’m talking about Capcom’s Street Fighter IV. I’ve not been excited for a fighting game since SF3 on the Dreamcast, which by the way was a very underappreciated title. No one can do a 2D fighter with as much polish and finesse as Capcom. It’s time to relive those glory days and bring them into HD goodness.

If you’re a fan from the 90s then you ain’t got a reason to miss this game. My earliest memory of Street Fighter II was somewhere in 93/94, when most of you were born or still getting breast fed. I was in Malaysia playing the arcade version in a riverside restaurant at the equivalent cost of 20 cents a pop. Back in those days a 10 year old didn’t have much money so 2 or 3 rounds was really all I could afford. That gave birth to my love for Street Fighter. A few years later a pretty Japanese girl named SNES arrived in my house with a copy of SF2. I was in heaven. Today I feel just the same, except a pretty console didn’t come with the game. If you aren’t a veteran from the earlier titles, yet still have some hankering for fighters, this is your best chance at entering into the genre on level ground. Everything you need is available in the initial outlay of the game. Move sets are just a pause menu away, with training modes and seven levels of difficulty to play arcade on.

Chest fighter IV: Double D vs 10 A's

A lot of people are discounting the Xbox 360 D-pad based on what they’ve played on it so far. All I can say is give it a go with this game. I’m not sure what magic trickery Capcom have done to make it work but I can seem to pull off moves as easily on this version as I have been able to on the PS3 one. If you had both machines you would want to go with the one that will give you less thumb blisters. Years of fighters have built a nice callous on the end of my left thumb so I can withstand hours of hadoukens and shouryukens. Of course the hardcore crowd out there would see it wise to invest in an arcade stick for your console of choice. Just be wary, don’t go cheap with the sticks. You’ll want something that can pull off moves with ease and have a good button layout. Read up on the product before you purchase it or you may find yourself with a new dust collector.

What's Bruce Lee's favourite drink? Wataaahhhhh!!

Speaking of hadoukens lets take a look at the special moves available. Down+forward+punch, forward+down+forward+punch and charge back+forward+punch are very familiar in the SF series. You won’t see too much variation for this title at all. If anything I have found majority of moves easier to pull off. Throws have now been defaulted to a two button move of low punch+kick. In the options you can assign a button to throws however you might find them taking a back a seat in this game. I welcome the change as the old school combination of pressing forward+punch for a throw could result in all sorts of moves.

There are also now focus attacks introduced in SF4. By pressing the default medium punch+kick buttons you can reach one of three levels of focus attacks. If successful, these can absorb hits, become unblockable and send the opponent crashing to the ground.

The super combo meter and revenge meter are a real treat. One fills up as you hit your opponent whereas the other increases when you get hit. The one more often used is the revenge meter. As you are hit this meter fills up fast. Half your health roughly equals enough to pull off an Ultra combo, which is the most powerful combo for each character.

One thing I still find unbalanced is the ability to pull off a super or ultra combo. Down+forward+down+forward+triple punch is an easy move to pull off compared to something like charge back+forward+back+forward+triple kick. I know variation is important but everyone should be on a level playing field when it comes to pulling off the specials. Vega’s and Zangief’s are amongst the hardest to do. The moves will seem easier with a joystick, though most players won’t have this luxury.

Black Kens have more fun

Characters are amazing this time round, the level of detail, facial expressions and the player to player specific dialogue are just some of the little touches that go a long way. The anime style cut scenes are quite comical and are a really good fit. I do miss the minigames from SF2, the ones where you have 30 seconds to smash up a car or hit down as many barrels as possible. E.Honda and Chun Li were the record breakers for that minigame before but now there’s not really anything in its place. Modes that separate this from the arcade title are Training and Challenge, which are your staples in fighters these days. It could’ve been nice if some other modes were included so let’s hope they look to pack some into the patches or DLC.

There are over 20 characters in the roster this time. To unlock them all you will generally have to complete the arcade mode with each character. I doubt many people out there could complete the game on medium difficulty with all characters, if you’re like me you would play through most of it on an easy difficulty to complete your roster quickly. The four new characters don’t feel like the best fit for me. Rufus is a joke, Abel is great for close quarters combat, El Fuente is a chef (his storyline makes no sense in a Western world!) and Crimson Viper feels like she’s from the SNK series. I think I’ll stick to my Ryu, Sakura and Guile staples.

Capcom aren’t known for their continual updates when it comes to fighting games. I’m hopeful that things will change with SF4, there is a large untapped community out there desperate for some good online tournaments and who wouldn’t kill for more variations in Chun Li’s underpants colour? The extra costumes you get with the collector’s edition are a nice to have but I find it hard to justify the extra cost. You can purchase the download if you like, again it’s a nice to have. I do genuinely think Capcom should help retain their fan base and continue to release updates. New characters may be hard to expect so it would be nice to get modes like 2 on 2, online team matches, video replays and player customisation. One thing to note for the PS3 version there is an option to install the game on your hard drive. Big improvements to the load times but whilst installing you have to listen to that appalling pop song "The Next Door". Get ready to press the mute button when installing.

Online battles are the most fun I’ve had with online fighting. Every game beforehand has had big issues with lag. Last night I tested things out with friends online in Perth and the connection was flawless. The ping meter goes as far as 5 bars, I managed to keep a stable 3 bars throughout 10 matches and there was virtually no lag. This really impresses me as I can’t stand to play a game where I can’t pull of moves due to latency.

I can’t really say much more to convince everyone to get this game. It’s too early to tell how good tournaments will be just yet but I’m looking forward to hosting some over the upcoming months. Now get online and hit me up for a session.

Pros

Revenge meter, Best 2D fighter to date, Flawless online.

Cons

Some combos are a still harder to pull off than others, Missing barrel and car mini games