Street Fighter IV has been out for over a month as of the time of this review. Instead of trying to write about the game before investing serious time with it, I decided to hold of and let the dust settle so I could look past the hype and nostalgia and evaluate this for what it is. The series has always been one of those things that a lot of people have fond memories of playing arcades or against friends on the SNES/Genesis, but it’s always had that hardcore crowd that’s been there since then playing every version, mastering every change, etc. For those people, Street Fighter IV might be exactly what you’re looking for, especially if you preferred Street Fighter II to the III or the alphas. For other people that are looking for a good one to start on however, you might do better just picking up HD Remix or any of the other re-releases.
Gameplay – 8/10Before the game came out, the developers and various people in the press that had spent a lot of time with the series were talking about how they were going to try to capture the more simple style of Street Fighter II over the complexities of SFIII with a few new tweaks to make things a bit more balanced. In addition to tweaking fight mechanics, all of the characters people remember from the Street Fighter II series have made a return along with 4 all new characters. There’s also 9 unlockable characters for people that invest the time in finishing the game under certain qualifications, mostly from the alpha series with the exception of two brand new characters. Fortunately, instead of just being reskins of the old characters, each one feels like they’ve been in the series the whole time and have the same easy to learn, but hard to master special moves. In the special moves department, for all of the classic characters, every move you remember is back in the game with the exact same command as before. Instead of just stopping with special moves though, Capcom has included an EX version of all of them (similar to 3rd strike) where you can hit two punches or two kicks as you execute the actual maneuver to perform a more powerful version of that attack. This adds an extra layer of depth to the game since there are various situations where you can actually cancel out a regular attack by doing one of these, allowing you to develop some pretty interesting combos. To combat all of the new offensive tweaks, there are focus attacks, which have the ability to absorb one hit (with a few exceptions that are learned from playing) and crushing the opponents guard. If you think your opponent is going to counter this, however, you can quickly cancel out of it by performing a dash in another direction, adding more depth to the game. As is becoming customary with fighting games, there’s a training mode that’s got a lot of combos to help you come to grasps with the mechanics but do little to explain them other than showing you what buttons you have to press. There’s no demonstration of the moves, meaning you’re going to be spending a lot of time just doing trial and error to figure out exactly when to cancel out something or the timing of that last hit. For hardcore players, this probably isn’t a problem but instead of helping, it alienates newcomers who are just coming to grips with how to perform special moves. Beyond that, there’s the standard survival and time attack modes, an arcade mode that has a storyline with anime cutscenes for every character, various unlockable costumes, and a basic online component. The only other downside I can think of is with the online play; a lot of the features that were huge in HD Remix are absent, most notably the quarter match mode. Supposedly, these are coming as DLC in the future, but it’s definitely a downer that this isn’t included on what would otherwise be a stellar offering. One other gripe I have is that a lot of the balance changes made in HD Remix were completely removed for whatever reason in SF4, which makes the tiers about the same as they were back in SF2 for people that aren’t going to be taking the time to learn all of the new stuff are basically just going to be playing Street Fighter II again, but with prettier graphics.
Graphics – 10/10Every Street Fighter title seemed to be pushing more and more towards capturing an anime style, but the actual art style, while incredibly vivid for a 2d fighter, never seemed to be as fluid as what’s been present in the King of Fighters and Guilty Gear series offerings. Instead of retreading old ground or trying to make something similar to last years hit Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, the game sports a completely new look that I’ve never seen anywhere else. It’s really hard to describe with words since it blends so many styles developed over the year’s together, so I’ll just go with one word: beautiful. Everything seems to be moving at a steady framerate the entire time, allowing for frame counters to be in complete heaven since they don’t have to account for any hiccups, while the average player will simply appreciate how cartoon-like the game feels. There’s nothing quite like pulling of an ultra combo and watching the enemies eyes get large as they prepare for the oncoming beatdown! While none of the stages from the classic games have returned, many of the new ones have a feel similar to the classics, such as Guile, Chun Li, and even Zangief’s stage with various effects going on in the background that are directly affected by the player’s actions. All of the old characters are pretty much the exact same as they were back in the old days, from Zangief and his bizarre body hair to Ryu’s signature headband. The best part of all the characters though is that even the new characters received just as much attention, making them welcome additions to the franchise. Some characters, such as El Fuerte capture the more down to earth craziness of the Street Fighter franchise, but combine it with a luchadore to make 100% awesome, while you have other characters that are just flat out insane (Rufus). As previously mentioned, all of the new characters feel like they could have been done in 2D before in some unreleased Street Fighter game and just brought back into the limelight with this title. As far as the HUD, it’s pretty similar to what you’ve grown accustomed to, but as the saying goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The graphical direction of SF4 is completely out of the blue, but for some reason just feels like a logical progression of things. There are definitely bonus points here for originality, especially since it seems the graphics appeal to newcomers and veterans alike instantly without being intrusive to the gameplay.
Sound - 9/10Hadouken! I probably don’t need to say much else than that for this paragraph for people that have been playing for a long time! There’s an insanely catchy menu song (I’m not sure if that’s a plus or minus for you), and while the individual songs for the stages aren’t as memorable as stuff from the past, they all fit in pretty well. If you couldn’t tell from the first word in this section, all of the sound effects are still here since if you’re going to shoot fire out of your hand, just out of common courtesy, it’s nice to let the other person know ahead of time by announcing it. One change that’s kind of a negative is the new voice acting for losing fights. None of the voices really fit the game (“My prize moneyyyyy!”…really, Balrog?), but after completing the game one time, you do unlock the ability to change them to Japanese. What you may be unaware of is that if you do actually turn on Japanese voices, it changes the theme song to the exact same song, but in Japanese instead of English. The voice acting in the cutscenes is pretty well done in my opinion, but it’s just weird to hear some of the weird stuff people yell out. In..des..structible. Trust me, after playing this game for a while, you’ll definitely be at least humming those lyrics, there’s absolutely no way around it.
Overall – 8/10For people that have the time or have been anticipating a new Street Fighter for years, you’re definitely going to be pleased. All of the tweaks to the combat system effectively help to rebalance the game and add some variety. The graphics are amazing to look at, you’ll instantly know how to pull off a flash kick with no problem at all, and the ability to cancel out certain moves into other ones or just dash away gives you some amazing combo options. On the opposite end of the spectrum, people that have never played a Street Fighter before are probably going to be playing this game the exact same way people had been playing SF2 all those years ago, and for those people, you might find a better value in HD Remix, especially since it’s a lot cheaper. All of the new characters here fit in perfectly, with the old ones working just like you remember and the addition of ultra combos is a pretty welcome change without being overpowered. The downer that’s unavoidable to mention is that a lot of the balance changes from HD remix are completely absent, and the online play is pretty basic, with many of the modes people grew to love absent and no official date on when they’ll return. If you’re looking for a solid fighter and you’re willing to invest the time to learn what makes this game so great, you’re going to be getting a great deal for your dollar, but for everyone else, you might want to just save some cash and pick up HD Remix instead.
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