Capcom is the father to many a classic series including Mega Man, Resident Evil, and of course, Street Fighter. Being the most successful, Street Fighter II was one of the most popular fighters in the history of video games. Many sequels and spin-offs spawned from its enormous success, but none hit home like the fighting classic. It’s no wonder then why Capcom decided to unleash the behemoth that’s been lying dormant for well over a decade unto the next-gen crowd.
At this point I believe there isn’t a single fighting game out there that is capable of telling a story that actually makes sense. So it should come to no astonishment that the story for each character in Street Fighter IV is universally baffling. And to that I say, who cares? Street Fighter has always been about the combat and eye-candy. If you’re looking to a fighter for a captivating tale, well, you clearly need to extend your genre.
Visual-wise, this game comes with a cell-shaded appearance and represents everything that is beautiful. Each character is finely detailed and the backgrounds to each stage are very well done with the possibility of the occasional interaction. Though it’s fun to see people fall over when you stomp your foe to the ground, the best part of the graphics is the attention to detail. The distortion Guile’s Flash Kick emits, the faces each character make when hit, the effect of a firey Shoryuken, I can talk about this all day. If there’s anything you take out of this know that everything has been animated with meticulous hands.
With the decay of the arcade age, every fighter is practically required to implement an online-component and this game is no exception. The interface is setup nicely, making it quick and easy to get into matches and to customize your profile. The profile is a new feature that allows you to display icons and a title by unlocking them through playing the game. It’s a small feature, but it gives you one more reason to get good with every character. Besides, who doesn’t want “Gotta Love The Hair” next to their name? You also attain medals after every online match, showing you what feats you accomplished during the bout. Medals really don’t do anything but provide you bragging rights and a little documentation on where you’re at.
Sounds good so far, but this is where my praise for the game abruptly ends. I have never been so frustrated with a fighting game in my entire gaming career. What do I mean? Let’s start by acknowledging that the online component is a grotesque rendition of your girlfriend; very appealing until you find out she’s a man. Either the room you try to join is full or the match gets disconnected early on. But once you’re in a match and actually playing, well, that’s another beast entirely. Characters harbor some of the cheapest moves possible, rendering you helpless before you can even get to your feet. Take Zangief; he’ll knock you down, stand on top of you, and then do a few grab combos that are unblockable. Or you can run into the schmuck using Blanka who tactically sits in the back and when approached fires off his cannonball maneuver followed up by his electrical garbage over and over. In their defense, there aren’t very many moves so whatever you do is going to look and feel like spam. It’s too bad there’s no meat to the bare-bones modes; no tournament-style mode, no spectators, no rotations, nothing. If there’s any praise left for online-versus it’s because you’re playing against a friend.
I will give the game props for the EX and Ultra combo systems, as they’re very useful. Over time as you accumulate damage and use special moves, both Ultra and EX meters increase providing you with more powerful variations of the moves you already use. The Ultra combos look stunning but can be a real hassle to pull off with certain characters, which brings me to my next complaint; the charging system. The majority of the characters in this game have moves that require you to hold a certain direction for about two-seconds. Two seconds may not seem a long time, but when people are constantly flipping over you or kicking you in the groin you can’t pull them off. That means most of the time both characters will be on separate edges of the screen because they’re trying to get a special move off instead of actually fighting. It’s like watching two retarded ballerinas at a recital observed by robots. But not all the characters are burdened with charge moves. Ryu and Ken, for example, can pull off any move they want in an instant. Granted, some charge moves are very good, but the characters with none seem to have a significant advantage over those that do.
The arcade-mode or single player unsurprisingly suffers from brutal AI. At first the computer is easily dispatched and then suddenly the angry wolverine awakes and cuts off your legs. This is especially apparent when fighting the last boss, Seth. No one knows who he is, no one cares, and once you fight him for the first time it’ll probably be your last. The thing basically reads your movements, teleports behind you whenever you’re about to do something you thought was smart, aaaaaand game over. Once you’ve given up on the arcade-mode, you can indulge in the challenge and training rooms. That is, if you could actually complete them. The instructions on how to use moves are so vague you’ll just end up mashing buttons until nothing happens. How do you expect to play a game that beats you in the tutorial?
After being constantly disconnected, cheaply beaten, and denied victory to unlock additional characters, your controller will be out the window. Street Fighter IV is a $100 bill covered in feces. Its nostalgic values cannot be denied, but once you experience the atrocity you’ll gladly leave it be.
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