One would think the developers over at Capcom would have slipped after 20 years of SF creation. Street Fighter IV captures the essence of classic 2D fighting while adding modern modifications onto an already great fighter. Resoundingly, Capcom shatters expectations and delivers one of the best fighters ever created.
The beauty of Street Fighter IV is that it is more accessible to newcomers than ever while hardcore players will find a lot of depth to the game. For example, the trial mode provides various combos and basic attacks to pull off to better your Street Fighting skill. Unfortunately, the game never tells you when to use those combos. You don’t want to start your combo off with a heavy kick in the air against a Ken. At the same time, the later trials ask you to pull off insane combos that were obviously targeted at the hardcore player. Some of the combo’s can be ridiculously hard to pull off and to even use in any fight beyond beginner opponents. So at the end of the day, these certain combo’s feel forced, and only bring out un-needed frustration upon the player.
Challenge mode also consists of other modes like survival, and time attack. In time attack, you will be asked to beat a certain amount of opponents within the time limit. Using super and ultra combos will raise the time bar for a gold medal. Survival is pretty self explanatory, where one would guess gets pretty ridiculous to beat all the later challenges.
Street Fighter IV provides a very robust character selection screen starring twenty five characters. You have close to all the original SFII characters, mixed up with SFIII’s, and new original fighters. I’ll admit, not all the new characters are just as genius as their counterparts. For example, C. Viper was designed to be the “cool” and “sexy” fighter of the series, like almost every other fighting game supports. C. Viper fails to fill in this void, nor was it ever necessary.
Now into game play mechanics. As said earlier, you have all your basic character moves from the earlier game while adding modern touches into the mix. For example, the Focus Attack. Essentially, it is a charged attack that blocks the opponents for your own unblock able attack. To newcomers and casual players alike, that’s the only use for the attack and will probably not be used by this demographic. For more experienced players, it’s a great opportunity to fins different ways to punish your opponent’s right after the strike. If you want to go even more in depth after that, it can also be used for being cancelled into regular attacks, special moves, and super or ultra combos (more on that later). The focus attack adds an interesting mechanic to the battlefield that appeals to all players alike.
Another aspect is the ultra combo meter. The meter fills up after every attack from your opponent. The stronger the attack(s), the higher the meter fills up. Once of your meter reaches ¾’s full, you can use your ultra combo. The ultra combo is a stronger, more enhanced version of your super meter.
Like always, your super meter fills up after you hit your opponent or the use of your special moves. The super bar now incorporates another great addition to the Street Fighter series, EX moves. By pushing two or more of the required punch or kick buttons, a charged attack will be performed for the cost of 1/4 of your super meter. For example, instead of a regular Shoryuken, holding both light and medium punch buttons will result in a much stronger Shoryuken at the cost of 1/4 of your super meter. EX moves become especially useful between a close fight where both fighters are at low HP.
Most likely you’ve heard lots of people complaining about the title theme of SF4. I can see where they’re coming from, but at the same time, it’s a fitting theme for the franchise. A catchy, upbeat song is what Street Fighter’s personality portrays, and this is where SF’s amazing theme kicks in. Background stages have impressive musical score, with each sounding significantly different while retaining the tradition upbeat music.
Of course, the graphics are impossible not to bring up in a Street Fighter IV review. SF4 brings out its true colors with its colorful cel-shaded textures. Stages vary from beautiful dry desert landscapes to the Japanese take on modern America. Where the graphics really excel is when a super or ultra is pulled off. Both show close ups on character’s faces, and their finishers will show humorous reactions of your opponent when beaten.
If you couldn’t tell yet, Street Fighter IV is more than just an accomplishment, it’s a masterpiece. It has lots of staying power like the past games to make sure you will be playing this for the next decade. SF4 has set the bar for the fighting game genre, and I don’t see it being thrown off its thrown until the Fighter game launches.