My role of reviewing video games doesn’t necessarily mean I need to be good at games, nor do I blame games when I’m terrible at them. Street Fighter is a series where I may be horrible, but I still enjoy playing each one. I think it has a lot to do with my lack of ability to memorize move sets and combos. That could derive from the fact that I: A) didn’t grow up slamming quarters into the SF2 machine down the street, B) got beat up whenever I tried to play my older brother’s videogame systems, C) have some sort of severe brain damage that causes me to not remember tedious button combinations for 20+ characters (possibly a result of the severe beatings that my brother gave me), and D) I grew up as a button-mashing-retard.
Whatever the answer may be, I went into Street Fighter 4 without having played SF2 in the last five years or so. I snagged my copy of the game for about 30 bones, so that might have something to do with my ability to enjoy the game. Not saying it’s a bad game in any sense, its actually one of the better games I’ve played this year. It has a pretty fantastic art style; very painterly and most of the illustrations have almost a sumi brush texture to them. Also, the 3d renders in the game successfully capture that style. I’d almost relate it to how the new Prince of Persia game looks.
I originally got the game because someone told me I should. I asked if it was approachable for someone who wasn’t any good at SF2. He lied and said “yeah, sure.” Being the weak willed asshole I am, I went out and picked it up. Now, okay, maybe I’m lying about the approachability of the game. It has a Training mode (which isn’t so much training), and a Challenge mode (which is essentially the real Training mode). With these two modes, you can learn some moves, and various attacks from each fighter, and then continue to practice and hone your ability to use them in the Training mode. This whole Challenge session was pretty helpful, but the learning curve happens pretty radically, and can sometimes stop you dead in your tracks when trying to learn new moves. Some characters start out having a pretty strange/difficult moves right away, which resulted in my not wanting to play as those characters, or test them out in an actual fight. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but you’d be hard pressed to see me playing as Zangief in a real match. Also, fuck charge-attacks.
A lot of people are raving about control sticks, and fight pads, and ranting about how shitty the 360 controllers are for fighting. I haven’t played with the arcade sticks, or the fight pads, so I can’t say if it drastically changes the whole experience, or makes you a better player. So far, I haven’t had any completely hindering results due to the 360 controller. I think some people hate to admit they suck, and like to blame it on not having an arcade stick (Lucas De Woody, AMN ( www.advancedmn.com ) editorialist). You’ll probably be hard pressed to find a fight pad or arcade stick for a relatively decent price, but if you’re a diehard SF fan, maybe that’s what you want. I was happy to pay only $30 for the game, but maybe you’re alright with spending upwards of $130 (really, the prices for the pads are ridiculous).
One of the best parts about SF4 is the online matchmaking. I say “best” but I really mean “worst.” It takes forever to find a match, regardless of whether you’re trying to join a match, or create your own. But for some reason it’s really easy to get yanked out of your Arcade Mode matches by some stranger online. This can be pretty maddening when you’re about to kick the piss out of Seth. So, for future reference, if you’re trying to work on anything substantial in the Arcade mode, you might want to turn off the random-anytime online challenge settings.
Speaking of Seth, that guy is the biggest fucking tool I’ve ever had to fight in a video game. Imagine Dr. Manhattan with
some weird yin yang globe in his stomach, with abs protruding all over
his fucking torso. He’s cheap as hell, and annoying as fuck. The first
time through, I spent probably 25-35 minutes just fighting Seth. Then I
got lucky and killed him… only to realize the character I chose to play
through as didn’t unlock anyone or anything. But regardless of how
maddening the fight was, it was fun enough to want to beat it, and have
a sense of accomplishment.
I am very much an outsider as far as Street Fighter is concerned, so this might not be helpful for everyone. I can pick up SF4 for what it is: an arcade game that I can play for a few minutes on end, but never have to invest too much into it. I’m not entirely sure how die hard fans will feel about the game, but apparently they only enjoy it if they have a fight pad…or an arcade stick. I have neither.
I also go outside.