When I first heard Street Fighter IV was announced, I was scared. After the release of Street Fighter III, I lost interest in the series. Capcom did a few mash-ups with Marvel vs. Capcom, Capcom vs. SNK, and SVC Chaos. They did a few Alpha games, and they were good, but none of them were a continuation of the series. This felt as if Capcom was just milking the franchise with cheap mash-ups and avoiding creating a sequel. After seeing Street Fighter IV through numerous previews, the game started to peak my interest and anticipated its release for the consoles. Now that Street Fighter IV is upon us, I can safely say that this is not only the best game in the franchise, but is perhaps the best fighting game ever. I know that sounds like a bold statement, but this is the truth.
The game maintains all of the 12 warriors from Street Fighter II, with some from Alpha, and six new characters added to the mix, bringing the total to 25 characters. The new characters are good additions and fit in pretty well to the series. They all control differently and have interesting fighting styles. El Fuerte is a Mexican fighter and cook, Crimson Viper is a secret agent with some interesting fighting methods. Perhaps the biggest addition is Gokuen, who is Ryu and Ken’s master and Akuma’s opposite. There’s a new boss in this game called Seth, and staying true to the franchise, he’s a cheap fighter and can have you cursing out loud. He’s playable in the game after beating arcade mode with all characters. There are some characters that are exclusive to the home versions. They include Akuma, Cammy, and Fei-Long from Street Fighter II Turbo, and Sakura, Dan, and Gen from the Alpha games. I am a little disappointed that some characters, like T. Hawk and Evil Ryu (to name a few), didn't make the cut, but I guess that's what downloadable content is for, right?
Street Fighter IV plays similarly to Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Even though all of the models are in 3D, the game plays on a 2D plane. This is great because, at least for me, because it stays true to the series. There are some enhancements and additions; one of the additions is the focus system. The focus system is done by pressing both medium punch and kick buttons. What this does is absorb the first attack from the opponent and, when used, will stun the enemy and you can pull of a combo to deal some massive damage. If you want to cancel out of your focus (to psyche the opponent), just dash and that’s it. You can also use the focus system cancel out of special moves, however this will drain some of your super meter in the process.
There are two bars that will fill as you progress through the fight, the super meter and revenge gauge. The way these bars fill are different. The super meter fills when you hit your opponent during the fight and the revenge meter fills as you get hit. The game allows you to use EX moves, which are modified versions of your attacks, but they drain a part of your special meter. You can’t rely on these forever, so they must be used carefully and wisely. When the revenge meter is full, you’re able to pull off Ultra combos which are performed the same as super moves, but must press the low, medium, and high punch or kick buttons. When these moves are pulled off, they look devastating and give you a sense of satisfaction when you defeat your opponent with one of these.
While this sounds great for all the hardcore fans out there, what about the people those have never or don’t play fighting games? Luckily for you there’s a trial mode for those to learn those moves and combos. It starts off with the basics, and then gradually increases to special moves, and combos. While this mode is great, it doesn’t really tell you the timings for some of the combos. I wish there was a video to introduce the moves, so you can see when to pull off the moves. If you already know the basics, then all you will get from this is combos. This mode does leave a bit to be desired. Plus there’s also a training mode to practice what you’ve learned and get ready for online.
Other than that, there are just the standard modes. Versus mode is exactly how it sounds. You can do player vs. player, player vs. cpu, or cpu vs. cpu. There’s also a Challenge mode, with includes the Trial mode, Survival Mode, and Time mode. Survival is basically defeating a number of enemies before you get knocked out. Time mode is the same as survival, but you must defeat the enemies before the timer hits zero. Arcade mode is just pick a character and fight through 8 battles. Each character starts and ends with their own anime cut scenes. I’m a fan of anime, and I have to say, these cut scenes feel like they were rushed and don’t explain the story well. I would have preferred the in engine cut scenes be used than the anime. In terms of the AI, it ranges from stupid easy to frustratingly difficult. One minor gripe with the AI is that it seems to heavily rely on ultra combos and EX moves. It isn't much of an issue, but it's worth pointing out. There are 8 levels of difficulty, so there’s something for everyone. You unlock the other 8 characters from the Arcade mode, but since these aren’t difficulty locked, you can get the characters by playing on the easiest difficulty.
Even though fighting against the AI, or even locally is fun, the best fighters play online. The online mode is comprised of ranked and player matches. It’s pretty basic for an online component, but it is functional. One interesting thing about the online is if you're playing Arcade, a prompt will tell you "A new challenger has entered the ring." When that happens, you'll jump directly to the lobby with the other player and then, it's on. When you're done the online match, you can jump back right where you left off in Arcade and continue. You can choose whether to be accepted into ranked or player matches. This is completely optional and can be turned off. In terms of online performance, the game runs smoothly with minimal to no lag. One interesting thing about the online component is you can represent yourself with a title and icon. To unlock the titles and icons, you perform certain things such as complete the challenges with a specific character, or even playing online. There are a lot of these things to unlock, but the game isn’t very clear on how to unlock this stuff. This is a lot of guess work, but will keep players busy if they want to unlock everything.
From a visual standpoint, Street Fighter IV looks amazing. All of the models are in 3D, but seem to have been exaggerated with some really big muscles for the guys and the girls looking good, as always. The facial animations are some of the best out of any fighting game. They’re really expressive (especially when you hit them with a devastating attack or preparing for an ultra combo) and well detailed. There’s also lip synching for all the characters when they talk, and for the most part, it’s pretty good. All backgrounds are also in 3D and react to what’s going on, such as little shaking of items on the ground, to people reacting to what happens. The game runs well, with not a single dip in the frame rate. If I had to nitpick, I could say that a few textures could be better and there are some minor clipping issues. These are just minor gripes that don't take away from the experience and you really have to look for these.
In terms of audio, the sounds effects are powerful and have a oomph in them. The music is catchy and well done, although you’ll like some over others. Each track is unique to each stage and pick up when one’s life bar is close to the end. The theme song is catchy, but probably not in the right way for some. The characters speak in English, but after finishing Arcade mode once, you unlock the Japanese track. When the Japanese track is unlocked, you can switch between English and Japanese tracks for each individual character keep them all at a specific language. The English track sounds a little funny, but I thought it worked well for what Capcom was going for. One issue with the voices (I only noticed this for the English track) is the lip synching is off, not only for the cut scenes, but also in game. This seems to be more tuned to the Japanese track. Again, this is a minor issue.
For the PS3 version, there’s an optional install which takes about 20 minutes, if I counted correctly. This speeds up load times from 30 seconds to 10 seconds. The game controls well with both the d-pad and the analog sticks, though I prefer the analog stick. The default controls work well, but can be customized to your liking if you don’t like the default layout. If you’re not a fan of the controller, then I suggest investing in one of those arcade sticks.
Overall, I really enjoyed Street Fighter IV. I rarely play games for a long period of time, but this is something that I'll be keeping in my PS3 for a long time to come. I just wish the Trial mode was flushed out more and explained the timing of combos. With that said this is one of the best fighting game ever designed and strikes a great balance between appealing to the hardcore and welcoming to newcomers. This is something that can’t be missed and is my early contender for Game of the Year and Fighting Game of the Year. I’ll see you online.