I have to admit, rather begrudgingly, that I have not always been a big Street Fighter fan. Like many people my age, sunkmany a quarter into those Street Fighter II machines in my younger days. I wasn’t terribly good at the game, but my competitive nature drove me back to the machine every time. I remember begging and pleading my mother for a copy of the SNES version of SFII when it first came out, a wish that was granted later that year at Christmas. But my love for Street Fighter came to an abrupt end when my local arcade finally got their hands on a new and vastly different fighting game. I was pulled away from the bright colors of SFII, seduced by the dark and ultra-violent world of – you guessed it - Mortal Kombat. That was just the beginning of very long hiatus from Street Fighter. The Virtua Fighters, Soul Caliburs and Dead or Alives of the world kept my interest in fighting games afloat when Mortal Kombat games began to decline in quality. It wasn’t until Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix was released on the Xbox Live Arcade that my love for series was restored, and from that moment on I was salivating at the chance to get my hands on Street Fighter IV.
If you still hold fond memories of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, you will feel right at home with Street Fighter IV. The original 12 World Warriors from SFII are here in full force, as well as several series mainstays and fan favorites like Akuma, Cammy, Fei Long, Dan, and Sakura. Six new characters also debut in SFIV. There’s Rufus, the rotund kung-fu fighter obsessed with defeating Ken to prove himself the best martial artist in America. El Fuerte, a luche libre wrestler and world-class chef who introduces himself with the totally hilarious “It’s super-dynamic cooking time!” battle-cry. The French mixed martial artist known as Abel, an amnesiac with connections to Guile. C. Viper, perhaps my favorite of the new characters, is a mysterious female secret agent who uses gadgets to augment her fighting abilities. Gouken, brother of Akuma and a mainstay in Street Fighter lore, makes his debut as a playable character in predictable Shoto-clone fashion. Finally there’s Seth, the Dr. Manhattan-esque antagonist of Street Fighter IV who possesses key abilities of several of SFIV’s cast.
Capcom promised that Street Fighter IV would be a return to roots of the series, and on that they certainly delivered. The basic mechanics are classic Street Fighter through and through. So even if you haven’t played a Street Fighter game since ‘94, you still won’t feel terribly daunted by SFIV. Nostalgic types like me who picked up Turbo Remix will find that it serves as a perfect primer for SFIV, with far more forgiving controls for those of us too poor or lazy to own one of those fancy arcade sticks. As the old saying I just made up goes, throwing a fireball is like riding a bicycle - you never forget. Even if you haven’t ever played a Street Fighter game, the robust training mode can help you get comfortable with the characters and practice flashy combos on the more than willing CPU victim of choice.
This is not to say that veterans of the series won’t find plenty to love. New additions such as the Focus Attack allow you to
charge up a powerful strike that will also allow you to absorb an incoming strike If landed, the Focus Attack can stun your opponent for a brief moment, leaving them open to another hit or two. Focus can also be used to cancel out of a Super combo, which in turn can also be canceled with a quick dash. There are also two meters on screen that are filled up during each fight. First there’s the Super meter, which is separated into four sections. The meter fills up as you land more and more attacks. Once a section is filled, you can perform an EX version of your special moves that will deal more damage if it hits. When the Super meter is completely filled, you can perform the aforementioned Super combo. Then there’s the Revenge meter, which fills up as you take damage during the round. Unlike the Super meter, the Revenge meter is depleted once a round ends, so if you don’t use it, you lose it. When the Revenge meter is filled (which won’t be hard to miss, as it bursts into flame), your character can unleash an Ultra Combo, a more devastating and cinematic version of his or her Super. All of these new and tweaked techniques are sure to keep both new and veteran players practicing long into the night.
Of course, what’s a fighting game if you can’t pummel your friends? Street Fighter IV features the expected versus mode, as well as online capabilities. Sadly, the online functionality of SFIV is its only downfall. There are no online tournaments, and worst of all, no “Quarter Mode”. Yes, that’s right – Street Fighter IV matches are limited to two people per lobby. The 8-player lobbies and spectator mode seen in Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix are completely absent here. Capcom promises to remedy this in a patch down the road, but for such a basic feature – one that was available in a $15 downloadable game from the same series not 3 months ago – not to ship with the game is fairly negligent.
A trademark of the Street Fighter series has long been its visual style. While SF’s rival Mortal Kombat eventually succumbed to emerging technologies and moved to 3D, Street Fighter games have – outside of the EX series - stayed rooted in 2D sprites and backgrounds. Street Fighter IV attempts, successfully, to move the game into 3D. All of the characters and environments are rendered in 3D, but given a hand-drawn look very akin to cel shading, resulting in some of the most striking visuals you’ll ever see in a video game. There are other subtle touches, like the slow-mo look of horror on the face of your opponent as you ready an Ultra, that really add that extra bit of enjoyment to the game.
On the audio front, you know you’re in for a treat from moment you boot up the game. The title song “Indestructible” is both super-cheesy an infectious, a song you’ll really want to hate but will most certainly be stuck in your head. Rather unexpectedly, one of my favorite features in SFIV was the ability to change individual character voices to Japanese after you’ve completed the game with that fighter. While you can change all the voices to their Japanese counterpart from the outset, it’s nice to be able to pick and choose which language each character speaks. Plus Akuma’s Ultra is way more badass in Japanese.
There are not many franchises that have the name recognition and hardcore following that Street Fighter carries. Capcom has certainly taken its fair share of missteps with the franchise in the past, but Street Fighter IV manages to perfectly balance new ideas with traditional gameplay that will appease savvy veterans and eager newcomers alike.