Street Fighter IV: Review

March 16, 2009 by Delon
Filed under Featured, Playstation, Review, XBox

It’s been almost 10 years since I was last behind the controls of a Street Fighter game but, having spent many an hour and many a 20c coin on this game, Capcom’s fighting royalty holds a special place in my heart.

When it was first announced an excitement quickly overcame me and for the rest of the day I found my thoughts full of childhood flashbacks – arcades and takeaways. The idea of my long time favourite fighter translated into a modern day, current gen game was nothing short of great news.

The first thing about the game that stuck out to me was the very distinct art style that the developers decided to go with. It has a stylized effect that gives it a hand drawn look, with the visual effects accented in calligraphic strokes and ink sprays during fights. The backgrounds, now recreated in 3D have been brought to life in a vibrant and colourful way and at certain points can be affected by the fighting – barrels fall and valves explode as the action heats up in the foreground.

The game has the best introduction cinematic that I’ve ever seen in a fighter: it’s action packed with fight moves, ink sprays and it’s done in the same unique art style as the rest of the game but with only one draw back - the music that was chosen to accompany it. Here we have possibly the greatest fighter into ever, juxtaposed with boyband music. It’s not a deal breaker by any means but a better song could have been chosen.

By playing this game you are effectively jumping into a time machine which will take you back to the days of your childhood where the coins in your pocket and beating your buddy or the kid that dared to challenge you were the only things that mattered. This latest iteration of the classic is sure to thrill with the return of many of the favourite characters from the series making 25 in total. There are four new characters available (Crimson Viper, El Fuerte, Rufus and Abel), who all fit into the gameplay quite nicely and while you may not choose to use them you will at times be forced to face them as part of the story.

The Arcade mode takes you through the game’s story with animated cut scenes but their basic, hand drawn look is vanilla at best when compared to the vibrant art of the rest of the game. A story is told, yes but it’s one that I found better to read through on various sites or in the training manual rather than to follow it in the game because I’ll I wanted to do was fight.

The gameplay is snappy and responsive and at no point do you feel that your control has been surrendered to long-winded animations as with many of the other fighting games. When playing Street Fighter IV you feel like a conductor wielding orchestrated perfection, turning a game that you play into a form of art creation because pulling off a Hadoken into a Shoryuken and then into a Focus Punch with Ryu is nothing less than art. The depth and freedom of style that the game provides means that no one player will fight the same and that each will enjoy their own unique interpretation of the moves available.

Concern over the game’s difficulty has been brought up in many discussions around the web. The game is hard, very hard and even though Capcom’s community manager Seth Killian says that the game is accessible to both the novice and the experienced player it’s not really. The moves are difficult to get right, add that with the need for specific timing and you’ll find that you’re left wanting to chuck your controller on many occasions but I don’t see this as a draw back – in fact I see it as part of the game’s appeal and there is a real sense of accomplishment once you begin to get it right.

The game offers a Challenge mode, which is made up of Trial, Time Trial and Survival modes to allow players to familiarize themselves with the various forms of attack. It also has a training mode, which pits you against a lifeless opponent, a boxing bag of sorts but unfortunately both modes failed to teach me anything that would work in a real-life match. I found that the best way to improve was to just jump in and play.

The biggest and best part of the game is the ranked and unranked competition that the online component offers. I haven’t been able to play online as much as I would have liked because of the general haphazard connectivity problems I’ve had. I’m not sure if this is because I’m in South Africa or if it’s a general problem for everyone and I’m eager to see if it improves me for me so that I can add some points to my non-existent rank.

If you are a fighter fan and enjoy the quest of perfecting your fighting style this is most definitely the game for you. If you are on the other hand a more casual fighter player, I think that this may be the game that converts you.

Capcom have created a fighter game with animations that are splendid to watch, while at the same time never getting in your way and whether you play it because you’ve been a long time fan or if you are new to the franchise you will love the depth and scope that it provides for you to grow in the game and develop your own unique style. I assure you that you will be practicing perfection long after big blisters have formed on your D-pad thumb.