If you don't have Street Fighter IV just stop reading this and go buy it right now.
I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I know everything there is to know about fighting games; nor am I going to act like I've been around the block enough to have played every significant iteration of every major fighting game franchise that exists. What I can tell you though, is that I am confident in saying that as of this writing, Street Fighter IV is the single-most fun, refreshing, and exciting fighting game currently available for any platform, past or present.
While numerous other studios are busy messing around with gimmicky features and worthless single-player modes, Street Fighter has pretty much always been squarely focused on being an awesome fighting game over anything else. This may not be immediately evident when you boot up the game only to be greeted by a somewhat questionable Japanese pop song, but once the real Street Fighter music kicks in after a minute or so you know that you're in for something truly special.
What's immediately apparent from as early on as the opening movie is that Street Fighter IV's presentation is as good as it gets. The imaginative watercolour visual style is amazing and the intro looks like a painting that's come to life. The game itself doesn't look nearly as incredible as the opening (although that's probably a good thing since if it did it would probably be impossible to even tell what's going on) but it's graphical presentation is still incredibly vibrant and pleasing on the eyes. It may take a while for some people to adjust to the overall "everyone's on steroids" look of the characters, but you'll soon grow to love it for its unique visual flair.
Once you get into the actual game you'll notice that Street Fighter's menu is chock full of nothing but no-nonsense modes. There's no filler modes in here, no lame story mode campaigns, no questionable half-baked adventure modes, there really is just no garbage anywhere; it's great. All you'll see is a bunch of different modes that are focused on one of two things: fighting, or getting better at fighting; that's it. Arcade mode serves as Street Fighter IV's story mode, although it's story elements are unfortunately quite lackluster. There's these really lame opening/ending anime sequences that really just don't work at all and barely convey any coherent plot or story. Each character has their own rival battle complete with a pre-fight in-game cutscene, and they work way better so it would have been nice to see more of them. Arcade mode finishes up with a boss fight against newcomer Seth, who is more or less, a total pain in the ass. Seth is probably my least favourite thing about Street Fighter IV, not only due to the absurd spike in difficulty level when facing him even on the easiest settings, but due to his relatively lame character design as well as the fact that his moves are simply an assortment of moves stolen from other characters. Seth may have some unique combos of his own by linking other characters moves into one another, but it still doesn't make him a unique or even remotely interesting character for that matter.
There's also a bunch of different challenges which you can partake in, with each character having a normal and hard trial mode. The trials serve as a method of teaching attacks and combos, although they serve more as a way of testing your mettle with a given character more so than actually teaching you how to use them. The trials don't actually show you what the attacks you need to perform are supposed to look like and the timing and execution can often be quite picky. These are still a lot of fun to do though and can absorb tons of your time as you attempt to master advanced attacks with each character. You'll even earn a variety of icons and titles to deck out your online profile with for completing them.
Aside from the core fighting mechanics, Street Fighter IV's main components are ultra combos, super combos, ex attacks, and focus attacks. Focus attacks are one of the most important addition to Street Fighter IV, and while the game is easily playable without ever using them, they add a lot of depth and complexity to the game mechanics. You can charge a focus attack by holding the medium punch and medium kick attacks down at the same time, releasing the attack at different times will cause a different type of attack to be released. Fully charging the attack will deliver a powerful blow that is signified by an artsy ink splash across the screen. Focus attacks can cause an opposing player to buckle over and they are completely vulnerable in this state, allowing you to chain in combos and other devastating attacks. More importantly though is that focus attacks can absorb a single strike while being charged, and they can also be canceled. This alone adds a significant layer of added depth to an already incredibly deep fighting system.
EX attacks use energy you have stockpiled in your super meter, which can have up to four bars. By pressing two attack buttons simultaneously when performing a special move you can perform a special EX version which is a more powerful version of an already existing special attack that often contains unique properties. An example of this is that EX projectiles can hit twice, causing them to go through an opposing players regular projectile for a surprise hit. If you opt out of using EX moves for a while you can instead employ your fully charged super meter for a devastating super combo attack. These can be chained from other attacks which allows for a variety of devastating combos.
Last but not least, you have the revenge gauge. The revenge gauge will increase the more and more you take damage, allowing you to eventually release a devastating ultra combo that can have a varying range of power based on how much damage you've taken. Ultra combos are a nice way to even out the playing field and make it so that no matter how much of a beating you've taken you almost always have a chance to make a comeback.
Once you're done familiarizing yourself with the battle systems, you'll more than likely want to strut your stuff online. Street Fighter IV's online runs great - lag issues are minimal so nearly everyone but the absolute hardcore will have a blast battling it out online. There's also a tournament mode which was added post-launch which is a great system that will match you up against similarly skilled players. Street Fighter IV's online modes are serviceable but my only real complaint is probably the lack of more ways to match yourself up against players of a similar skill level. Perhaps the best addition of the tournament mode is that you can't actually see who your opponent is selecting which is a feature that I highly approve. My biggest gripe with online is that players will often idle on the character selection screen in order to wait and see who you choose first; this can lead to some awkward moments that can have both players idling until the very last second. Playing against people like this is never fun but the game can't be faulted for it. It would have been nice to have more options for blind match-ups though.
One of the more minor additions but perhaps also one of the most interesting ones is the ability to not only switch the character voices between Japanese and English, but to actually specify which language individual characters will speak. So if you wanted to you could make it so all of the western characters spoke English, with all of the Asian ones speaking Japanese. This can have some amusing moments in the arcade mode where two characters are speaking to each other in different languages. It's an interesting feature that I'd like to see in more games. The English voice work seems solid although the thought of playing Street Fighter in anything but Japanese is blasphemy, as any true Street Fighter fan knows. (I'm partially joking but seriously why would anyone play this game in English? SHOOOOOOOOORYUKEN, et cetera).
The soundtrack which includes the aforementioned cheesy J-Pop song is actually pretty good, and regardless of whether or not INDESTRUCTIBLE irritates the hell out of you anyone who denies that they've unexpectedly caught themselves humming and/or singing it at any point in time after playing the game is lying. Character themes don't appear outside of rival matches though, which is somewhat disappointing, although it definitely makes the rival battles feel a lot more epic when you hear a familiar remixed character theme blasting through your speakers. Street Fighter IV's sound effects are also quite distinctive and while you may not immediately notice it they add a lot to the experience. The announcer is great too - he's the type of guy who you may not be very fond of at first but after a while you'll grow to love him. FIGHT!
I'm confident in saying that I truly believe that there is no other fighting game this immaculate that is currently available. Street Fighter IV has nearly everything you could want from a fighting game and more. It has mind-blowing production values, a great roster of expansive and well-realized characters, and it features the return of what is arguably the true king of all fighting games. Street Fighter IV's core fighting has amazing complexity and depth, but is also friendly enough to beginners that anyone can pick up a controller and immediately have a great time; it's a fine example of a game that's easy to learn but takes a lifetime to master. Naturally, if you want to explore Street Fighter IV's depth as far as it can go, then a more specific fighting game control method is a good idea, whether it be a fight pad or an arcade stick. Even if you don't though, the PlayStation 3 controller is still serviceable enough to allow a dedicated player to pull off advanced moves and still have a great time doing so.
It's not an easy task to adequately get across the importance of Street Fighter IV in today's gaming market, but at this point pretty much every other major fighting game franchise should hang its head in shame. If you don't have Street Fighter IV you're really missing out - it's not only one of the best games of 2009, it's one of the best games of the last decade and is easily the most relevant fighting game on the market today. If you don't have Street Fighter IV just stop reading this and go buy it right now (unless you're waiting for Super Street Fighter IV but seriously this game is so good that you should just go and buy it right now anyway).