A review from a gamer who has played fighting games since Karate Champ

User Rating: 9 | Street Fighter IV (Collector's Edition) PS3
By smbius | Review Date:
The Street Fighter franchise has had a long history of success. Since Street Fighter 2 debuted, hacked versions of the arcade were being played by many gamers in 7-Elevens and pizza parlors. This prompted other game companies to come up with a plethora of fighting game franchises that have made their way into the fighting game market. Since then, a million fighting games have stormed the arcades and consoles but only a handful have continued to resonate in the minds of gamers. Fortunately, fighting game tournaments (such as EVO) have held on to only the most popular and balanced games. This weeds out the gimmicks from the greats. Thankfully, Street Fighter 4 has continued the tradition of a deep and balanced fighting system.

Street Fighter 4's art direction hopes to upgrade SF purists from their 2D sprites and newcomers who've been resistant to fighting games but have been lamenting to play one. What really stands out is the detailed animation, memorable backgrounds, and other nice subtleties such as a trailing brush stroke from a special move. When attacks connect, each character's facial and body animations are very expressive. Whether you're the giver or the givee, each hit is dramatic in its own way, especially when Ultra Combos connect. In typical Capcom fashion, the Ultra Combo is a salute to the overkill special attack prevalent on all their fighting games. But in 3D, it's more emphasized - the first few hits start in slow motion as the camera sweeps from a close-up view of the attacker's face to an overall view of the ass-kicking. It definitely adds that extra element of feeling satisfied or being demoralized.

You'll also notice that the soundtrack has some old tunes remixed along with actual songs with lyrics. It's a nice touch and adds depth and atmosphere to the stages you'll play in. Besides the great eye candy, SF4 has plenty of modes to try like time attack, challenge, etc. Nothing from what you've already seen in other fighting games but they're here and provide some change to climb the online leaderboards.

The single player arcade mode can be setup to accept invitations. Although it maybe irritating for others to interrupt your quest to unlock your characters, you'll find the single player mode unbalanced once you reach the last boss. At any difficulty setting (even the highest), the characters are beatable and you will learn the strengths and weaknesses of each character after playing against them. The higher the difficulty the better. However, once you reach the end boss (Seth) all difficulty settings go out the window. Seth is particularly aggravating and cheesy irregardless of the game settings. It's this point where you'll give online players a warm welcome to damper your frustrations. Despite the game's end boss, the game can be very accessible to those starting new to fighting games. All moves are intuitively stoppable without having to resort to some online guide. There isn't one single way to counterattack a move. SF4 is an easy-to-learn-hard-to-master game that can be enjoyed at all levels as long as the expert doesn't go head-to-head with the rookies. The developers at Capcom understand what's already out there and they've done their homework and worked on their timing. Street Fighter 4 is more than just a revisit to the old-school basics and depth - it's a near-perfect replication of the arcade experience complete with all of the glory and humiliation it brings.

radcastro.com

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