Capcom's Street Fighter IV Review

SFIV Logo. Image from Google Images.

Capcom is, perhaps, the most famous name in video games today. With award-winning series like Resident Evil, there’s no question that Capcom holds water in the gaming marketplace. Now they unleash a reservoir of fame with the newest title in a 20-yearlong juggernaut that is Street Fighter.
Street Fighter IV, the newest installment in the series, is more of a prequel than a sequel. Taking place between Street Fighter II and III, in the same way the movie Saw IV took place between the second and third film. The game, though not a true continuation, does not disappoint in both storyline and game play.
First thing you notice when playing this game for the first time is that the game play is not so much difficult, but more challenging than the last few installments. I enjoy the fact that the analog joystick on the Playstation 3 version is reminiscent vaguely of the arcade feeling one gets when pulling off specials and combos. Game play is also effective, in-that it feels 3-D. When you’re hammering in on an opponent, the controls feel smooth, but will hurt your thumb after a long while. With the return of the Super Combos, you get a feeling for the “2.5”D as your character is encompassed in the camera, and the look on your opponent’s face is priceless. “2.5”D is an interesting, and rather appropriate way of describing the graphics in the game, as the old-school 2-D movement is taken into a 3-D control basis.
The graphics are pretty much the best I’ve ever seen in the series. I remember Street Fighter 3-D for the PS1, and those graphics were piss-poor pitiful. Here, you get that sort of “cell-shading” but it’s more anime-based than “XIII” or Dragonball Z look. Each character has a distinct look that stays true to the designs from previous games. The facial expressions, and the almost cartoonish look will be a plus to some, and a minus to other fans. I typically enjoy a good fighter, and know that graphics are not normally their selling point, but the anime cut-scenes, the ability to switch languages (English or Japanese), and the detail to the characters are a great add-on, are we finally reaching a period where fighting games can have great storylines and amazing graphics?
Speaking of storylines (cheap lead-in, I know) Street Fighter IV does not fail, as each character helps piece the puzzle together, as if you’re working in the middle, and branching off from all sides dependent on the character you play. Again, the amazing anime cut scenes (A beginning and ending cut scene for each character) are fluid, yet they are short, and as I said, are like pieces of a film meshed up in a disarrayed order. If you are an avid fan, and perhaps know the game’s mythology by heart, it may not be as difficult to pick up on as say a newbie finding the series interesting for the first time.
All the usual suspects are to be found: Chun-Li, Ryu, Ken, Guile, M. Bison, Vega (personal favorite), and of course, Sagat. These are pretty much the standard characters, not forgetting of course E. Honda, and Dhalsim, but new characters have been tossed into the tournament as well. The first, and most oddly designed character I’ve seen since Gil or Oro.



Crimson Viper as she appears in Street Fighter IV. Image from Google Images.


The next newest character to join the fray is Crimson Viper. An agent to S.I.N., she rivals Chun-Li, and attempts to prevent her investigation of the organizations any further. She has a suit that shocks and burns an opponent, and is perhaps the most fluent new character in the series. She seems to stem from a mixture between Jax from Mortal Kombat fame, with a sort of ground pound via electric shockwaves, and Fire kicks from Long from Tekken fame. Although I highly consider her original, her character components seem to match Cammy’s look, although she has red hair, and it’s a bit larger, she actually unlocks Cammy from the game. Her arrogant attitude makes up her character, like before and after winning a match, she’s on her cell phone, sort of an insult to her opponent. I personally found her Ultra to be one of the best in the game: She does a massive-charged “ground stomp” and follows it up with multiple wheel kicks of fire into and up the opponent, sending them in orbit.
Although the boss character is brand-new to the series as well (Seth) the last playable character you start off with is a Mexican luchador named El Fuerte (The Strong/Strength).

El Fuerte as he appears in Street Fighter IV. Images from Google Images

He is another form of mock character, but he is actually a very good mock character as opposed to Rufus. His wrestling/acrobatic style is fast-paced, and makes the character of the most fun to play as and/or against. The character is a wrestler that is honing up on his cooking skills, so he travels the world kicking ass, and taking recipes in hopes of wining and dining his opponents into the ground. The character is almost on speed when fighting on the hardest level, it’s difficult to keep up with him, and this makes him one of the most worthy of adversaries in the game. If you go online, expect and expert to kick the holy hell out you with him, as he’s an almost cracked character, but not as cracked as say Zangief.


The main antagonist/final Boss of Street Fighter IV, Seth. Image from Google Images

Finally, the Boss Seth, is sort of a mesh-up of all the characters in the game. He has Guile’s Sonic Boom, all of Ken,’s Ryu’s, Sakura’s, and Akuma’s moves. He also can elongate his arms like Dhalsim, and teleport like Bison. Not to make a battle with him any easier, but Seth has the power to suck up his opponent’s into his abdomen, which at first looked like a spinning yin/yang symbol. Seth will then fire his opponent into the screen, and it will inflict a nice deal of damage. This move is quite cheap. In-fact I personally hated it most when I just moments away from victory, managing to hold onto the little life my character had left, when I was then sucked into his body, and spat out. The move I believe is his Ultra, which really is the best one of the game, and is pretty much a game-changer. If you unlock Seth, you’ll not have to worry about any other characters, he’s by far the strongest opponent/playable character of the series.


Gameplay from Street Fighter IV. Image from Google Image

As I mentioned above the storyline follows an unset path, and is determined through the character you play as, but it mostly surrounds the Organization S.I.N., and Seth being #15 of 27 of his kind, despite being self-proclaimed trump card of the rest. He’s not as arrogant as other characters, but has pull in almost every character’s story. Despite looking like a Doctor Manhattan rip-off, he’s also part connected through the organization by being Bison’s most powerful weapon. The storylines will tie-up all loose ends thus far, but are still rather short, but very nice to watch, as it seems much detail was put into each character’s plot. If you’re a fan of the series, and still not sure whether or not to pick up this game, I suggest you do, it’s one of the best Street Fighters I’ve played in a while, HD Remix was great as well, so you should definitely try each of these great games. Street Fighter IV will most likely revitalize the series, even though the series was still doing well, this was a much-needed change of pace, and you can bet many people will be honing up their skills in online battle
Through the Playstation Network (another cheap lead-in, I know, sorry), you can create a ranked game, custom with rules and regulations against anyone in the world. The online ranking systems also give you an idea of who’s the best of the best online, and allow you to pick and choose who you fight against. I most-of-all enjoyed the easy access to lobbies, and the ability to set up a game with a friend, rather than search the World Wide Web in order to find someone that lives downtown. That one important online function was missing from the last few Mortal Kombat games, and I am thankful it is as clear as day in Street Fighter IV. Online play, in the few times I was able to try it prior to writing this review, is practically flawless, and has few bugs or glitches that I was able to find, but someone else may have found many that I’ve not seen, so do not take this part of the review as wholly factual, this is just personal experience. The game play was like playing a person; in-that it was as fluid as one could be while fighting a human as opposed to the computer. This made me want to come back and fight online more, and I think most people after unlocking all characters will find excellent replay value in online via the PSN or Xbox Live.

fighting gameplay from SFIV. Image from Google Image.

I would like to close up this review with a mention of the game’s A.I. Although this should part of the review be up several paragraphs in another part of the review, I find that the A.I. on just very easy was smarter than most games on Hard. Not so much because it was able to read my moves with counters as often (I found that countering from the computer on Hard was almost like playing with another person) I saw that the computer would spam and spam, and spam. I was eating so much spam the first few rounds, I thought I’d be in a diabetic coma. After I realized that a few counters and spamming of “Sagat Uppercut” was all the Very Easy setting was going to do, I moved up to Hard, where I was actually given a challenge. Seth on Hard, which is not even the hardest level, is insane, and I don’t even know how the hell it’s possible to win. I mean, on Normal mode, Seth is a spammer, but he’s also spamming some insanely difficult moves to counter or tech hit out of, hence Hard mode was like God mode for other games, I could not believe even reaching Seth on Hardest mode. If you’re into a challenge, or if I just really, really suck at video games, then playing through arcade mode is going to be up your alley, or I just suck, and it’s easier than pie to win.
Street Fighter IV is perhaps the best fighting game out in the market right now, trumping Soul Caliber IV, MK vs. DCU, and all the rest that try living up to their hype. Sometimes it takes the original to show how the genre is supposed to be done. Capcom does not block any hard hits with this game, which will be like “WTF?!” at first, but will finish up with “EPIC!!!” after you get the hang of the game, and you see all the movies unlocked. Hell, even the opening movie was worth drooling over, with an amazing soundtrack blasting in the background, I almost hope you can buy it separately or download the entire soundtrack. If you’re a fan of fighting games, and you want to master and play the best of the best, then I highly suggest, dare-I-say, demand you play Street Fighter IV, it is worthy every penny you spend on it, and it will pay you back in replay value that never gets old. See you online!