Street Fighter IV: The Review

Street Fighter 4 Review

Over 20 years ago Capcom created the “Street Fighter” franchise, which rose to success with the release of its second iteration, which has been re-made and re-released several times over the years and is still regarded as one of the top fighting games ever created, a pioneer of its genre.

It’s been over 8 years since the release of the last addition to the story, and Capcom have finally unveiled the title they have been working on since the Playstation 3 was released, “Street Fighter IV”, which has been highly anticipated and sure has a lot of hype to live up to.

With the transition from the last generation of gaming hardware, many well known gaming series’ have been under pressure to meet the high expectations of the fans.
But with classic titles like “Street Fighter”, there is more at risk. The gamers who spent countless college nights button-mashing with their friends for hours on end are those gamers who Capcom are developing for here, what’s at stake here is similar to continuing a film trilogy that has been deemed legendary, such as “The Godfather”.
A brilliant set of films, but if Coppola decided to release a new instalment and it turned out to be anything less than ‘classic’ worthy the series would be tainted.

Luckily, the majority of franchises such as these that hold the hearts and souls of many gamers, whose iconic protagonists are seen as heroes to them, such as Hideo Kojima’s groundbreaking Metal Gear Solid 4, or Miyamoto’s outstanding Legend of Zelda, the time and effort had been put in and solid titles were released.

The question is, did Capcom follow the footsteps of such greats? With such an important gaming series at stake here, was it wise to try and carry on a legacy?

I’m happy to say Yoshinori Ono has done the industry proud, “Street Fighter IV” is one of the most refreshing and enjoyable games the scene has seen in a very long time, joining the ranks of groundbreaking hits such as “Tekken 3”. Ono has managed to take the skeleton of the franchise, pretty it up with some incredible artwork, and add a few more features to deem it innovative whilst at the same time remaining near enough the same simple fighter we all know and love.

Each game in the series has been tuned to the finest degree in terms of character balance and gameplay, and that is most apparent in this iteration, It pleases me to see Capcom didn’t take the series to a 3-D plane as all its rivals have, having 3-D models playing on a 2-D field captures the fast paced, arcade-esque action of the game and keeps it different from today’s ‘sidesteppers’.
Speaking of character models, the art director Daigo Ikeno did a wonderful job here, keeping the vibrant, colourful Japanese anime themes of over-exaggerated muscles and garish costumes, which are complimented by the equally flamboyant J-pop soundtrack.
The art-style really adds to the games overall appeal, the aesthetical appeal of the finishing sequences gives the possibility of an artistic flair to one’s play style.

Amongst the thirteen classic warriors, of course including classics such as Ryu, Ken, Guile, E-Honda and Chun-Li we are introduced to four new characters available from the start, as well as two unlockable new characters.
El Fuerte is a pro wrestler with obvious influences from the WWE’s Rey Mysterio, and has a fast paced play style filled with mid, high and low rushes and air throws.
There is also Rufus, an obese yet deceptively quick American, Crimson Viper, a female fighter with a mix of long and close range attacks and Abel, a mixed martial arts character who relies on getting up close and personal and unleashing the pain.
We also have the new end-game boss Seth, who mimics the abilities of other characters, and for once the master of Ryu and Ken; Gouken, is available to play.
Luckily, as always, Capcom have got the character balance just right, so you should never feel at a disadvantage for choosing a certain character against another.

Now the visuals and audio have been mentioned, it’s time to get into the gameplay, the one thing Street Fighter prides itself on is the whole “a minute to learn, a lifetime to master” level of depth, that was apparent in Street Fighter III, and fortunately hasn’t changed for the new installment. A fight between characters essentially boils down to raw skill including the ability to input commands rapidly and understanding when to use certain techniques, and of course the mind games you can play with your opponent through faking attacks or suddenly changing from a highly defensive play style to an all out offensive.

Let’s review the basic fighting system that has been in each major installment, each character has a “light, medium and heavy” kick and punch, and then each has an assortment of special abilities that require a mix of directional buttons and an attack to pull off.
They also have a special meter that fills up as they perform special attacks, which can be used to enhance a special ability, or be saved up to unleash a quick combo on a foe.
Every character also has a flashy Ultra meter, which is filled up upon receiving damage, giving a slight spin on tactical gameplay, as an ultra attack delivers a vicious amount of damage.
In essence, this is a simple system that allows people to button mash if they really want to, or learn a few special moves and spam them.
On the other hand, a more advanced player can learn that due to ‘recovery frame times’ in which a character is left vulnerable after pulling off a special move, that maybe it’s more efficient to counter an enemy with a light uppercut as opposed to a heavy one.

Ono had to keep this fighting style the same, but introduce a few new goodies to make it refreshing, and the introduction of the ‘Focus Attack’ does this beautifully.
A simple command, executed by holding the medium punch and kick button down simultaneously, can break through an enemies defense, leaving them to crumple to the ground.
This is the basic use for a Focus Attack, however it also has another useful feature, it gives the user ‘hyper-armour’ whilst the attack is being charged, where they can absorb an attack, and heal back the damage later over time. This gives a new level of depth to the attack, giving the ability defensive properties also.

Going even deeper, advanced players can cancel this attack to play mind games on your opponent, or even cancel a special attack to perform a Focus Attack.
Take Ryu, for instance, his uppercut is a powerful special attack, but with a long recovery frame time, and his ultra attack is a powerful fireball. With the use of a focus attack, the player can land his uppercut and immediately cancel the rest of the recovery animation to perform a focus attack, but before landing that, cancel again and fire his ultra fireball.

Whilst this level of depth may seem daunting, it’s important to understand that a beginner really can pick up and play within no time at all, and with an amazing training mode built into the game it won’t be long until even the amateur is pulling off sick combos and vicious ultra’s, and then feel confident enough to go online.

Online play is what players of the Street Fighter II remake are already used to, but is the first for an original installment, and is a welcome addition, which is necessary for today’s generation of gaming. Generally gameplay is nice and fluid, however it takes just one laggy player to make the match awkward and at times, unplayable.

Outside of the internet there is a story mode, where each character can fight through a series of opponents spanning from 8 different difficulty levels, to unlock their finishing anime sequence, which unfortunately, to me at least, seem a little lackluster.

Then we have the training mode, and then the challenges mode, where you can play through ‘time-attack mode’ and ‘survival mode’, and also the new ‘trial mode’, in which you have to pull off certain abilities to advance, which not only helps you to understand a character’s special abilities and combos, but in turn unlocks titles and icons which can be displayed online.

Unfortunately though, asides from these there is nothing else to the game, none of those original mid-story-mode ‘smash-a-car’ or ‘hit-the-barrels’, which would have been really cool with the new art style, and no creative new game modes such as Tekken Force, or the ability to play the previous Tekken Arcade games in ‘Tekken 5’, although having said this, I wouldn’t actually have ever expected this to be included, I am only mentioning it as there is so little else wrong with the game.

The Street Fighter series, regarded as one of the top beat-em-ups around, is still to this day untainted thanks to a powerful instalment that pushes the genre to a new level, and it’s easy for me to say Street Fighter IV is now the best 2-D fighter since...Street Fighter III, but the saying goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, and despite a few tweaks for the overall good, Capcom stuck to that principle and we have a brilliant fighting game amongst us that will be played for years.
5/5