IainYou’re indestructible
I’m going to start off this review by saying I am terrible at fighting games. I can’t remember combos that involve more than 5 button presses, I can’t pull off fancy counter attacks without being counter-countered by a fist to the chin and I can’t even beat CPU opponents on any difficulty above medium but that doesn’t dissuade me from buying beat ‘em ups. The latest purchase being Street Fighter IV.
Right from the start SFIV doesn’t disappoint, with the awesomely cheesy opening theme by Exile and impressive visuals. After a few minutes of singing “you’re indestructible” over and over, I decided to actually press start and jump into the game. The first thing I noticed on the menu screen was the not so original but still welcome feature of having a motto and an icon, which can be unlocked through challenges and online play, to personalise your character a little more. While this doesn’t actually affect the gameplay in any way, it does add incentive to play through the Arcade and Challenge modes with all the characters, increasing the game’s longevity.
Unfortunately I have the 360 version of SFIV and I don’t have an arcade pad so pulling off some character’s specials, especially characters like Guile and Vega who use a lot of charge moves, severely dampened my enjoyment playing through the game. While this is entirely the fault of Microsoft and their lack of a decent d-pad, it does hurt to think that to get the full effect of the game you have to shell out around £60 extra for an arcade stick when a proper d-pad would’ve came a close, and cheaper, second. Nonetheless when you pick a character with a relatively analogue stick friendly move set like Ryu or Ken you get to see just how much depth SFIV’s fighting system has. At first glance the game looks relatively basic with each character only having around 3 special moves, but each of these can be performed as an EX move with an extra button input and 25% of the EX bar filled, then one move can then be further extended into a more powerful Super and Ultra moves. For example here is a quick list of how Ryu’s Hadouken fireball can be extended to the ultra move Metsu Hadoken;
Hadouken – rotate↓to→ P
EX Hadouken – rotate↓to→ P+P (with 25% EX bar)
Shinkuu Hadoken – rotate↓to→, rotate↓to→ + P (with 100% EX bar)
Metsu Hadoken – rotate↓to→, rotate↓to→ + HP + MP + LP (with 100% ultra meter)P=any punch, HP=hard punch, MP=medium punch LP=light punch
If that isn’t deep enough, you also have the ability to cancel certain moves with a follow up in order to create high powered combos as well as focus attacks which allow you to absorb a hit and counter with extra force but don’t let the depth of the mechanics put you off, as despite the intricacy of the fighting system, basic and ultra moves are relatively easy to pull off on most characters, allowing people who are new to the Street Fighter series instant access to some cool moves. Capcom have also included a handy Challenge Mode which teaches you each characters special moves and a large amount of their combos for those who want to dive straight in to the combo system and splash around.
Graphically SFIV is also very nice. Despite the gameplay staying firmly 2D, all the characters and backgrounds are in full 3D and look very impressive. Powerful hits and special moves are accented with brush stroke and smoke effects, clothes bellow in the wind and Cammy’s arse looks better than ever.
When I first heard that Street Fighter IV was first announced I was a little sceptical that it would just be yet another Street fighter II copy but within minutes of playing I realised how wrong I was. SFIV is a near perfect fighter; the only problem I’ve found so far is down to the Xbox controller being next to useless for fighting games. If you’re new to fighting games or an old hand at them, Street Fighter has more than enough depth to offer a challenge and the amount of unlockables extends the longevity of the game dramatically. A must have purchase.
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