From the first time I saw Street Fighter IV in action I was excited. The dazzling look of the game manages to be both state-of-the-art enough to please all graphics whores out there, whilst retaining all of the character and style of the seminal Street Fighter 2. The good news doesn’t end there either, because despite some minor issues with the Xbox 360 controller the game feels tight and responsive, and the moves and special combos are just as instinctive and pleasing to pull off as they were back in 1992. Many games for the early ‘90s went on to become global legends of the gaming industry, a few are still benchmarks even today - Street Fighter 2, a game that spawned an absolute plethora of copycats and wannabees, is one of them.
Street Fighter 2 is particularly close to my heart as it’s the only fighting game I’ve ever really loved, and despite some brief affairs with other more technically advanced titles in the intervening years, I’ve always longed for the feeling that playing SF2 gave me all those years ago. Now I’m getting it again with SFIV.
To meet the demands of the HD generation SFIV uses an absolutely brilliant “2.5D” (that’s not quite 3D) game engine that allows everything to be modelled in 3D (including the backgrounds) and with all the visual goodness that that allows, while still supplying eye-popping impact, fireball and other special move effects and incredibly smooth and fast, but undeniably 2D action. If you’re used to the 3D-ness of Tekken and Dead or Alive you may not be impressed by the sound of that, but one fight and you’ll be hooked by the same kind of feel and balanced gameplay that made Street Fighter 2 what it was, and even improve on it with better response times and graphics that never show a hint of slowdown.
The six-button control system that every gamer of my generation learned and fell in love with hasn’t been messed with; there’s 3 buttons for punches and three buttons for kicks. All the moves are performed in the traditional manner with sweeping semi-circular or charged moves of the stick combined with a button press or button combination. A new addition to the uncluttered screen is the Super Combo gauge, this fills up as you batter your opponent. This has two uses; some special moves have EX versions of them, these EX specials are done by pressing two attack buttons at the same time. Performing an EX move will use about a quarter of the gauge, but alternatively you can allow the gauge to fill up, at which point you can unleash a Super EX Combo. This super combo can – potentially – land a lot of hits in succession, and finish off a fight. However, when you’re on the receiving end of a battering you can do a new move called an Ultra Combo, the availability of this is governed by another new little gauge called the Revenge Meter, which fills up as you get duffed up. The beauty of this Ultra Combo is obviously that you can pull off an amazing comeback and even a victory from the jaws of defeat, the effect added to by the way the view changes to a more dynamic camera that proves in no uncertain terms that everything is modelled in 3D and finely detailed. Another new feature is the Chargeable Focus Attack. You do this by using a medium punch or kick - with perfect timing - to block an incoming attack. There are two phases to this move; firstly the player shifts into a new stance, at which point he (or she) can absorb one attack. The second phase is the counter attack. The longer you hold down the medium punch and kick buttons the more powerful the attack will be. If the buttons are held for long enough this “absorbs” the incoming attack and launches a counter attack which can stagger an opponent, allowing another undefended hit. If these new moves sound fancy, overcomplicated or superfluous to aficionados then I can reassure them they’re not, they’re easy to learn, fit in perfectly with the balanced gameplay and add more than a little spice for the best players, but having said that there is absolutely no need to use them at all if you don’t want to, at least initially.
Amazingly all of the classic characters have been included; Ryu, Ken, Guile, E. Honda, Blanka, Zangief, M. Bison, Balrog, Dhalsim, Vega, Sagat, Dan, Fei-Long, Sakura, Cammy, Gen and of course Chun-Li have all been re-imagined, redrawn and updated with detail and flowing fabrics that could only have been dreamed about in the 1990s, but are all unmistakeable as the art style does such a good job of recapturing and modernizing Street Fighter 2’s look. New characters include Rose, Abel, Crimson Viper, Rufus and El Fuerte. They’re all unlocked by either beating them or by achieving specific feats during general gameplay, and there are also all-new boss characters called Seth, Akuma and Gouken. Seth is the eye-catching one, with a body that has been modified using alien technology and he looks like a cross between the Terminator T-1000 and the Silver Surfer. His special moves are techniques used by all the other characters, so you never know what to expect from him.
Online gamers are well catered for with a Championship mode that gives players the chance to compete in tournaments and even to watch replays of the best tournament matches! On Xbox Live, you can choose to download and save your favourite replays to study the players’ techniques or just to gawp and wonder “how the heck did they do that?”. You’ll also be able to turn on the input commands from both players to be able to review their button and joystick motions in precise detail... Oh...MY...GOD. I can’t help feeling that this new feature is both of these things: the saddest, daftest and yet coolest thing I’ve ever heard of! But heck, if Halo fanatics do it to learn new maps, plan strategies and learn the hot spots, then why shouldn’t beat ‘em up addicts do it too?
What Capcom have essentially done here is remake Street Fighter 2, and if this sounds like a cop out or a con then it’s anything but. It’s a respectful and beautifully designed sequel that draws on all of the power of the Xbox 360 and the PS3 in more subtle ways than the likes of Tekken or Dead or Alive, and allows it to play in a pin sharp, fast and smooth way that those two titles can only dream about. There’s going to be some stiff competition but Street Fighter IV is great shout for game of the year. PERFECT.
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