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Street Fighter IV
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom / Dimps
Genre: Fighting
Release Date: February 17, 2009
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Arcade
ESRB: T - Teen
Reviewer: Buck
As we all know, Capcom is one of the best video game companies that has ever
existed. Whether you see them as the Megaman Company or even for the Devil May
Cry series. There are a few of us who have been gripping on to their unmatched
arcade brawler for the past decade. Street fighter 3 was originally released in
1998, and now about 11 years later they hit us with the greatest fighting game
of the next generation with Street Fighter 4.
Once again the world warriors must unite to stop an evil corporation that is
killing and kidnapping all of the world's greatest fighters in their art. They
have all the street fighter characters from the second game, except there are
two people missing that i would have like to see. They are of course Dee Jay and
T. Hawk.
I feel as though I should get to the negatives about the game before I go on a
rant about how fantastic this title is. First off, you will not have any real
idea of what is happening in the story because there are very awful and
pointless cut scenes before and after you beat the game with your chosen
character. Every once and a while you run into a laggy as anything online bout
where it comes down to who hits the buttons first because neither of you know
what's going on. The worst of all though is not at the game's fault, and I must
ask everyone who has played online. Why do you all think you are Ken and Ryu?
There are over 20 characters and about 75% of the time I'm fighting one of those
two.
The next complaints are actually the developer's fault, i just think that the
balance of power between the characters is awful. If you're playing as any
character and have to take on either Zangief or Sagat, you can land every move
in your arsenal, and with an ultra combo or in Zangief's case a grab the match
is back to even because they are set with higher health and insane power.
All bad stuff aside, now I'll let you know all the great things about the game.
They come back with a mix of some new and some old in the soundtrack, and all
the new has got a hint of classic inside of it with a different beat behind it,
making it pretty awesome. I don't care what anyone says about the Backstreet Boy
style menu and intro theme, I think it's sweet.
The look of the game just smacks you in the face saying, "Hey look, we're
cartoony, but we look amazing!". I don't think that they could have found a
better art style to make it look fresh and keep the classic look for all the
fans that have followed this game for the past 20 years. Between the smooth
animations and crisp graphics I'd definitely say this one's a winner for Capcom.
The next comments I wanted to get in there were all about the controls. It's not
just the regular controller you use for every game you play, so MadCatz and
Capcom teamed up and made 2 fairly different styles as an alternate to the
crummy D pad on the X box 360 and odd fighting layout on both regular controls.
They released the 6 button Sega Genesis style controller at a reasonable $39.99
which is a fantastic buy, and the arcade sticks for the more hard core player
for $69.99 on ps3 $79.99 on 360 and the ultimate tournament stick that is
$149.99 on both systems. So if you want to shake it up a bit you have quite a
few options.
A lot of people were also pretty shaky about the online play, because no
fighting game has really had that good online feel with the rooms and how to
find matches. Well, Street Fighter does is flawlessly. You can actually set it
so people can challenge you as you're playing through arcade mode. This option
is great whenever you've unlocked all the characters or have no interest in the
story mode. In a week, I've hit 100 matches only playing with that on for a few
hours. It just seems to work quite flawlessly. The new title and icon mode also
helps you separate yourself from anyone else using the same character as you
also. As you get better at the game you get new titles and icons, but they are
very difficult to obtain, sometimes it seems like the game is mocking you by
giving you ones like "Fledgling Fighter" or "Chump Fighter".
Of course all of you are wondering which version of this game is better. I have
to give the edge for this one to the Ps3. Simply because if you don't have the
cash to shell out for a special controller, the X box one just doesn't cut it.
It is the worst D pad that i have ever tried to use in a fighting game. The
overall game play is the exact same, and it runs smoother on both when
installed. Faster loads on the Ps3 and your Xbox doesn't sound like it's going
to explode.
Final Verdict
My final thoughts on SFIV would have to go very strongly in the favor of a
purchase. If you like fighting games that a button masher can't get lucky in
then this definitely is the one for you. Just please do not get out there and
use Ken in every single match, because there's nothing I enjoy more than
stomping all the rookies who think they rock because they can throw fireballs
and uppercut me. Why are you still reading this? Get out there and buy it!
Rating
9.75 out of 10
More reviews:
MetaCritic: 9.4/10
TestFreaks: 10/10
IGN: 9.3/10
Street Fighter IV Trailer
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