Capcom’s Street Fight IV (SFIV), arguably one of the most anticipated fighters on current-gen console, is quite frankly, a weird one. With heavy-duty advertising creating unrivalled buzz surrounding its release, the game promised an all-star line-up of kick-ass characters as well as a revolutionary visual style that would blow minds and shatter eye-glasses. In fact, it’s hard to imagine any gamer left on earth who has not seen pictures of the new and improved muscle-ridden Ryu or the ink-splattering brush-a-plenty intro sequences which were being shown on every gaming magazine, website and tradeshow since the beginning of the year.

But promises aside, SFIV felt surprisingly sub-par as a complete package. Literally, it’s amazing how something with this much hype, promise and potential could feel underdeveloped as it did. But even so, it’s even more amazing that something supposedly so incomplete could still cause gamers to stay hooked to their TVs, skip work and ignore their families. In every sense of the word, SFIV is baffling… albeit in a good way if you’re a fighting fan.

Stellar Line-Up… of Old Characters

According to Capcom, the story SFIV takes place between SFII and SFIII, which explains why its cast consists mostly of old characters from SFII world view… with a grand total of 4 new (and quite forgettable) characters thrown in for comfort. As an avid SFII fan, this is both a good thing and a bad thing.

The good thing is: you’ll instantly be able to pick up the controller and play the game like an expert. There’s literally no learning curve as per say, and you’ll be fireballing and dragon-punching and scissor-kicking your opponents to kingdom come, just like the way you did a decade ago in the arcades.

The problem is: other than some experimenting with the new characters, you’ll literally be playing the same old game from way before the Millennium, albeit in glorious 3D. Barely 15 minutes into the game and this reviewer was having such a strong case of deja vu I really thought I got transported back in time to 1994.

Either way, the cast screams of laziness on the part of Capcom… or business ingenuity seeing how SFIV Strike II is now imminent.

2D Fighting at its Greatest… but with Flaws

If you are not familiar with the SF franchise, Street Fighter games are essentially one-on-one combat which takes place on a 2D plane. Compared to modern fighters which encourage button mashing, SF titles are more intricate in the sense that wildly hitting X or O would get you nowhere. Instead, SF gamers are required to master six variations of basic moves (light, medium and hard punches and kicks), a number of basic super moves (moving the controller nubs followed by the punch or kick buttons), variations of combos as well as the timely release of ultra moves.

SFIV follows the tradition set by its predecessors. Basically, you choose a character and use him / her to face other opponents in a best-of-3 matches. As you land successful attacks, you build up a super meter which allows you to use more powerful versions of your basic super moves, or an ultra move upon full-charge. When you get hit, you build up a revenge meter which, upon full charge, also allows you to perform an ultra move of slightly differing variation. The trick is to release your ultra moves at the right time, which will totally change the complexion of each match should it be successfully executed.

In every sense of the word, SFIV is the same SF title we’ve come to love during its evolution spanning close to 20 years.

But here comes the bad news: In SFIV, Capcom DECREASED the variations of super and ultra moves which have been built up over the years for each character. Simply put, each character now has LESS moves than ever before compared to the previous titles, which could only be a bad thing for a fighting game.

Let’s use the secret character Akuma as an example. In SFIII, Akuma was a super bad-ass with a multiple dragon punch ultra, a multiple fireball ultra, a 15-hit combo ultra, a wild-spinning leg kick ultra, as well as a secret ultra ground-explosion move which covers nearly the entire screen. In SFIV, the very same Akuma is left ONLY with the miserable 15-hit ultra which takes 5 buttons to perform. So if you can’t hit the 5 buttons properly like me, you’re pretty much screwed… and that means one less character for you to explore in the already limited line-up.

Now let’s look at the evergreen lone-wolf fighter Ryu, whose repertoire of ultra moves in the last SF series consists of multiple-fireball, an unblockable electric projectile, an enemy-absorbing spinning leg kick and most importantly, a stupendous dragon punch variation that only works in close range to absorb close to 70% of enemy’s hp. In SFIV, Ryu only has the multiple-fireball which is broken because it prompts opponents with an unnecessary 2 second cut-scene prior to activation.

Business ingenuity? Plain laziness?

These Capcom Guys are Obsessed with Muscles

Truth to be told, I wish SFIV was developed in 2D. Whilst the 3D muscles on each character look absolutely awesome, I believe I’m not the only one who noticed that overall visuals look much, much uglier compared to when SF was still in 2D. This is especially evident in the characters’ facial features, and quite significant on the female characters.

To put it in perspective, my favourite female characters Sakura now looks like a tanned, cross-dressing boy instead of the innocent high-school character she is supposed to be. The other female character, Rose, has turned from sexy gypsy mistress to drag-queen in an oversized fur coat. Even the male characters, like Ken and Guile, have this weird angry-stunned look on close-up. Compared to their excellent hand-drawn portraits, the 3D direction really does seem like a bad idea.

Frankly, I would be thrilled if SFIV was presented in the brush-stroke visual style in its intro. When 2D can look this good, there’s really no reason to go 3D. Isn’t it?

Honey, I Can’t Put This Down

Having said just about everything that made SFIV seemed like a rubbish game, here comes the part that this reviewer finds hard to admit.

Simply put, I can’t put this game down. Despite all the complaints about the downsized moves, the stale character line-up, the somewhat ugly 3D visual style; SFIV is unbelievably addictive to fighting gamers. The satisfaction that comes along with executing forward, down, down-forward + punch and hearing Ryu screams “Shoyuken!” as he lops an opponent airborne just feels so darn good… even after so many years.

And whilst single-play is already as addictive as they come; playability of SFIV, just like all other previous SF games, really shines when you have a group of buddies challenging each other or if you go online and starts fighting against other gamers. Beating the final boss Seth and seeing the ending movie is all well and good, but beating another human character? The ecstasy is second to none.

A Highly-Recommended Fighter

Ultimately, SFIV is really a must-add for any fan of fighting games. Like all other SF titles (yes, even the SF-Ex titles), SFIV is a game with substance and longevity, and one that will give you one heck of an experience whether you’re playing it casually or looking to challenge other players from around the globe.

The downside to SFIV is that it seems rather incomplete. The decrease in the number of moves per character is downright unforgivable, because the only reason this reviewer could think of is that Capcom is “saving” the moves for a sequel. And frankly, we could do with a lot more characters. Why not 8 new fighters instead of 4? Why not the entire roster from SFIII? Once again, I’m thinking the wily old foxes at Capcom are rubbing their palms in anticipations of the amount of money they could earn from suckers like me in sequels or worse still, “perfect version” of the game several months down the road.

In the end, a verdict has to be made, and PS3Hyper had no choice but to give Street Fighter IV a finger-numbing 4 out of 5. If there were more characters with complete sets of moves in this gem, it’d no doubt receive a perfect 5 easy just for its playability alone.

Posted in Reviews on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 4:12 pm |
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