Review: Street Fighter IV (360)

For a start this is considered more akin to Street Fighter 2 than 3. The latter never really clicked with many, the parry system become a love/hate thing, basically a reversal move that could counter your opponents attacks, it required skill and timing that most who wanted a quick fix never understood. Ditching the majority of characters also never really sat well with the SF veterans. SFIV takes the series in the other direction, including a lot of the old favourites and only bringing in a few new faces. So along with the likes of Ken, Sagat and Zangief you can welcome C.Viper, Abel, El Fuerte, Rufus and the unlockable Gouken. Also there’s the new boss character, Seth.

Seth being our one and only hate with the game. This is isn’t because of his rather weak sounding name, but because it falls into the age old Capcom boss strategy of having someone who doesn’t follow the rules of the game. Let’s use Bison as an example. In SF2 he was a great final boss because not only was he challenging, but he always felt that his move set was equal to all the other fighters in the roster. Get too close to Seth and he has some of the most ridiculously overpowered moves imaginable. Make a mistake and he’ll hammer you with moves before teleporting randomly around the screen and if you’re unlucky he’ll teleport right next to you and repeat the process.

We don’t normally give out tips in reviews, though for this boss we’ll make an exception. Just make sure to keep your distance. Whenever you’re far away he always does his weak attacks (sonic booms mainly) then when there’s an opening jump in with a flying kick, followed by a leg sweep before jumping back out and repeating the process. The best tactic given would be to not treat him like another normal opponent, he’s so over powerful that you’ll need to use cheap tactics to beat him, which is our main complaint with the character. Luckily no other character on the roster can be considered cheap, all having a suitable way of being dispatched. Although it can be infuriating when you come up against Akuma who spams the screen with fireballs, break his defence and he’s incredibly vulnerable. It’s all about the practice.

We previously mentioned the ditching of the parry system seen in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, well it’s got a replacement in the form of focus attacks. These aren’t crucial to enjoying the experience, they are however a good move for expert Street Fighter players to get to grips with. By pressing the medium and light kick together you charge up a move. While charging you can absorb one hit and once you’re fully charged you can unleash a move that breaks a block leading your opponent open to a fearsome combo. In the hands of a top Street Fighter player this can be deadly and even for newcomers it’s a simple system to understand if you want to put the time in to learning the games little intricacies.

And when learning the game there’s no better place than online. The lack of lobby support is disappointing, especially when HD Remix did it so well, but it doesn’t detract from a great online experience. With a bar showing how good the connection is the chance of a lag crippled game is small and the game is packed with players making it incredibly easy to find a game. Like all online titles the experience really depends on the players. And while we haven’t had too many problems, others have experienced an abundance of quitters, who once they realise they’re losing quickly turn off the console before the KO sounds. Something that the game doesn’t punish for, you don’t even get the win, all you can do is send them bad feedback while they’re free to do it again.

For single player japes you do have a lot of content. The Arcade mode is fine (until you reach Seth) and required if you want to unlock all the characters, something that many people have complaints about. Challenge mode also provides a nice distraction, but really for us it’s all about the online thrills. It’s also worth noting that we’ve been using a Hori Stick, EX2 to be precise, which is most definitely the way to be playing. The standard controller is far too imprecise for those that really want to improve their game. Charge characters, such as Guile and Honda, who require buttons to be held down before performing a move aren’t largely affected the standard controller, but those who fall under the “shoto” category, the characters that require half circle forward motions  (Ryu, Ken etc) are far more difficult to be mastered. They can fetch a pretty penny though, especially on the online auction sites. A shame that you can’t get one packaged with the game.

Street Fighter IV is everything we could have hoped for and more, and we haven’t even mentioned the glorious visuals and excellent music. Even the intro, which has come under some scrutiny for it’s incredibly cheesy song is suitably epic. And although it’s only February this could very well become our game of the year. You’ll have to ask us again in December, we might still be playing it.

Rating: 9 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver