The move to 3D visuals plus being the first real sequel in some time makes Street Fighter IV have a lot to live up to in the eyes of genre veterans. With a large focus on being more accessible, Capcom is aiming to drawn in new players to the world of Street Fighter. But is this the next big thing in the fighting game genre, or merely too good to be true? Obviously I can’t answer that in this paragraph, else I’d spoil the rest of this article. So let’s force you to read even more text to find out.

WIN

• Lag is once again rarely an issue, as it seems Capcom have taken a page out of their Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix book, and yeah that’s a book with a long title. SSF2THDR seems a little smoother, but that’s probably to be expected when comparing the 2D classic to the latest version. Based on my experience, if you’re lagging then it’s either a problem with you or your opponent’s connection more than anything else.
• The new visual style looks fresh enough to feel like a sequel, while familiar to the point you’ll reminisce about those good old Street Fighter II days. One can’t help but snigger at the comical stage backgrounds as there’s always something odd going on while you fight. Little things like Ryu’s Hadoken, Ken’s Shoryuken and Bison’s Psycho Crusher are a treat to see unleashed with the enhanced visuals.
• One way the game has been made more accessible to newbies is the revenge meter which when full, allows you to unleash an ultra combo. The meter only increases when a player takes damage thus giving players who’re being dominated a chance to turn the tables on their enemy. Experienced players will have Focus Attacks to play with too; these are able to absorb one hit and counter-attack. Focus Attacks have a variety of uses from absorbing damage to more advanced tricks like using it to connect combos.
• Another addition for accessibility purposes is the trial mode, which is basically a tutorial guide for each character. It starts by asking you to perform basic attacks with your character of choice, and upon meeting those requirements you will be given more challenging conditions. Trial mode is a great way to learn a character’s key abilities and combos. It’s ultimately for those who don’t take the game seriously enough to scour online message boards for this kind of information, therefore levelling the playing field that little bit more.

FAIL

• Online matches are limited to having only two people in a lobby, say goodbye to those six player sessions where the winner stayed on in SSF2THDR. The upcoming free ‘Championship Pack’ downloadable content promises to fix this with a tournament mode. Until then however, you’ll only be able to enjoy the game online with one friend at a time. Tournament mode could do more than just fix it though, since it could enable us to play multiple matches at once.
• Nine out of the twenty-four characters need to be unlocked by playing through arcade mode whilst meeting specific conditions. Although unlocking things like icons and titles for your in-game profile are acceptable, I shouldn’t have to go through the trouble of unlocking actual characters this way. To acquire Akuma, you need to first unlock a range of characters, and then play through arcade mode whilst earning perfects and ultra combo finishes in specific matches. Having to jump through this many hoops just to unlock the character I want to enjoy the game with felt like nothing more than a waste of my time.
• When selecting your character online, many opponents will wait for you to pick someone before making their own selection. This is known as ‘counter-picking’, and can become fairly irritating in many cases. Surely it couldn’t be too difficult to screen an opponent’s character choice until after both players have confirmed who they’re using. The problem with counter-picking is that your opponent can select a character that may be naturally advantageous against yours.

Street Fighter IV can best be described as a combination of Street Fighter II and III. It does add its own ingredients to the recipe with the revenge meter and focus attacks, thus adding upon that sense of familiarity while bringing in new elements as previously stated. The new visual style of the game quickly grew on me, and going back to previous iterations of the series made me realise how they paled in comparison visually. The roster is quite sizeable but doesn’t really overwhelm you, allowing players to find at least one character that they’re comfortable with in no time.

Besides the usual arcade, training and versus modes which we’ve come to expect in a Street Fighter game; time trial, survival and the previously covered trial mode are also thrown in as a series first. All of these features coupled with the low price tag turn the game into a no-brainer for fighting game enthusiasts. Most importantly however, it lets new players give the fighting game genre a chance they may not have taken previously.

Street Fighter IV is developed by Capcom and published by Capcom. It is available now on the Arcade, PC, Xbox 360 (version tested) and PlayStation 3. The HORI fighting stick EX2 was primarily used during this game’s testing. Nemphtis has previously played Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix from this series.