Super Street Fighter IV Review

30 Apr 2010 at 15:57:32 by Nathan Brown
Systems used to review this title: (360)

The timer shows 23 seconds, I am down to a sliver of health and have just been dizzied; things are not looking good. But my opponent makes a mistake and I recover, jumping away from Zangief’s Ultra just in time. A quick dive kick moves my Rufus back towards my foe. It hits. Combo into standing light kick. Standing hard punch. I have him almost in the corner; a Galactic Tornado pushes him right into it. Bouncing the Russian wrestler off the wall I launch my Ultra combo. Rufus becomes a flurry of fists and folds of flesh. The final hit connects, Rufus’s palms point towards the sky, his shout of ‘Goodbye!’ heralds the KO and my living room explodes with the sound of several excitable young men in raptures at what they’ve just seen.

Except, of course, it doesn’t. It’s just me, on my own, arcade stick on lap, like it has been for the 14 months or so since Street Fighter IV landed on my doormat. I have had hundreds of similar experiences and have had to endure them all completely alone. The wife doesn’t get it. The cat, if anything, is even more perplexed by human behaviour than normal. My glory is personal, private. Profound but ultimately a little empty.

While I have no regrets over the score I gave Street Fighter IV last year there was one thing missing. As part of the generation so blessed as to have grown up with the series, it was always more than just a one-on-one fighter. Because matches were played out with real human company, often in large groups. Winner stays on, pass the pad. Great escapes, miraculous comebacks, hilariously one-sided beastings; all were shared experiences and SFIV was a largely solitary experience in comparison.

Even before a fireball had been thrown in anger I knew Super Street Fighter IV was going to be one of my favourite games of all time, and purely for the introduction to the series of spectator lobbies. Super Turbo HD Remix has them; Blazblue has them. Dead or Alive Ultimate on the Xbox had them, for heaven’s sake. Now Super Street Fighter IV has them, and everything is right with the world.

Much of the prerelease focus has understandably been on the ten new additions to the character roster. Capcom have added someone for everyone: Dee Jay and T Hawk from Super Turbo; Cody, Guy and Adon from the Alpha series;  the wonderful Dudley, Makoto and Ibuki from the series’s former high watermark, Third Strike; and two brand new characters, Juri and Hakan. All those returning are among the most interesting characters in their respective games and come with movesets that will be largely as you remember them. There’s tremendous depth to them, too, with Dudley and Ibuki in particular blessed with multiple target combos. But of arguably greater import are the tweaks – some subtle, some not so subtle – made to the existing cast.

With his reputation for outlandish, highly technical combos, many were devastated to discover that SFIV’s Guile was a complete waste of space. On the evidence of his new-found strengths as showcased by arguably the best player in the world, Daigo Umehara, at the game’s launch event he is back to his best. Capcom’s general approach has been to buff the weaker characters rather than nerf the stronger ones, and while Sagat and Ryu have suffered the removal of some of the more ridiculous aspects of their arsenal – notably, being able to combo their Ultra when attacks from each player hit at the same time, or ‘trade’ – the decision to strengthen from the bottom rather than weaken from the top is the correct one. Some must sound so minor to the uninitiated, but will be music to the ears of the hardcore: Vega’s old Ultra hits on the way up, Ken’s dash is faster, Rose can combo Soul Throw off Soul Reflect. As in real life, such tiny things can have such significant consequences; at least that’s what they keep telling me.

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