Street Fighter 4

Rating T

Score 9.5/10

There are games that are amazingly fun to play; then there are games that are groundbreaking, influencing every game coming after. Street Fighter was one of those games. Over two decades later, Street Fighter 4 hit the shelves and it’d be a lie to say it changed a great deal. This game is available for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and will be released soon for PC. It’s even on Arcades (Japan only); that’s truly a representation of how classic this game has become.

Everything remains primitive in this game. The story is about a tournament, which everyone wants to enter. Depending on the character, you might be entering this tournament for vengeful or peaceful reasons. Some want to destroy the competition; some just want the bragging rights. Some know combatants that entered the tournament they want eliminated, others just want everyone to shout their name.

The controls are the same as all gamers remember – unless you change the controller settings, of course. You have high, medium, and low kicks, and high, medium, and low punches. This, plus different control stick movements, makes different combos and special moves. Special moves and combos are different for each character and since there are about two dozen characters, you have a lot of combos to memorize.

It goes without saying that the gameplay stays the same. You fight until someone gets knocked out and there’s a health bar showing how close (or far) you are from a KO. Like in the other Street Fighters, you can do Super Combos if your “Revenge Gauge” is halfway full. If it’s full, you can do an Ultra Combo. They’re very similar, but one is more powerful and lengthier. There’s also a new Focus Attack, where you get hit and counter. This will no doubt become a staple in the Street Fighter series.

The graphics aren’t the best, but it’s obvious they’re not intended to be. The game has a unique hand-drawn look to it, while characters are still in 2.5-D (3-D polygons and textures, 2-D environment). This unique look gives Street Fighter 4 extra style and is great visually.

Once you master a character, it’s time you showed the online world your skills. Online is fun and simple, as it should be. It’s obvious hardcore gamers will get a lot of replay value from this, while rookies will be destroyed. The most important part is getting better and playing again, and you can only get better by playing again.

Fans of the series already have this game and are proud owners. They know Street Fighter is one of the, if not the, greatest fighting series in the world, and don’t even need a review to confirm it. New fans should be prepared for the fact that they’re going to lose a lot until they find a character that suits their style, and memorize some combos. Once they do, it’s truly a nostalgic experience that fighting fans will love.