Street Fighter 4

I’ve always been intrigued by the concept of the fighting genre. Many fighting games haves got rave reviews over the years, which has always made me feel like I was missing out. So when _Dead or Alive 4_ came out a couple of years ago, I got it, thinking that this was the beginning of, what I hoped to be, a new enjoyable chapter of gaming in my life.

I was terrible. I had no idea what was going on and could only just beat the arcade mode on easy. Combined with the fact that I didn’t have any hardcore gamer friends at the time, it really wasn’t any fun. I soon gave up on it, having acquired only a few of its achievements, which upset me greatly.

Fast forward a couple of years and I’m standing, with a friend, in Leamington Spa’s HMV store after receiving a hot tip that _Street Fighter 4_ was only £20 (£18 after student discount). After a slight discussion and some encouraging words on my behalf, _SF4_ was purchased by my friend. We ran home, threw the game into my Playstation and had an awesome time! _Street Fighter 4_ is fun and I mean really fun.

If you’ve played any of the previous _Street Fighter_ games, you’ll instantly recognise that _SF4_ is very much the same but with some new, shiny 3D graphics. And even though the franchise has been thrown into the 3D realm, it’s still a 2D fighter at heart. You can’t side-step into or out of the screen; you’re simply stuck in the same, flat plane.

The gameplay revolves around combinations of well timed button presses and analogue stick rotations which, once mastered, result in some seriously impressive attacks. There’s a healthy selection of characters, some new but mostly old, who each have a certain move set. Multiple characters share similar move sets meaning that once you’ve invested the time into one character, such as Ryu, you’re not completely limited when confronted with the character selection screen. The easiest to get started with has to be Ryu and Ken, the two lovely looking chaps on the game’s cover. If you master one of them, you’ve basically mastered 3 other characters as well.

On top of a wide array of standard moves, each character has a Super and Ultra move. These are difficult to do but the impact they cause, both visually and in terms of damage, make them worthy additions to the gameplay. These moves use up one of two bars that are clearly visible at the bottom of the screen. The Super bar fills up from you attacking the enemy, while the Ultra bar fills from you being attacked. This means that, although you can’t use Ultra or Super moves over and over again, they can be used to significantly change the outcome of the battle.

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The gameplay is simply fantastic and, even if you’ve never played a _Street Fighter_ game before, it’s very easy to understand the basics. Within an hour or two you’ll be pulling off moves that make you feel like a badass. And, although you might lose a lot of matches at first, you still feel like you’re accomplishing something against a better opponent. This is mainly down to the extremely responsive controls and the game’s incredible sense of visual feedback.

_Street Fighter 4_ is split into a number of different game modes, the most important being the Arcade mode and the comprehensive Online component. For some reason all fighting games like _SF4_ have identical Arcade modes; there’s a very dodgy story holding it all together, 8 matches and some crazy last boss fight. _Street Fighter 4_ is no exception. This doesn’t really matter though, as the main reason of any Arcade mode is to simply unlock new characters on completion and _SF4_ does this perfectly.

The online part also works very well. Lag can be an issue with any online game but even more so with this genre; timing is everything. Luckily _SF4_ seems to run smoothly, most of the time; once in a game there isn’t any noticeable slow down. In effect, it feels like you’re playing with someone sitting right next to you. Saying that, it can be difficult to get into a game, on occasion I’ve had to hit refresh repeatedly to find even one online match that I could play in. The online play does add a lot of depth to _Street Fighter 4_; the more you play online, the more points you get that go toward increasing your rank. You also unlock different titles and pictures along the way, which give your opponents an indication of how good you are.

As mentioned before, _Street Fighter 4’s_ presentation not only makes the game stand out significantly but is also vital to its gameplay. The graphics are stylised and crisp, and I’m extremely glad they didn’t go for the realistic approach, such as that seen in the _Dead or Alive_ series. The backdrops, on which the fighting takes place, are vibrant and full of life while the characters themselves standout due to their impressive cartoon shading. Although 3D and considerably more beefed up, the characters are still instantly recognisable from the previous games; diehard _Street Fighter_ fan boys/girls have nothing to worry about here. What’s also very effective is the change in camera perspective that occurs when a player successfully performs a Super or Ultra move. The camera zooms in on the character performing the move which, when combined with the game’s excellent art styling, makes the fact that you’ve actually pulled off a Super or Ultra even better.

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The audio comes across rather well also. There are some solid sound effects that draw inspiration from the franchise’s previous titles, especially in the voice department. You’ll hear “Hadouken!” many, many times but it never seems to get old. Plus, there’s an incredible title screen song, that doesn’t really make any sense but is incredible never-the-less.

_Street Fighter 4_ does have its issues. It can go from being very fun to extremely annoying very quickly, mostly if you start to lose. Maybe it’s me and I’m just a bad loser but sometimes the AI can be a bit cheap when playing the Arcade mode. This gets me very frustrated but, since I continue to play _SF4_, the game must be more fun than it’s not. If you don’t lose, you’ll have fun all the time!

On top of that, _SF4_ can be a bit dull when playing on your own. If you’ve got some mates online to play with or if people you live with have a slight gaming disposition, this won’t be a problem for you. Although not a bad game when playing solo, _SF4_ is really meant to be played with friends; when you’ve got a few mates round, _SF4_ is truly a blast to play.

Overall, _Street Fighter 4_ is a fantastic experience that people shouldn’t be put-off of simply because they haven’t played a fighting game before. This was my first time and _SF4_ was relatively gentle with me; introducing me to characters that I could get to grips with, while still offering some incredibly enjoyable combat. There’s so much depth and enjoyment to be had here that _Street Fighter 4_ is a must buy, especially if you’ve got similar minded friends willing to invest some time into THE best fighting game of this generation.