Street Fighter 4
Hadoken {ha-d'oh-ken} - The ancient art of gathering energy with your palms, then dispersing it in a blueish or redish flame. A truly talented skill that is not for the weak and is reserved for only.....well, half the cast of the Street Fighter franchise. Seems like now a days tossing out fireballs is all the rage and without a doubt gives you an upper hand in a street fightin' show down.
If you happen to have been living under a rock for the last 20 years or so, I give you props, that must be hella un-comfy. I also understand if you haven't heard of Capcoms flag ship fighting franchise Street Fighter. Street Fighter 4 is a welcome new take on the series that harnesses the power of the current gen consoles to give this tried and true fighter a sexy new face lift. Street Fighter 4 manages to completely encompass all that was great about its previous installments and really gives the franchise a massive injection of steroids straight to the butt cheek. The developers have increased the overall speed of the game and have added a few new gameplay features such as the Ultra Moves and Focused Attacks to really stick it to your opponent.
The entire cast of your Street Fighter 2 favourites are back in this revamped fighting game; except this time, they seem to be a bit more 'cut' and beefy looking. The characters are now in 3D but the fighting is still dished out on a two dimensional plane. No side stepping in this game. Just left, right, jump and duck. Just the way it should be. The environments now have more detailed 3D animations as they have been transitioned perfectly from 2D sprites to sexified 3D polygons. This stylish upgrade allows the characters to move like never before and the hand drawn classic artwork meshes perfectly with the character models.
There are your usual game modes such as Campaign and VS but now you can take your game online and challenge the rest of the Street Fighter fanatics to some 1-on-1 action. You also have the option to leave your game open so that others may join you. This reminded me of back in the day when you were playing on the arcade machine and some punk popped a few quarters in and kicked your ass. Ah the good ol' days. Leaving this option on at times can be slightly aggravating; especially when your kicking some ass and your game is interrupted. On that same token, it's a life saver when you're sucking. The solution however is simple. Turn the option off. There are also trial modes where you fight X amount of characters while a timer ticks down. You increase the timer by performing special moves and move on to the next round. Doing well unlocks alternate uniforms and other goodies All well and dandy.
The first thing you'll notice is the new overall polish of this game. There are shiny new particle effects and ink blots that smear throughout the entire game. It's a stylistic approach that really emphasizes the fact that you are playing the latest and greatest Street Fighter. Don't get it twisted; this is a reboot and one hell of an upgrade to the franchise. The hits and special moves are harder and faster than ever before and have never looked some damn sweet. It's a real treat to play this game, especially for the old school brawlers such as myself. I remember when a certain video game magazine came out nearly 2 decades ago and gave this game a 10 out of 10 for the SNES. I had to pick this Street Fighter 2 up and played it religiously day in and day out. It's so nice to site back down with an old friend and get to see how much we've both grown in last couple of years.
There were a few minor things the bugged the living crap out of me though. First off, I'm super pumped to play this bad boy and the way the game is introduced is practically a joke. There's a pretty kick ass looking intro video showing off the new ink blot/stroke style which looks amazing. However; Listening is a different story. The song that plays the entire time is laughable. I have no idea who's decision it was to play this song (which also plays during some matches) but it doesn't exactly scream "kick ass hardcore street fighter awesomeness" it's a cross between backstreet boys and god know what else. It is so 'wienerish' and lame I had to put the damn thing on Mute so I could actually enjoy the intro video. Another thing that really sucked were the intro videos to your characters when playing the campaign mode. The art work was pathetic. To accomplish such an amazing job when detailing out the actual character models and animations and then shit the bed to the tenth degree with the in-game videos is pretty weak.....last week. Another thing that should go without saying is that playing this game with the traditional XBOX 360 controllers D-Pad is hell on earth. If you happen to have a new controller with the improved D-Pad you should have an easier time. Other wise, do yourself a favour and pick up and Arcade Stick controller. You'll get your ass handed to you if you come across someone online with a more responsive controller.
With that being said, the core gameplay in Street Fighter 4 is right where you want it to be. There are unlockable characters and outfits to satisfy your obsessive needs and the online aspect adds an infinite amount of replay value to this highly stylized and polished fighter. Street Fighter 4 is a great fighter and is certainly worth your time.
