Street Fighter IV (Xbox 360, PS3)

Back around 1993, Street Fighter 2 revolutionized games as we know them. A simple, yet insanely innovative premise involving 8 characters with multiple fighting styles would spark off a flood of copycats and clones for years to come.  Nowadays, the popularity of fighting games has somewhat gone down, with less and less games of this type being released.  Enter Street Fighter IV, Capcom’s latest entry into the franchise that seeks to be just as revolutionary as its previous incarnations.

GRAPHICS 10/10

I can’t really begin to describe the graphics and do them any type of justice. Art like this has to be witnessed, and to be honest, even screen shots do not do the graphics justice. The fluid motion of the characters and the smooth frame rate all showcase the level of polish that went into this game. When it comes to games, I’m a straight up polish whore. Maybe that came out wrong, but bottom line is I really appreciate those little details (as in “polish” not “Polish”)

Perhaps the best way I can describe the graphics is a cross between cell shading and something thought up at Pixar. The field of play is classic 2d, but the pleasantly distracting backgrounds are full on 3d.  When watching someone else play the game, its just as easy to become lost in the backgrounds as it is with watching the actual fight.  The particle effects are flat out amazing.
Watching Ryu throw a Hadoken and seeing the blue flames flow around an opponent as they block it is just flat out impressive.  The fire effects are also pretty spot on. You’ll be busting out Ken’s Shoryuken or spitting yoga flame just to watch people burn. 

GAMEPLAY 10/10

Capcom has so much experience with this series and it seems they’ve finally perfected the gameplay. The tightness of the controls is just like back in the SF2 days. Factor in the ability to launch super and ultra combos with the original SF gameplay and you’ve got a fighting game with endless depth.  This new streamlined combat just has a sense of speed that other fighting games can’t match.  There is something to be said about the raw intensity of being confined to fighting in a 2d arena.  Plus, thanks to some new twists on some of the classic taunts, players can serve their beatdowns with a side of smack talk.

Perhaps the biggest effect on gameplay is the type of controller you are using. Graphically and functionally, the PS3 and 360 versions are nearly identical. Playstation has a better controller for this game IMO, however the trade off is you are playing online using PSN instead of xbox live. They have arcade sticks and fight pads for both systems so that you can find one to your liking.  I actually tried out the official SF fight pad and I still prefer the PS3 controller. The arcade stick is decent, but the Playstation style controller has always been my bread and butta.  Online play has been generally pretty smooth, even on PSN most of the time, with little to no lag.

SOUND 8/10

As much as the game has advanced overall, the sound is almost identical to the past games, even SF2! You would think that nowadays the series would at least offer some beefier guitar riffs between rounds, but nope. Here you get the same old music that I can only refer to as ‘Japanese Elevator Techno’. The same old familiar voice overs for the special moves are present also and you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the voice actors or even the voice recordings from previous games. It’s quite possible the voice audio is ported directly from SF2. Aside from that, the impact and motion sound effects are pretty spot on. When you crack somebody with an uppercut, you can really hear the fist smashing into the opponent. You can probably turn down the music fx and jam your own custom soundtracks, though I haven’t tried it yet as the cheesy music brings me back to the good old SF2 days.

OVERALL 9/10

This game reminds me of those comics or games where a normal villain gets a cyborg suit and becomes super powerful. Street Fighter 2 has put on the cyborg suit and become Street Fighter IV to use its new found upgraded powers to elevate the level of ass kicking around the world. This game takes the original formula and not only tweaks it, but advances it with modern technology and makes the 2d fighting genre actually matter again. While not as innovative as SF2, Street Fighter IV is leaps and bounds above most other fighting games in terms of quality and refinement.

This is truly the Street Fighter game that fans expect and deserve in 2009. If you’re not already a fan, this is definitely the game that will make you one, even if you’re only a spectator marveling at the gorgeous and fluid graphics. Fighting game and Street Fighter fans I’m sure have already picked this one up, but if by chance you haven’t yet, you definitely should. The current edition of the game is just the flash kick in the ass that the series needed to get back on top of the fighting game heap.