nad_masters's Full Review: Street Fighter Iv For Xbox360
Street Fighter 4 is one of the most anticipated games for old school Street Fighter brawlers. I've been a fan since the original Street Fighter II arcade game, as most fans are. There's been a drought of SF games (including those crossover VS games) for years, and finally a true 4th sequel for the series is out!
Graphics SF4 is Capcom's first foray into 3D, but they've kept their 2D fighter pedigree in check (EX series doesn't count, since it is by another company). While the backgrounds and characters are in 3D, the game play is on a 2D plane. Ultra Supers have a lot of flare, zooming into the character, and excellent angles to convey dramatic hits, proving the 3D nature.
The textures have a decidedly water painted look, making the game look unique. Due to the new style, the characters don't look sterile like in other 3D fighters. It's not exactly cartoony in look (although some of the backgrounds can be very coloful, giving it that look), but not exactly ultra realistic, either. I'd say it suits the Street Fighter franchise just fine going forward.
One of my favorite detail is the facial expressions on all the characters when getting hit, or when anticipating on getting creamed by an Ultra Super! The popping eyeballs are hilarious!
However, there are a few things that make me go "huh?" - for example, Blanka's hair. Is that hair or porcupine spikes? Even when rapidly moving around, his hair doesn't really flop or flow. It remains ridged, pointy, and hard! Maybe he's using hair gel - better stuff than Guile uses.
Sound The music isn't very classic sounding, or reminiscent to the old, but some of the classic music was remixed in a few menu selection areas. They do fit the stages and characters, however. A bit off topic here, but espite the fact that the stages have hints and flavor of belonging to a specific character, when playing a single player game, they are still random! I don't get that...
The English voice acting and opening music is very jarring, and doesn't give it the traditional Japanese Street Fighter feel. It made me feel removed from the game. However, you can switch to the Japanese voice and music, and everything sounds right again. A few characters still sound a bit off (Blanka for example), but it seems that character voices changes from game to game. Oh, why can't they make them sound more like the original to pull on your nostalgia strings?
Otherwise, the sound effects are excellent, giving every hit and punch a real meaty sound.
Surround sound isn't used much in this game, since it's mostly on a 2D play field, but they do get used on occasion. This is true in most menu selection, as some of the instruments in the selection music comes through the rear. In fact, I keep forgetting I have rear speakers until it comes to selecting my character!
Controls The XBOX 360 controller is a mess with this game. The digital pad is mushy and isn't very precise, while the analog joystick is surprisingly decent for circle-motion characters such as Ryu and Zangief. Charge characters such as Guile and Blanka are just harder to control with the analog, and the mushy digital pad.
The analog trigger buttons are strange to use since it's springy, while the digital trigger buttons are akwardly placed for easy access. It's doable in a pinch, but if you can replace the official XBOX 360 controller with something suitable, I would do it in a heartbeat.
First, there is MadCatz's FightStick and FightPad. I have not tried the FightStick, but the FightPad is a great upgrade to the stock XBOX 360 controller. The pad is good, but button layout is better. It is placed more like how you'd fine in the arcade (3 top, 3 bottom).
Despite good controls (we have two custom joysticks), the game seem to interpret a few things differently. For example, it's all too easy to bust out a super accidently, especially for those that are double semi-circular moves (such as super fireballs).
Chain combos (those that string standard attacks into combos) are tighter in timing. It's harder to pull off, but is very rewarding when you do. It takes a lot of practice, unlike Street Fighter Alphas, which chain combos are a normality. Standard combos that string one or two standard attacks, then a special attack are far easier to pull off in SF4, but then again, it's been like this since SFII Turbo. Characters I've always hated SF3 for getting rid of most of the classic characters. It just didn't have the SF feel. Thankfully, SF4 feels more like a part of the SF series since it focuses more on the classic characters, while new characters are added sparingly as in Super Street Fighter II.
There are many classic characters that still need to be unlocked, while the new characters are already selectable by default. You unlock characters by beating the game with a specific character, while others (such as Gouken, Akuma, and Seth - the boss) require special conditions.
Here's SF4's character roster.
Classic Characters: Ryu Ken Chun-Li E. Honda Blanka Zangief Guile Dhalsim Balrog (M. Bison in Japan) Vega (Balrog in Japan) Sagat M. Bison (Vega in Japan)
New Characters Abel Crimson Viper Rufus
Unlockable Characters Fei Long (unlocks with Abel) Sakura (unlocks with Ryu) Rose (unlocks with Bison) Dan (Unlocks with Sakura) Gen (unlocks with Chun Li) Cammy (Unlocks with C. Viper) Akuma (Unlock everyone except Gouken, fight him on arcade mode - need 2 perfects, defeat Seth with no continues, then fight Akuma). Gouken (Unlock everyone, fight him on acrade mode - need 2 perfecs and 3 Ultra finishes). Seth (Finish game with every character)
Online When looking for matches yourself (ranked or not), it is difficult to join in! You're only matched to one other person. Everyone seem to have no signal bars, and most of the time, I get the message "Unable to Play". Despite the nonexistant bars, we were able to join a few hosted games.
When playing in Acrade Mode, you can set the game to put you online. You play the computer like normal, but you may get challenged with someone wants to fight you. This gives it a very arcade-like feel.
You can play in Player Match, which is an unranked game for fun. You can keep playing the same person as long as they also wishes to play. This makes it easy for rematches.
There is also a Ranked Match, which give points when you win a match. Consequently, you loose points if you loose a match. Lastly, you cannot rematch the same person. Win or loose, you'll have to find another challenger, which is a hard thing to do given the problems of matching and joining. Also, this mode matches you with someone with similar skills based on the points.
Once in the game, there are 2 types of lag we've experienced. One is where the game may stop every once in a while. The other is that all inputs are delayed a few milliseconds, making it hard to counter your opponent's move, despite being a smooth game. Not all games have super bad lag, though, but there is always some form of lag you'll always feel.
As stated before, even on the best lag-free games, there is always milliseconds of delay on the controls.
Overall, the online experience is a disappointment.
The Upshot Despite the issues with online gaming, it's worth getting the game to play your friends in the same room, or even the computer. The training mode gives you a lot of freedom in settings for you to practice your moves, combos, and how the new game mechanics work.
Plus, what serious SF fan will let this game slide by?
ESRB Rating: T - TeenGenre: FightingFeatures: Street Fighter IV features a mix of returning favorites such as Ryu Ken Chun-Li and Guile along with n...More at Newegg.com
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