Street Fighter 4 review

Street Fighter 2 was the definitive beat ‘em up of the 90’s and arguable nothing has come close since, despite many copycats and wannabe successors. Street Fighter 4 returns us to the core elements that made the original title such a hit and after months of its release in the arcades of Japan, Capcom have released it on PS3 and XBox 360, with a PC version coming soon.

This HD version boasts a 2.5D look - the characters and backgrounds are modelled in 3D but the battles play out in two dimensions only. The finely balanced gameplay is back and the six-button control mechanism is still here - three punches and three kicks.

Special moves are done in the same way, with combinations of button presses and D-pad moves. A Super Combo bar fills up on the bottom of the screen allowing you a choice of more powerful moves.

Some combos have more powerful EX versions which use up some of the bar. Alternatively, you can wait until the bar is full and perform a Super Combo which is does a hell of a lot more damage and looks good too.

Your other option is to wait until you’ve taken a pounding and your Revenge bar is charged up, then unleash an Ultra Combo which allows you to pull off a victory from the brink of defeat and has got to be seen to be believed.

Another new move is Focus Attack wich, when you press Medium Punch and Medium Kick together cushions a blow from your opponent and strikes with a counter attack.

The old characters retain all of their original charm while the new ones add variety to the game. Abel is a French martial arts expert, Crimson Viper is a sophisticated lady with some slick moves, Rufus is a pretty damn good Kung Fu Panda impersonator, El Fuerte is a crazy Mexican wrestling chef and finally the new boss Seth, whose powerful Ultra Combo move makes him extremely tough to beat.

Capcom have well and truly gone back to basics with Street Fighter 4, and it has paid off. The best beat ‘em up by a country mile.

9.5/10

Comments

I’ve really enjoyed playing SF4. Unlike previous Street Fighter games, I think they made the characters relatively balanced. I like the fact that there is a wide variety of difficulty settings for the beginner up to the expert. The online play is a solid experience as well.

—
Frank B.

Balanced? That’s an overstatement. The game is KIND of balanced, but you can still get your ass whooped pretty badly if you’re a highly skilled user of Fei Long Vsing a Highly Skilled Ryu at almost the same level.