Game review: Street Fighter IV 

Source: GamefreaksStreet Fighter IV

Platform: Xbox 360, PS3

Publisher: Capcom

The granddaddy of all fighting games gets its first numerical sequel in almost a decade - that's an event that no fighter fan could pass up.

With a series as revered as this, to tweak anything can descend into blasphemy but Street Fighter IV strikes a fine balance between old and new.

I have to admit to having lost track of all the modified sequels to the various Street Fighter iterations of the past, what with all the 'turbos', 'second strikes', 'alphas' and what have you. But slapping a big old 'IV' behind the name is a sure way to mark this new entrant as the one to take notice of, and it earns that distinction quite admirably.

Street Fighter is the root of all fighting games, and to this day remains the purest expression of the old school formula. The series proper never took the step to true 3D gameplay, even when all the cool kids were doing it, and it's still the most welcoming of all the technical fighting series out there. A total newcomer can pick up the control, mash away having no idea what they're doing, and still have fun.

The console version of Street Fighter IV plays almost identically to its arcade equivalent, offering a few extra game modes and a slightly modified character roster. Playing arcade mode takes your selected character through a series of battles as their back-story slowly unravels.

The narratives are technically set between the SFII and SFIII timelines, but the anime-style clips rarely reveal anything interesting about a character and can by and large be ignored.

Online play includes the standard sort of player-matching expected of most fighting games these days, in which one can choose to battle for points that will effect your global ranking, or just for fun. There is also a raft of downloadable content available already, with more to follow, which feature alternative costumes for various characters.

The roster for the original arcade edition of Street Fighter IV offers all characters from SFII as well as four new faces. Abel is a French amnesiac who has mastered a range of martial arts; Crimson Viper is an American spy with a penchant for form-fitting clothing and a serious cell phone habit; Rufus is a flabby egg of a man with a grudge against good old Yankee Ken; and El Fuerte is a painful Mexican luchador stereotype.

The console version features a slightly extended roster including Cammy, Gen, and Sakura among others. Also, boss characters Seth and Gouken, who are computer-only characters in the arcade version, are playable on console along with perennial favourite Akuma.

The Street Fighter style of combat is a revered tradition, and veering from it greatly was never an option, but the developers have found a clever way of introducing a new dynamic, without screwing with what already worked.

The Focus Attack system provides players with precise-enough timing to absorb an opponent's attack and unleash a counterattack.

This system gives the brawls more of a back and forward sway than the previous technique, which primarily focused on large strings of combos. The key to mastering Focus Attacks is to pre-empt an opponent's move, which compels competitors to learn each other's styles thoroughly.

This is not to say that combo-based combat is off the table entirely. The game introduces a new type of move labelled Ultra Combo. After taking enough hits a player's 'Revenge Bar' will be filled enough to unleash a string of devastating, cinematic attacks causing heavy damage.

The game's production design steps up to the high standards set in other aspects of this polished game. Characters and environments have been fleshed out in 3D, but the style is such that they maintain an inky, hand drawn look that suits the action perfectly.

Summary
Street Fighter IV does a superb job of juggling the legacy requisites of such a hallowed series with the creative impulse to improve. Every addition to the game serves the overall spirit of the series as a whole, just as any good sequel should.

This review bought to you by Gamefreaks.