Prior to Street Fighter IV’s release, developer Capcom touted this iteration as not only a return to a more accessible fighting game, but also as a game with enough depth to appease the hardcore community.  Does Street Fighter IV accomplish this? “Yes”, with an “if” and “No”, with a “but.”

Aside from Street Fighter IV’s new and infused steroid look, the game plays pretty well. I mean “well”, in the sense, if you have never played a Street Fighter game since Street Fighter II. To this game’s credit, the story and inspiration is directly driven by the events which occurred in Street Fighter II. For those not privy, Street Fighter II is seen as the pinnacle for a well character balanced fighting game [although an argument could be made]. However, in Street Fighter IV [or chronologically Street Fighter 2.5], there is clearly balance issues the player will have to get use to. Sagat, Ryu and Ken are the most powerful players in the game, I know … big surprise. The secondary tier, should more than likely belong to Rufus, Blanka and the boss characters [Gouken, Akuma, Bison].  These are balance issues that ‘could’ be fixed with a patch, but after hearing of the imminent release of Super Street Fighter IV, I would not hold my breath. The tried-and-true comboes of Street Fighter II live and breath under the skin of this glossy imitation. And the Super and Ultra combos add depth and an element of flashy style to how fights are determined. I bad mouth the game from a hardcore standpoint, but even hardcore players would have to concede to how matches can turn on a dime and matches not feel like the game’s balance issues screwed the player over.

I have played a large majority of fighting games and have entered the occasional tournament to flex my nerd skill. Sure, I am no Justin Wong or Sanford Kelly, but I can hold my own against an average player. A point that many reviewers refused to address[or simply did not care to] would be the comparison between Third Strike’s parry system versus Street Fighter IV’s save system [a system where you press two buttons at the moment of getting attacked in order to absorb the blow and counter, with the hopes of recovering the energy lost]. Both add an additional layer of depth to their respective games making the ‘hardcoreness‘ a barrier of entry for the average player. If you hope to excel in this version of Street Fighter, you MUST learn how to use the save system.

The online play is not good, but what next-generation fighting game has done this correctly? Tekken: Dark Resurrection? Okay, but fighting games require split-second timing which online functionality for both the Xbox 360/PS3 infrastructures have yet to cater [not to equivocate, Capcom is just as guilty for not creating a solid network play environment]. At times, the matches are seamless, but this requires you to exit and enter the lobby numerous times to find an adequate connection; doubled with playing with someone who does not rage quit on account of being beaten to a pulp. Online play, avoiding the pun, is very hit and miss.

Seems like all these steps into the next generation of gaming has shown the lack of attention to detail. Chun-Li does not weigh 220 lbs. Why make her legs look like they weigh as much cumulatively? The sound design is amazing and the soundtrack is stellar. The “Indestructible” theme song now joins my “I Wanna Take You For A Ride” list* of annoying songs which gets stuck in your head. The storyline of Street Fighter is not usually what is pushed to the forefront when first mentioning the game, but it is appreciated the amount of time and effort constructing some sort of narrative in this iteration. The cheesy anime I could have done without, but it does add something positive to a game were you ‘could’ go from fight to fight beating people up for no reason [although that does happen as well and in some cases ... are welcomed].