PS3 Review – Street Fighter IV
Old school fighting fans rejoice, the King of Fighters has returned! I myself am a fan of 2D fighters, and have been my whole life. Being one of the many who spent thousands of quarters on such classics as Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, I for one am extremely pleased Capcom stuck to the original formula (unlike Midway). Street Fighter fans will feel right at home with Capcom’s latest iteration of the series. The fighting mechanics have stayed the same, which is great. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Sure, a few people might disagree since they were hoping for a revamped fighting system, but sticking with something tried and true was the best bet for Street Fighter IV.
The new look fits perfectly with the 2D fighter. 3D comic book-esque models kick, punch, and hadouken as smooth as can be. The stages themselves are an updated throwback to some old favorites, with a few new stages mixed in. However, the new stages seem to lack the character the old ones do. Maybe I was just feeling nostalgic. Special effects such as flames look great and fit well with the cartoony new style. Characters have plenty of animated detail, with one such example being Rufus’ hypnotic belly jiggles. It’s easy to see that Street Fighter IV received much more than just a fresh coat of paint. It’s been refined and perfected.
The gameplay is just what you would expect from a Street Fighter game, including tight controls that respond on a dime. Combos take skill to perform, and practicing your combos makes for ‘perfects’ at the end of each round. Super combos and Ultra combos make a triumphant return, and the animations get a next-gen treatment. Of course you can always up your game by getting a SFIV arcade pad, or a Street Fighter-branded controller, but in all honesty the DualShock 3 feels as though it was made for this series. The dpad being in the ‘proper’ position, unlike the other console’s version, should make owners of both consoles choose the PS3 version hands-down.
The characters themselves are full of spunk, with a cast that is smaller than recent iterations, but focused and full of variety. Even Ryu and Ken, who use the same martial arts, feel very different in Street Fighter IV. Make sure you play through the entire roster to find out who best fits your fighting style. Doing so will help you when playing online so that you can take advantage of your opponents’ weaknesses. My only complaint is with Seth, the final boss, as he’s basically a big, blue doofus. Seth is boring as can be. No personality, no emotion, nothing really memorable other than his cheap moves, his devastating Ultra combo, and maybe that silly spinning yin-yang in his gut.
The game features a robust amount of modes, including the mainstay arcade mode, which can be spiced up a bit by enabling ‘Arcade Request’. Just like in the arcades, a random person can challenge you to a match while playing through Arcade Mode. The only difference is that these are online opponents.
The Challenge Modes provided the most fun for me, and also add some replayability to the game since they unlock titles, extra colors, and personal actions as you proceed through the tiers. Although, I must say I would have liked more than 2 available color options available from the start. Online works flawlessly with easy match-making and quickly-responding servers.
Street Fighter IV is a very polished and complete game. It certainly appeals to fans of the series, fans of old school fighters, and fans of good fighting games. There isn’t much to pick apart, other than maybe not enough new gameplay mechanics being introduced, which will leave many feeling like it’s the same old Street Fighter that received an aesthetic makeover. But it does manage to be accessible to those who have never played Street Fighter, and challenging to those who have.
PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score
Not enough new game mechanics. Revitalizes the series by making it more accessible. |  |
33 Responses to “PS3 Review – Street Fighter IV”
great review Sev. I rented the game and absolutly suck at it. Just can’t seem to get the moves down, but then again I’ve never been that good at fighters
Great review Sev. Yeah I got the game as well. It’s beyond hard to me. I suck at fighters, but I do find the game very fun.
Awesome review. This game is a must have for any fighter fan. And even for guys like me that dont really care for fighters anymore but grew up playing SF, this is a must have.
I love the direction this game went, but kept it very traditional at the same time. I would highly recommend this to everyone.
Cheers
Great Game, I just need some time to practice. The only problem for me is online, I can never find a player with a good signal strength.
I can see how people would feel there is nothing new, but if you spend some time with the game it’s very deep and plays differently than every other Street Fighter that is out. I think most people who casually pick up the game will just opt to play it like SFII though..
http://www.iplaywinner.com
I might have to rent this as well… I have been a Tekken fan for the longest time, never liked virtua fighter. Liked Soul Calibur. How does this rank up?
This game looks fantastic…nice review by the way sev!!
I am really enjoying this game! Its super challenging. I especially like the challenge-trial mode. I have always been a huge Tekken fan. There is a huge difference in gameplay. In Tekken you can hit buttons really fast to do moves and with Street Fighter there is a certain timing I am just getting down. This is a great review. It is an absolute treat for old school fighter fans. A little on the cheesy side… but hey what fighter isn’t?
I’ll get it when it drops in price, im not that big a fan of these type of fighters but it looks great and i’ll probably get destroyed.
I love the image
Great review, just received my copy yesterday!
Such a fun game , but Seth sucks, Or I do , he is a huge pain in the butt to beat on any difficulty.
Guess that’s why he’s the boss
Awesome review, Sev. I’ve been playing this game nearly non-stop for the past two or so weeks. Seth is a bit cheesy in that he hasn’t got any particularly memorable personality (as stated in your review), but he is a huge pain in the ass if you haven’t played him enough. Now he’s pretty predictable and I can defeat him a lot sooner than before.
F’in awesome game
I’m kind of surprised you didn’t mention the horrifying story and anime for the story mode, which makes absolutely nooooo sense unless you have the CE w/ the supplemental bluray disc, this is another ‘fault’ of multiplatform, Capcom could have easily fit the entire movie onto the PS3 disc, but I guess the extra $20 and keeping platforms equal is what matters to capcom.
I’m still kind of sad that they don’t have a parry system like they used to, yes there is a focus but that doesn’t beat the age old ‘spam the light punch’ that’s been a bane to anyone who has played with Blanka or Honda.
The online is could have been much better, especially since SF:HD Remix has a tournament mode, why wouldn’t this one, it’s a glaring omission that is hopefully rectified w/o the pains of extra $ for DLC. I have no problem paying for DLC, but I am really against a company intentionally holding content back for more money on a game that is already $60+.
man I love this game! any word on downloadable characters in the future?
Hus90 There won’t be any, it was stated several times by the producer, only costumes, no new characters.
This game was really cool with good graphics and gameplay.
its to crossover friendly, after a few rounds online thats all everybody did.
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regardless since the update the game is slightly improved.
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the online is bad.. people spam ALL the time!
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