Street Fighter IV has a lot to live up to. It's the first 'numbered' game in the legendary franchise since 1999's Street Fighter III: Third Strike, a game that was widely considered to be the ultimate 2D fighter, one of the most beautifully balanced and technically proficient fighting games ever made. It was also widely considered to require expertise beyond the ken of mere mortals, and although this could produce some truly memorable moments, its complicated parry defense and super arts combo system made it a game to be intently studied rather than picked up and played. In this, Capcom failed to reproduce the mentality behind the legendary Street Fighter II, which appealed to all ages, skills and gamers. Has Street Fighter IV managed to recapture that elusive audience?
The first thing that strikes you about Street Fighter IV is the visual style. Although there have been 3D Street Fighters before, in the shape of the black-sheep EX series, you've never seen one quite like this. The game has embraced cartoon influences and rendered its characters as big chunky caricatures, ripped straight out of an action figure design manual. It's a very effective move, the style instantly suiting and bringing a new dimension to familiar designs, with it particularly benefiting the more outlandish and comic characters. The thick lined design is accompanied by a distinctive trademark in the form of splashes and splatters of black ink that fleck the screen upon powerful attacks or impacts, an effective stylistic touch and a throwback to the game's original calligraphic trailer. The background stages are slightly more realistic, but are without fail strongly detailed and highly animated, with little touches like children cheering on a battle or tourists taking pictures breathing life into every vignette. The upshot of all of this is that Street Fighter IV is an amazing looking game, with a style and flair all of it's own.
The game can be stunningly pretty
However, good looks count for nothing in a fighting game if you don't have decent mechanics (take a bow Rise of the Robots). Despite the full 3D graphics, all the combat in Street Fighter IV take place on a strictly 2D plane. Combat is largely built on the bones of the classic Super Street Fighter II Turbo model, with parrying and multi part super combos eschewed in favour of standard blocking and a single super per character. The game remains finely balanced, and it's a lot harder to win by mashing buttons than many other fighters. Exquisite control has always been a SF mainstay, and the precision and feeling of contact have been well replicated here.
A welcome addition however is the inclusion of the EX special moves first seen in Street Fighter III: Second Impact. This divides the super gauge into four separate segments. Once a segment is full, a player can use it to enhance a special move by pressing two buttons instead of one. These EX moves are the same as the originals but more powerful, often adding an additional hit or an unblockable state. This creates a nice risk/reward conflict - do you EX your moves to boost their power or save your meter in hopes of unleashing a super combo once full?
The first major tweak Street Fighter IV makes to this system is the inclusion of the Focus attack. Designed to replace the parry system from Street Fighter III, this is a much simpler concept that merely involves holding medium punch and medium kick. This puts you in a charged state in which you can absorb one attack. Releasing the buttons triggers a unique attack. Holding the buttons long enough will result in the attack auto triggering, but as an unblockable version. Both attacks will leave the opponent to crumple to the floor, but if you're fast enough, the split second they are stunned is long enough to launch a new combo.
The focus attacks are where the signature 'ink splash' style is most obvious
Though the focus attack sounds simple in principle, it's a minor stroke of design genius, a simple and elegant way to counter move spamming and turn the tide on an opponent. It's far from invulnerable - certain moves can break it and it will only absorb the first hit of any multi-hit combos - but it's an invaluable skill to lean. Newbies will appreciate the protection it offers, while high level players are already discovering further ways it can be useful (for cancelling out of extended combo strings for example).
The other big innovation Street Fighter IV offers is the Revenge gauge. Unlike the Super gauge, which fills when you land attacks, the Revenge gauge fills only when you are damaged. After you've taken a certain amount of damage, the gauge enters 'Ultra' mode. At this point, the grandstanding Ultra combos become available. By far the most spectacular moves in Street Fighter IV, these combos are hugely damaging, often outlandish and are accompanied by fantastic swoops and pans of the camera. Despite the eye candy on show they're also another important part of the tactical game, allowing comebacks from nearly impossible situations. In another neat move, the revenge gauge will continue to fill even after the trigger point has been reached, and the fuller the gauge the more damaging the combo becomes. The upshot of this is that it's rare to see a match that doesn't have one of these mighty combos unleashed at some point, and improbable turnarounds suddenly become much more likely. They're not impossible to avoid or even to block, so there's still skill required to implement one successfully, and they offer tremendously satisfying payoffs.
Ultra finishers are hugely spectacular.
A good solid roster is the other essential for any fighting game, and Street Fighter IV has a strong lineup. All 12 of the original World Warriors from Street Fighter II return, and are joined by four brand new characters, grappler Abel, tubby karate expert Rufus, businesswoman Crimson Viper and Lucha Libre wrestle El Fuerte. The new characters fit in well for the most part, and the console versions are graced by the presence of six additional characters - Cammy and Fei-Long from Super Street Fighter II ,and Gen, Sakura, Rose, and the evergreen Dan Hibiki from the Street Fighter Alpha series. Also present and eventually playable are Seth, the game's new boss, the long time hidden boss character Akuma and a first ever appearance for Ryu and Ken's master Gouken (aka Sheng Long) to give a total roster of 25. For the most part the characters are highly varied and offer plenty of different moves and techniques, although it's possible that there are a few too many Shotokan (Ryu-style) fighters. Nevertheless it's a good solid lineup and every player should find a fighter they are fond of.
Despite the addition of Rufus, Dan retains his crown as king of joke
characters
Most of the standard fighting game modes are offered, with the main attraction being arcade mode, the usual series of fights followed by an encounter with Seth, the game's big bad. This however is one of the game's most serious weak points. While offering a wide range of difficulties to sit all sorts of players, the fact remains that Seth is hideously overpowered and even on the easiest difficulty defeating him is often a hugely frustrating task. Bad boss design has plagued fighting games for years (Tekken 5's Jinpachi is a notable recent example) but Seth is the worst of the lot, and sucks a great deal of enjoyment out of the arcade mode.
You'll say nasty words about him
Elsewhere the game chooses to mix up the traditional Survival and Time attack modes, instead setting a ladder of challenges with certain conditions, such as enhanced defence or no ultra combos. These come in medium and hard varieties, with the hard versions having online leaderboard support. There's also a trial mode designed to teach you the various moves and combos of each character, which is appreciated but a little bare-bones. A more dedicated tutorial wouldn't have gone amiss. Despite all the tick boxes having been filled, I still would have liked to see some additional features. There's no support for saving or replaying matches for example, and I personally think a persistent mission based mode, like Soul Calibur's could have greatly increased longevity. There is a neat hook included in the form of the title and emblem system however. Titles are exactly as they sound, and emblems are small icons that accompany them. These are earned through various feats, which you aren't told about, and obviously the rarer and cooler titles are gained through more difficult feats. You can then set one title and one icon on your profile to intimidate, or trick, any opponents you might fight. Title hunting quickly becomes addictive, and there are literally hundreds of titles and icons available, meaning you'll likely be unlocking them for some time.
Facial animation is a particular highlight
Finally, there's online play. I'm playing Xbox 360 code, so the connection here is made through Xbox Live. There's support for both ranked and 'Player' or casual matches, though combat is strictly one on one, which seems a shame given the durable lobby system from Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix allowed four players to rotate with spectators, giving a more arcade feel to the whole match. Matchmaking also seems a touch broken at this point, with most of the games I'm attempting to enter flagging as already full by the point I hit the button. Once you're in a match however, performance is very impressive, with barely any lag, and a performance similar to the offline mode. There's a persistent ranking system for ranked battles going on using 'Battle points' which determine your rank and you accumulate when victorious. Defeating opponents with a high BP total nets you more BP yourself, and vice versa with opponents ranked lower. Leaderboards are of course available, and your title and emblem are also taken online with you. In addition there's a system of medals that are only available in online fights, chronicling particularly great or desperate feats.
You don't mess with Akuma
Overall then, it's difficult to paint Street Fighter IV as anything other than a triumph. It's not perfect, and hopefully certain issues (like replay functionality) will be addressed by upcoming patches, but at its core the game is supremely solid and a hefty amount of fun. Built on solid foundations, and dressed in the wonderful day-glo cartoony graphics, this is the most complete fighting game in years, largely because, like its legendary forebear, the appeal is instant and universal, blending casual and expert in the best way possible. It perfectly fulfills the maxim of 'easy to learn, impossible to master', and for that reason, it looks like this new challenger is here to stay.
[9]
No comments:
Post a Comment