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Super Street Fighter IV Review

Super Street Fighter IV is Capcom’s latest installment into the Street Fighter series. This new title boasts a great number of additions over its predecessor including; character rebalancing, additional online multiplayer modes, bonus stages and an updated character roster raising the feature list to 35 playable characters.

Sound and Vision

The visuals of the game have remained the same which although is not a problem for playability could lead some users to think that the game is too similar and not worth buying over the predecessor. However the differences are not really found in the visuals, but more in the mechanics of the game but we will go through those differences later in the Gameplay section. Adding to the stage roster the game has 4 new background battle plains. A Serengeti style landscape which could be mistaken for a scene out the game ‘Africa’, an elevated construction site with ‘Hugo’ from SF3 Third Strike in the background, a shopping district with a festival and a congested Asian locality.

For the story sections of the game the cut scenes throughout the game use the ‘anime style’ moving picture in order to show how each character finds their way into the tournament. With reasons ranging from the search for prize money to simply skipping school, it’s all in there.

A number of new BGM tracks have been included and as well as being able to edit the language of each character’s sound effects as before, now the user can also choose from original or arrange BGM from the options menu. When original BGM is selected, the music is stage specific, however when arrange BGM is selected the music is character specific. The character specific music which could only be heard in the lobby on the previous SF4 whilst waiting to fight is now used during battle. Each of the new characters has their own dedicated themes as well.

Game Play   

1. Game Expansion:

With the character roster being boosted by a further 40%, the game is now much larger than before and offers users a lot more variety in fighting styles. Each character previously featured has been re-formatted one way or another to enable players to slightly or greatly modify their strategies with their character. With the new iteration come ten new characters, amongst these ten we have two newcomers; Hakan who is an oil wrestler from Turkey and Juri who is an assassin that works for the SIN syndicate. The game now also features Guy, Cody and Adon who are returning from the SF Alpha series. And also Makoto, Dudley and Ibuki who are back from Street Fighter 3 Third Strike. Then finally DeeJay Maximum and T.Hawk which then completes the Super Turbo character featured line up.  Furthermore unlike in the previous game where the user had to complete the game a number of times to unlock all the characters, in Super Street Fighter IV the game gives you full character access right from the getgo allowing users to save time and monotony and get right down to business immediately.

Each character in the game can now select from one of two ultras, usually one short range attack varied with a long range one. The new included ultras add depth to the gameplay and the possibilities in each matchup. However one down side is that the user cannot toggle between ultras in between matches like on third strike. So although the player has two ultras to choose from, once one is selected the user is stuck with it until he’s defeated. Ultimately this slightly takes away from the benefit of having two ultras to begin with. Lastly on the topic of ultras and supers, each character still only has one super command despite having two ultras. A selection of supers for each character would have brought more variety to each character’s offensive arsenal and widened the gameplay spectrum.

2. Arcade Mode

The original arcade mode which previously allowed you to unlock characters is still in the game however it is solely used for the purpose of uncovering each characters story within the game and not for unlocking characters. As the user starts arcade mode, they will begin with their character’s animated cut scene before the fights begin. Then as they progress through the arcade mode they take on opponent after opponent until they eventually face their rival in a heated battle before taking on Seth and clearing the game.

Playing in the arcade mode with request for Xbox live battle has been made more user friendly now as the user can change the fight request status via the pause menu during battle which was not featured in the predecessor and this proved to be very problematic at times.

Bonus stages have made their way back into this iteration. The Car Buster and the Barrel Buster are both featured from the original Street Fighter 2 game.  Although they are nice to have back and have clearly just been included for novelty value, the bonus stages could have offered more for the user. As an idea perhaps the user could unlock an icon or title by finishing the car with an ultra or certain move for example. As the game does not have many areas to unlock things the bonus stages would have been a perfect way to reward users and give more merit to the use of the arcade mode.  Additionally perhaps different effects could have been used depending on how the user damages the car. i.e if the user uses Dhalsim and yoga flames the car to finish then it blows up giving Dhalsim a cartoon style burnt body. The Barrel Buster stage is also nice to have back but is too harsh on the user once one barrel is missed. The following barrels will continue to floor the opponent keeping them grounded with no chance to get the remaining barrels. This can make the bonus stage less enjoyable and even frustrating which is not the best way to maximize the input of this mode.

Lastly, the arcade mode is rather short and only half of what the original Street Fighter 2 arcade mode used to be. In the predecessor this was an understanding element as the user had to use this mode to unlock characters to progress through the game. However now there is no obligation to do so. Therefore as an alternative, the game could have offered a choice of the current arcade mode and an original arcade mode style which could have been longer and featured the four original shadaloo bosses at the end. This would have been a fun way to appreciate the retro arcade mode where these characters first appeared with the new improved game visuals. 

3. Versus Mode

 This mode has not changed very much, not much to say here. This mode allows two users to pit their wits against each other in one on one combat. If playing another human is not possible, one or both players can also be set to CPU. 

4. Challenge Mode

The trials for each character are here but sadly the previous characters have near enough all the same combos and it’s only the new ten characters that have entirely new trials. However unlike before where the user had to go through each one in order to access the next one in number order, now the user can simply go straight to the combo of preference. This is good for getting past tedious stages which could be deemed too easy and also allows users to skip past a difficult combo if they wish, and perhaps come back and try it again later on. The time challenges and survival modes are gone now so it’s only character trials left. However this is not important as this is the most prominent part of the challenge mode anyway. New colours and taunts are unlocked automatically during vs mode and online mode as the game is played. The bonus stages are added to the challenge mode once they are unlocked within the arcade game.  

5. Player Data

Here the user is given data on his match play and it is laid out in two menus; Player Records and Character Records. This is a useful collation of data and it is here for the user to be able to keep tabs on his individual character progress.  However the shortcoming is that this only gives the user data based on their Xbox live ranked match performance. Neither versus mode matches nor online endless battle matches have any mention whatsoever which makes this feature less efficient.

Online Functionality

This is the most revamped area of the game, now the Xbox live battle mode features an all new Team Battle mode where up to 8 players can make teams and play against each other in group unity. The usual Ranked Match is available and also the standard online versus mode is there too. However now it has been renamed Endless Battle instead. For reviewing one’s own performance or perhaps scouting the tactics of a superior player there is now a replay channel. Here all the user’s matches are automatically recorded in a battle log and can be reviewed and saved accordingly.

Here in the replay channel users can use a watch mode, here they can join a viewers lobby and view other people’s online battles which can also be saved if wished. As well as that users can invite other users to their own channel to show and share replays in their own private room and the user/viewers can also save replays of any watched matches. Whilst watching replays it is possible to show the attack data and input display of the players. Replays can also be viewed in slow motion too which helps capture small details during fast paced action. Although this is a good feature, the user cannot actually freeze the screen whilst watching to see what is happening at a particular time of the match. However during a single match many things happen simultaneously so it is sometimes impossible to catch particulars things all at once and it is natural that the eye misses small but important factors at such speeds.

Saying that the replay channel and match save function is a brilliant addition, it offers users an extra resource for information, allows users to recap on their performances and also share matches with others. A great step forward for the franchise!

Overall

Although the game was initially thought to just be a minor rehash of the old version this is totally not the case. The game has been redefined and extended; overall Super Street Fighter is definitely a few steps above its predecessor, new online modes, 10 new characters, replay save feature, some good character modifications, new ultras and frame data specifics. It’s definitely a big improvement. 

On a down side, roster wise there are some issues with character balancing still especially as some characters seemed to have beefed up, some strong characters toned down, however others who weren’t that good before have just been neglected and left the same. Some of the changes to certain characters are indeed questionable but hopefully those issues will be addressed for a new version sometime in the future.  Lastly, it is great that many new features were added to the game such as team battle and replay modes however why these are only available in online mode I will never understand.

An offline replay mode would allow users to recap on their own matches played in a local environment which is also just as important as or even more important than online matches, which can sometime suffer due to bad connections and such.

Also an offline team battle mode could have made for interesting local tournament events and even made Super Street Fighter IV more marketable as an e-sport game as e-sport games and companies predominantly feature teams.