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Not so long ago, the arcade era was fructuous and was the domain of innovative technology. From titles like Pac-man to Asteroids, arcade developers expanded the public’s view of what video games could be. In the early 1990’s, many game genres had already established themselves in the heart of gamers but one particular was about to be revolutionized. In 1991, fighting games had now a flagship title: Street Fighter 2. With its big characters, colorful moves, humorous setting, detailed backgrounds and, as the old cliché goes, deep gameplay that was easy to learn but difficult to master, Street Fighter 2 inspired generations of game developers to push themselves further down the creativity road and redefine what competitive gaming could be. With time, the arcade era ended and gamers leaft coin-up centers, keeping their quarters in their piggy banks. They invested in home consoles and personal computers to satisfy their gaming needs. Now, nearly 20 years after its release, a fourth installment of the famous fighting series is out. Street Fighter 4, the long awaited official sequel, was released this February 2009 in North America on home consoles after an aracde release. So how does this new Street Fighter holds up to its legacy? Did the team at Capcom pulled the impossible? Did they changed how we see a fighting game or failed to live up to the legendary name? Let’s see what Street Fighter 4 has to bring to the modern gaming world.

Before you keep on reading, this humble critic would like to tell you a little secret. I was by far excited to learn the coming of the fourth title of this series as I am a sucker for all that is Street Fighter. If it is labeled Street Fighter, I’m interested. When it comes to this game, I’m a total fan boy. But don’t get me wrong. I did not enjoy the cinema adaptation. I am a fan but I am not a masochist. When I first heard of Street Fighter 4, I was excited like a schoolgirl about to meet a pop star. And, perhaps like many schoolgirls, I’ve decided not look at everything that Street Fighter 4 had to offer through trailers and promotional art. Instead, I’ve kept my gameplay virginity intact for the night where I took the game home. Well yes, I did peek a bit before, YouTube is so easily accessible, but no harm was done. I only looked at the character artworks and I did not succumb to the temptation of reading about it or analyzing the gameplay footage. So now that you know this, you may continue reading the following lines with this disclaimer in mind.
 

Sonic BOOM!

First impressions

Street Fighter 4 is a success. Although it holds many flaws, the developers at Capcom managed to create a new experience while remaining true to the original arcade mentality found in the great Street Fighter 2. A player who is getting acquainted with the world of Street Fighter in this game can hold his ground. The experienced player who has already an elaborated repertoire of moves acquired from other fighters has still something to learn without having to start from scratch.  As mentioned, Street fighter 4 has many little unpleasant chunks that make the general experience hard to swallow. The game can be right down frustrating. The computer-controlled opponents have no shame in using cheap moves, exploits, perfect timing and constant grabbing to scrape the player’s face around the asphalt battleground. Some of the most experienced fighting players will recognize a strong SNK influence on some characters, specially the new ones, which can be quite annoying for the Street Fighter fans. Also, the hit detection, which was pixel perfect in the previous installations of Street Fighter, is not as solid. The same goes for the difficulty curve that feels more like a compromise between two design philosophies rather than one smooth curve. All in all, the game offers a good experience and it feels as if its main gameplay focus is geared toward “player versus player” jousts which is not a bad thing in itself. Just like in the arcade era, the most satisfying part of playing a fighter is not to beat the machine but to defeat your friends in good, clean competitive virtual skull smashing. Besides, the game was released in the arcades before it was ported on the home systems. Now let’s get down to business and see exactly what’s going on with Street Fighter 4.

A bit of history

The first Street Fighter was released in 1987 and its success was moderate. Although it attracted a niche group of players, it never got the same attention its little brothers received. The original title featured an innovative fighting system that allowed the player to pull out special moves using combinations of inputs to inflict extra damage to opponents. From there, the developers at Capcom refined the fighting system, the presentation as well as the controls and gave birth to Street Fighter 2: The World Warriors.  The game had a tremendous impact on the arcade world and spawned many sub games, such as Street Fighter 2 turbo: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: The Grand Master Challenge. Each of these games pushed the concept of the previous iteration a little bit, offering new characters, increased speed, better graphics and extra moves. During the mid-90’s, Capcom also released spin-off titles, such as the “Street Fighter Alpha” series (Zero in Japan) which got the fan’s love but never got has much attention from the general gaming public. Also worth mentioning is the Street Fighter EX series, which featured the Street Fighter characters in a 3D environment, the Marvel vs Street Fighter as well as the Marvel vs Capcom games, where characters from the Capcom universe fought it out against characters from the Marvel Comic world. The Japanese developer also released similar fighting games, such as the Darkstalkers series during the same era. Street Fighter: The Movie is also worth mentioning since it was very close to the actual movie, may it be in terms of fun factor, gameplay and quality. For those who have not witnessed the full glory of Street Fighter on the silver screen, this is not a compliment.

In 1997, Capcom finally released the awaited true sequel to the classic arcade game. Street Fighter 3 featured superior gameplay, graphics and controls, but failed to reach out, once again, to the general gaming public and only got the love of niche fighter players.  In 1999, the arcade world was now on life support and fighting games had mostly switched to the 3D realm. Capcom collaborated with long-time rival fighter developer SNK, creator of the Fatal Fury and King of fighters series to name a few, and released the Capcom vs SNK series that was mostly released on home consoles. It got a good share of praise from the fighting game community but never spilled over on the rest of the gaming world.

Dhalsim and Blanka, two old timers, are still around for the fourth  game.

Gameplay

So as you can see, Street Fighter 4 had a lot of pressure on its shoulders but did not fail. To wrap this up in a few words, Street fighter 4 is a delightful gameplay mash up of all the ingredients that made the Street fighter 2s, Street Fighter Alphas, Street Fighter 3s, Street Fighter EXs and Capcom Vs SNKs games so tasty.  However, as one may easily suggest, enjoyable in one dish does not mean palatable when blended in another. The developers of Street Fighter 4 did manage to make something good but not revolutionary. The basic gameplay

remains simple and straight forward, opting for the classic 2D eight directions movement control scheme combined with the six buttons attack system using three level of punches and kicks. Therefore, instead of creating a fully 3D fighting environment, the developers opted to create a 2D gameplay staged in full 3D graphics. Like the previous 2D iterations of Street Fighter, the characters can perform all sorts of moves to defeat their opponents, from standard actions such as sweeps, air-born attacks or body throws, to special moves as well as two levels of super combo attacks, EX and Ultra. The fighting system also includes advanced gameplay techniques.  The dash maneuver allows the player to come in and out of combat quickly. The throw escape counters a throw attempt from an opponent hence canceling the aggressor’s move. The recovery technique gives the player the ability to get up quickly after being knocked down. The focus attack mechanic gives the ability to charge up an attack and unleash it on your opponent for extra unblockable damage. The same mechanic can also be used as a hyper armor that allows you to regenerate damage taken from a blow while focusing. The super combo gauge has also been deeply involved in the gameplay. The gauge points can now be used to perform super

Although very polished, the gameplay experience feels labored in Street Fighter 4. Since the focus of the design is geared toward making technical play accessible, average fighter gamers who are experienced with fast-paced games may be thrown off by the slower action found in a typical Street Fighter 4 bout. Combinable moves can be pulled out quickly but the attacks that cannot be linked together feel sluggish and slow. An advanced player can easily get up quickly after a knock down but a less skilled or a more button-smashing oriented player will find himself lying on the floor for a rather long period. The fighting system also allows cheap exploits that can be used by a moderately skilled player over a less experienced opponent. I have personally experienced and inflicted constant throwing. The technical side of the game allows a moderate player to escape these throws but the exploit becomes powerful when facing beginners. If there were more than one way to escape this event, it would not be so bad, but grapplers, like Zangief and Abel, seem to be designed to cancel any other attempt of escaping a throw other than when using a cancel. Other characters, such as Crimson Viper or Seth, have been designed with easily exploitable moves reminiscent of the annoying Mileena warp kick from Mortal Kombat 2.  A player who understands the basic concept of these characters can easily pull out a few moves in succession in order to defeat the opponent with ease. As mentioned earlier, this seems to be a result from the influence of the SNK style gameplay on Street Fighter 4. Although it is a very good move to attract core players from both the SNK world and the Capcom world, this also has the opposed effect of offering a less harmonious  experience where the difference between Capcom style and SNK style characters are palpable. In the end, the expert fighter gamers won’t have much trouble adapting to the game but the more casual players, like those who simply enjoy a good Street Fighter bout once in a while will find this more bitter than sweet. Some players may even not be able to beat computer-controlled characters when facing them at the easiest difficulty setting. 
 

Speaking of difficulty, the training challenges have been designed with a different learning curve than the one found in the arcade mode. Perhaps a witness of the quarter-sucking vampirism attitude of the coin-up version, the arcade mode has a steep difficulty curve that can cause frustration. Opponents have no shame in pulling exploits and cheap moves even if they are at their easiest setting. It is not unusual to play through the arcade mode set at a lower difficulty

and face an opponent that will simply destroy the player even if the previous opponents have never been aggressive. Perhaps this is the result of trying to blend in the old arcade convention of the “90 seconds” where a player had to loose after roughly 90 seconds of play so more coins had to be inserted.  On the other hand, the challenge mode, a result of the gentle home console tradition, has a very smooth and mild curve that almost feels insulting. The first challenges offered to the player feature opponents that barely stand still awaiting the player’s blow like lifeless punching bags. The difficulty ranks up at a good pace and there are many challenges to beat, but the first challenges of each collection can be passed by players of any skill making it accessible to all, a trait that the arcade mode does not possess.

   Another factor that can lead to frustration is the hit-detection of attacks. Since the gameplay is in 2D but the graphics are 3D, it is less obvious to know if an attack will land or not. For instance, the grabbing range of characters are relatively short but the animations of the grab ends a little further that the actual grab limit. This ends up with the character’s animation physically touching the opponent but no grab occurs. This is also true for many basic attacks as well as some special moves. For instance, fireballs have great visual effects but they can lead to confusion since it is not always clear to know when a fireball can cause damage or if it's fading away  and  harm-

less. Some characters also have animations that look like as if they are between standing and crouching, which can cause confusion when selecting what type of attack to use on them. An easy example is Dan Hibiki’s stunned pose. Dazed and on his knees, the pose suggest that only a low attack can damage Dan even though it’s not the case. Another example: when two oppositely sized characters face each other, some moves that can land feels as if they couldn’t. The imposing Zangief's spinning clothesline feels as if it will touch nothing but air as it swooshes over little Cammy’s head even though it won’t. At the same time, when Zangief is facing an opponent of the same size, for instance the towering Sagat, the same move goes through Sagat’s massive forearms without causing any damage. The hit-detection boundaries for both characters, Cammy and Sagat, are very similar and react almost the same way but they don’t feel the same when playing. It is true that the size of the body does play a role in the gameplay, which is a good thing since it adds strategy and makes it deeper. At the same time, it is also off throwing since the hit detection is in 3D but the gameplay is in 2D so not all blows land the same way against all enemies even though it would in most 2D fighters. The Capcom team did a great job to make the 2D gameplay work very well but they have not achieved the level of precision found in pure 2D fighters, causing some cases where gameplay confusion occur.
   

If you need an introduction to the character or the move in this picture, you never played fighting games.

Progression

As one may expect from a modern fighting game, Street Fighter 4 offers many things to unlock during the game experience. Fortunately, the system found in this title works well and doesn’t feel too much like a chore. The system is based on the player’s action, such as finishing the game or passing certain challenges, which awards the player with new characters, new character colors and in-game taunts called personal moves. All characters can be unlocked while playing the arcade mode and the level of skills to unlock them all is moderate. Even unlocking the hidden characters, such as the traditionally destructive Akuma, can be achieved by a player who has experimented with the game for a short while. When it comes to unlocking alternate colors and personal moves, the player must go through all challenges, which can become a pain. It is not because the challenges are too difficult but rather because they become a test of endurance. For example, to clear the Survival section, the player must beat at least 8 enemies in a row in 20 different events for each difficulty levels (normal and hard). The Trial section features 2 sets of 5 gameplay challenges for all 25 characters in the game. Yeah, that’s right. That’s at least 250 challenges for one challenge section. There might be more but I have not passed them all so the game could surprise with extra trials.  So even if getting characters unlocked is relatively easy, unlocking everything is a test of will and endurance from the player’s behalf.

   In general, the typical Street Fighter 4 player will probably get along fine with all the characters without all their taunts and alternate colors but it would have a been a nice touch from the developers if they had used something less hardcore-oriented to unlock content. I don’t mind having a separate reward for executing very difficult tasks, such as getting trophies, medals or achievements like they added, but anything that can be seen in-game would have been nice if it was unlocked by playing games in the arcade mode or with friends. For example, playing with Ken alone or with friends could have unlocked an extra color or taunt every time the character wins a certain amount of battles. Anything that favors playing the game for the fun of it instead of getting too technical would have been more user-friendly in my personal opinion. Street Fighter is already very competitive by its nature; I don’t feel like it needs to force all players to become precise tech players with lightning fast reflexes. Sometimes just playing for fun is quite acceptable.

Let's get ready to rumble!

Presentation

Capcom has a reputation of good-looking games and great audio. Street Fighter 4 makes no exception by delivering a rich and polished visual style as well as a powerful soundtrack. Although the choice of a soft rock-ish title song seems a bit out of place in my opinion, the rest of the soundtrack feels solid and proper to the vibe of the experience.  The use of commentaries between bouts is also well executed and is not too annoying. The option to play with the original Japanese voices is a nice touch. The attention to details in Street Fighter 4 is astonishing. The character animations are well crafted, the backgrounds are packed with sweet little details that makes them feel natural and the special effects are flashy and powerful. The menus are also well designed and the Versus screen, where the 2 competing characters are presented before the bout, is very effective by being simple, concise and flamboyant.   The art direction went for a half cartoon, half realistic look mixed with bold ink splashes that gives the game a unique and rich texture. The developers took a page out of Street Fighter 2 and gave the characters exaggerated, slightly goofy looking expressions when being attacked that makes all the super jumping and impossible moves more believable. The short animated sequences used in the introduction and ending of each character is simply a marvelous move from the developers. It’s a shame that the content, the actual storyline, is not as shiny as the rest.

Street fighter games commonly offer a rather fantasized storyline. A few characters wielding supernatural powers, worldwide terrorist groups brainwashing warriors, limb stretching using yoga (which I'm very disappointed they don't teach on the Wii Fit), inner power allowing you to shoot energy balls out of your hands, monsters generating electricity at will… The universe of Street Fighter is filled with completely wacky concepts that once integrated in the game, feel just right and believable, balanced out with the very human side of the characters. In Street Fighter 2, even if Guile can shoot sonic booms at his enemies, he is still a man fighting out of anger and bitterness caused by the grief of a lost friend. Guile fights with rage until he realizes that, no matter what he does, his friend is not coming back from the grave and that all his hatred is making him loose his wife and daughter. This makes him believable in an impossible world. Unfortunately, in Street Fighter 4, the developers have pushed the storyline a bit too far. Clone armies are spreading, super powers are common toys and the most realistic characters have either loony or have redundant motivations. El Fuerte, a Mexican wrestler, is out to defeat the best warriors to find out what they eat; Edmond Honda is once again out to make sumo wrestling popular on a world scale. Street Fighter 4 even pulled a cheap story plot worthy of daytime soap operas. Gouken, the legendary master or Ryu and Ken, murdered by Akuma, was in fact simply dreaming away for the last years. This breaks the storyline of most Street Fighter games where Ryu is said to be the last warrior able to become the ultimate master of his martial art style and Akuma being the most bloodthirsty warrior on earth. But, even if the storyline is hard to follow and is filled with plot holes, the characters are well developed in-game. Their end comments are well written and truly reflect their personality and interests. Rufus is particularly well done, truly focusing on his blather mouth personality. Street Fighter 4 is not a game that you play for its story but it is unfortunate to see that the Capcom team could have also pushed this feature of the game further the road of solid interactive storytelling instead of opting for a wobbly teenager comic book fantasy.

Another new warrior, Rufus, is a kung-fu fighting blather mouth.

Ergonomics

When it comes down to the ergonomics of the game, it would be hard to expect something weak from the part of an “AAA” title. Street Fighter 4 offers solid and efficient menu flows and navigation. All the important options are accessible within a few levels of menus and the game offers good customization. The option to turn on or off the HUD is quite a nice touch. The main issue I have with the game, and it’s a rather small one, is the constant loading when in survival mode (on the PS3). As explained earlier, the goal is defeat a series of opponents in order to win the survival challenge and a challenge has an average of 8 characters to beat. Well, unfortunately, the game loads a new character a new background every time the player defeats one enemy. Since an average round lasts around 15 seconds, waiting around 25 seconds between rounds to play is quite annoying. Perhaps there are heavy technical issues involved but I would naturally suggest loading one level instead of changing every round. Levels have animations and events planned for at least seven rounds so I can’t see the harm in playing in one level for around 5 rounds before changing to another. In all cases, this problem occurs in Survival mode so it’s not problematic in arcade mode. An interesting feature included in the game is the request system that allows players on the net to challenge you as if you were playing in an actual arcade.  This feature is quite a nice touch. It proves that the developers went for the direction of an experience as true to the arcade feel as possible.

Final thoughts

To conclude this critique, Street Fighter 4 delivered an entertaining and interesting experience with very strong points. Reaping the best of the previous iterations of the Street Fighter series and adding elements from modern fighting games, Street Fighter 4 managed to create gameplay that can be satisfying to both new comers and expert players. The new installment of the series is not without its flaws either. Even with its strong gameplay, beautiful graphics, solid audio and great craftsmanship, Street Fighter 4 fails to push the limits of fighting games further down the road its older brother, Street Fighter 2, has paved. Its technical approach may turn off potential new players, the frustration factor of the game might push away others and the poor storyline will not satisfy players who are looking for a bit more than just a “fist-to-the-face” game. Street fighter 4 is a gorgeous title that offers a great experience but, in my opinion, does not push the fighting genre to new horizons as Street Fighter 2 did in 91. So go out, enjoy a good street fight with friends: this is what Street Fighter 4 is all about.