It seems odd to some that just a little over a year after their previous release of Street Fighter IV, (a game many claim single handily brought fighting games into the limelight) Capcom returns with Super Street Fighter IV. An update that promised more characters, stages, and online options. When first announced many gamers were up in arms that the new content would come in the form of a disk, rather than a download for the previous game. Capcom stated early on that “the breath of content to the game would be just to large for a download to be possible”. After some time with the game I can honestly say this is a very impressive “update”.
SSFIV is a more of the classic SF action that you’ve come to expect from the master’s of the genre over at Capcom. The game hardly introduces anything new in the way of game-play tweaks, outside of small additions to the existing roster for balance. Basically you’re getting the same great game-play that was introduced in last years epic release with additions added for fans and critics. Where the “Super” in this title really gets its merit is in the 10 additional characters added, new stages and new online options. The “New” characters added are mostly old favorites from previous SF iterations given the SFIV revamp to fit the SFIV art syle. 8 Characters: Dee-Jay, T.Hawk, Cody, Guy, Adon, Makoto, Dudley, Ibuki all return from respective games the last two additions of Juri (an evil female Korean Taekwando expert) and Haken (a red skinned Turkish Oil Wrestler) round out the most notable additions to the game. The characters added (which totals to 35 fighters) does a lot to add variety to the roster of SFIV but that is only the tip of the iceberg.
Of the largest gripes people could raise against the original SFIV release was that the online options were lacking. A game such as SF (which never fails to gather a crowd of onlookers) being stuck to 1 on 1 battles seems like a omission that is silly in retrospect. SSFIV remedies this problem pretty much completely, with the addition of “Endless Battle” mode a mode in which up to 8 player can inhabit a lobby system waiting in line till their turn arrives to bring the fight to whoever the last victor was. All the people in the lobby can see the current matches unfold and can even save the replay of the battle if they so choose. Their is even an entire list of search options that allow you so seek out replays of specific characters in action if you are looking to brush up on your game. The open arcade mode returns, which allows online competitors to interrupt you romp through the story mode of the game with live online ranked or player matches. Another addition of “Team Battle” which sets a max number of 8 players into two teams, each fighting to knock out all the members of an opposing team to be declared the victor. Rounding out the new modes is that announcement that in the first week of June a “tournament mode” which would be just as it sounds a large scale tournament mode where players could set match ups and award titles. Capcom said it would use this mode to hold its own tournaments and issues out unique titles that must be defended online or the winner risks losing his celebrity status.
All in all, SSFIV feels like the game the developers set out to make but weren’t quite able to obtain in the time they were given. There is a lot of content to this game and any seasoned SF player deserves to put this game in their collection as it stands as a pinnacle to why these games are just so much fun to play. A great package at a great price of 40 bucks. There aren’t many issues you can raise with the game itself, I will say one thing. The game is meant to be played with someone on an equal skill level you need a good friend that can push you to becoming better and better. So without that you are really not getting the full experience of the game. Other than that SSFIV is an amazing title that improves on the original in every conceivable way
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Fighting
Time: literally hundreds of hours if you find the right person to play with
Gripes: Can be hard to get into when only fighting the CPU
Get it for the: At its best Street Fighter, is like a detailed chess match where you are constantly reading your opponent and trying to stay two steps ahead of their next move. Nothing in gaming can replace them moment you correctly predict and enemy attack an counter him just as he thinks hes about to hit you.