UK, February 12, 2009 - You've seen every screenshot, watched every trailer, prayed it would make it to console and rejoiced when Capcom duly obliged. The more enterprising of you may have even made the pilgrimage to the Trocadero in order to worship at the latest altar of pugilism - and you'd be forgiven that you now know all there is to know about the triumphant return of that most iconic of series in Street Fighter IV.
In many ways you'd be right; essentially, the home port of Street Fighter IV is the very definition of arcade perfect. The Street Fighter phenomenon is one that's so close to a whole generation's heart that it would be foolish to try and offer a definitive judgement on the new formula, the debate over whether jettisoning the hardcore baggage of the third game and its satellites and making a spiritual return to Street Fighter II unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. We will however say this – Street Fighter IV is the most engrossing one-on-one beat-'em-up we've ever played.
Fundamentally, this is the same rock, paper, Shoryuken mix that's familiar to anyone who's ever pulled off a quarter-circle on a D-pad in anger. There's no deformable armour, no huge weapons to clang opponents around the head with and no way of tearing a downed combatant's cheeks off at a fight's conclusion – this is one of the purest expressions of virtual sparring ever created.
Indeed, it's the accessibility of Street Fighter IV that's one of the game's greatest triumphs. By taking Street Fighter II as the basic template, the game's been opened up to the legions alienated by the series various detours down hardcore roads. More forgiving inputs significantly lower the barrier of entry for the less dextrous returning to the series – and for the first time in a life spent playing Street Fighter we can finally pull off Zangief's spinning piledriver with some level of consistency.
Gone are the parrying system and the multiple Super Arts of Street Fighter IV's numerical predecessor. Players now have one access to a single Super, though like most specials it's available in two flavours. Striking all three attack buttons when performing a special or Super with the EX gauge maxed out performs an Ultra, a high tier attack that serves as the climax to the heady drama of one of the game's bouts.
The visual style never tires - this game's likely to remain as appealing 17 years from now.
The return of the archetypal eight characters that defined Street Fighter II reinforces the link between Street Fighter IV and its 17-year-old predecessor, and another of the game's successes is its careful handling of their upgrade, as well as the successful introduction of a new cast of fighters. Shotokan fighters – practitioners of that holy trinity of Dragon Punch, fireball and Hurricane Kick - such as Ken, Ryu, Sakura and Akuma feel more distinct from each other than ever before, while the likes of Guile and Dhalsim make a successful return from their exile.
Most significant of the new additions is without doubt the focus system: holding down medium punch and kick together envelops the player in a swirl of heavily inked lines, allowing one incoming attack to be absorbed and turned back into a crippling blow, leaving the opposition prone to a quick-fire combo. It's a feature that's integrated seamlessly into the game's patchwork and sits well with the slower tempo of Street Fighter IV – a change in pace that may come as a shock to those who have been schooling themselves in the comparatively twitchy Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix in preparation, and putting paid to the misconception that this is a re-skinned Street Fighter II.
All of which is commendably faithful to the arcade original, but taking the finished article home it's now possible to relish all the little details that make Street Fighter IV so astounding a package. The shift to 3D visuals has been handled impeccably throughout, with hulking character models aching with muscle defined by flat textures and exaggerated features that anchor them to their 2D heritage. Their sheer size – no Street Fighter game has ever allowed its characters to accommodate as much screen space as they do here – lends them a new, more brutal physicality that's carried through with weighty animations and pixel-perfect collision detection. Get an arcing Dragon Punch to land squarely in an opponent's midriff and the feeling of contact is colossal, your opponent doubling over and their features transfixed in a caricature of pain.
It's a level of detail that's echoed in the backdrops - from the tourist excitedly fumbling with their camera as they try to catch the action in a crowded downtown alley, the cargo ship that slowly pulls into view and reveals a waving Balrog or the vast video screen that dynamically apes the action on the cruise ship's floor, each stage feels as alive as the fighters within.
Gouken's likely to be the last character you'll unlock, and it took some 50 hours of brawling for us to get him. He's worth it.
One of the few bum notes pulled by the otherwise excellent art design is in the animated cutscenes that bookend each character's journey through the vanilla arcade mode. Cheap in execution, they jar considerably with the heavy ink aesthetic that's evident elsewhere in the game, ensuring they're good for little more than a cheap giggle. It's one of the few additions for the console versions, though thankfully the other new features are more carefully integrated.
There's no attempt to pad the single-player campaign – instead of trying to shoe-horn in a lengthened campaign mode the solo fighter is instead given a wealth of tools with which to hone their prowess. Each character has a series of trials, requiring the correct input of commands from pulling off a simple special to the darker arts of executing cancels and some of the more intricate combos.
The slim single-player offerings are bolstered by the self-explanatory Time Attack and Survival modes and as such are an admission of where the game's focus lies – in the perfection of the one-on-one beat-'em-up genre. Street Fighter IV's real heart lies in competitive play, something that's well served by its solid online options. Thankfully this plays out more like the Xbox LIVE version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix than the faltering LIVE version of Street Fighter II, with fights running with a consistent lack of lag.
Ranked and unranked play is available and for the former it's possible to acquire Battle Points through victory – although defeat will also result in losing Battle Points, meaning that it's as easy to get over confident and plummet down the leaderboards as it is to ascend them. One particularly cute touch is the ability to open yourself up to all-comers when playing through the single-player arcade mode, allowing anyone to interrupt a session for a spar. Short of importing a gaggle of intimidating teenagers into your own living room and drilling a coin-slot into your precious plasma screen, it's a great way of bringing the console version one step closer to the arcade experience.
In true Street Fighter boss tradition, Seth's a cheap and frustrating character.
Unfortunately the bulk of the online content is being reserved for a day one patch with enhanced matchmaking, a fully-featured tournament system and a replay mode all to be included. We'll follow up with a comprehensive report post release, but for now be safe in the knowledge that Street Fighter IV's online mode is satisfyingly sturdy.
One less welcome package that's being primed for post-release is the downloadable costume sets. Street Fighter IV's release is something to be celebrated so it's a shame that Capcom has almost spoilt its own party with such a move – it really wasn't that long ago when such small features were unlockables and given the scarcity of similar content in the retail package it seems particularly cynical to sell the content off at a premium.
Closing Comments
Regardless, Street Fighter IV is no less than the new standard for beat-‘em-ups. It's a triumphant return for the series after an eight year hiatus and is a seamless blend of the old and new, at once accessible to lapsed pugilists while being nuanced enough for the dedicated core to wallow in its depths. What’s more, Street Fighter IV takes an aging template and makes it fresh once more, offering a revival in every sense of the word. The waiting is over – Street Fighter IV is home, and it’s one very special game.
IGN: Street Fighter IV Review