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Super Street Fighter IV

Super Street Fighter IV

One of last year's best games has been polished, has recieved more content and better online support. Is this everything we ever wanted from a fighting game?

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Street Fighter II became a huge hit for Capcom, to say the least. Something that led to the company trying to milk it for all it was worth, pumping out new versions of the game at an alarming speed. Today Street Fighter II has been released for 20 odd formats in 40 or so different versions; from the rather simplistic original arcade game to 2008's Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.

With that fresh in mind, I was almost disappointed when Capcom announced Super Street Fighter IV, despite the fact that Street Fighter IV was one of last year's best games. Of course I wanted more of the good stuff, but at the same time I don't wanted Capcom to start another round of hysterical updates.

Yet here I am, 40 hours later and with a promise from Capcom that this is the last thing they are going to do to Street Fighter IV expect perhaps a patch to balance up the game in a year or so. For someone used to games like Gears of War 2 or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 it might sound unbelievable that a patch would take such a long time to produce. But this is Street Fighter. The king of the fighting genre.

It takes ages to find what is unbalanced in games like this. If you look at it month by month, whatever character is deemed "the best" can change radically. When Street Fighter IV was released in Japanese arcades Crimson Viper was seen as a lousy character and one of the worst. Today she's ranked a lot higher. Bison was seen as the second best character there was, today he is pretty much a nobody.

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That's how it goes. Street Fighter is complicated and organic and the games are usually incredibly well-balanced from the start that it can take years to figure out which character is the best and if what at first is seen as unbalanced actually is it or not. But after two years in the arcade and one years on the consoles one thing is clear; Sagat is the best. Incredibly strong, terribly fast with a huge range and no weaknesses.

There are other discrepancies Capcom wanted to fix, stuff that's the reason why they release Super Street Fighter IV in the first place. But Capcom have done a lot more than that, even if it's probably the tweaking that the hardcore players are looking forward to the most. All characters now have two Ultra Combos to choose from, that are a bit easier to activate for the newcomer. That's not to say that the game has become easier to play. Quite the contrary; it's become even deeper, and every Street Fighter-fan knows that it's not about the attacks you use, but exactly when you use them so you can link them together in as good combos as possible.

All of this could have been fixed with a simple patch for Street Fighter IV. But the fun stuff doesn't end there, and one aspect of the original game that needed fixing was the online fighting. Sure, the net code worked great, but there was a lack of modes - and that's what Capcom have added. You can now record your matches, which is great when you want to show off a particular move for your friends, but also when you want to study your mistakes. Did Rufus hit you ten times in a row with his spinning attack? What went wrong?

The gaming modes have also been fixed to create a bit more of a community feel. You can now team up with seven other players in elimination matches, which is great fun, and there's a Endless Battle-mode to see who is really the king of the hill. Capcom have also promised that they will be releasing a tournament feature this summer, which will only serve to make the online support even better.

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The classic bonus levels from Street Fighter II are making a return, so once again you get to break both cars and barrels with your bare fists. It's as entertaining and satisfying as ever and gives a well needed break from the usual fighting.

In short, Super Street Fighter IV is filled with small improvements. Nothing that changes its solid foundations, but gives a more polished gaming experience. And Capcom know that this is only an expansion for Street Fighter IV and they won't force you to unlock the whole ensemble again. And it's here we find the real meaty parts of Super Street Fighter IV.

Capcom have gone all out with ten new characters, where eight of them are old friends from Super Street Fighter II, Street Fighter III and even Final Fight. That's 40% more characters right there. Here's my old favorite Dee Jay with his hysterical smile, the Sagat-beater Adon (which actually comes from the first game in the series) and the community darling Makoto from Third Strike. But the most fun is probably the brightly red, and oiled, Hakan.

All these new characters stir things up quite a bit. It's like becoming a child again, you get to learn how to deal with all of these new fighters and find your own Ultra Combo-favorite. And I happily do.

Street Fighter is a passion. The Rolls Royce of the fighting genre. And Super Street Fighter IV is the ultimate edition of Street Fighter IV. It's hard to shake the feeling that this should have been a simple update though. I'm not saying that it doesn't deserve a game on its own, but it should have been available as a cheaper download for the people that wanted it.

Still, I shouldn't complain too much. This is far from the sometimes rather weak Street Fighter II-editions that were released during the 90's. Fighting doesn't get much better than in Super Street Fighter IV.

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Super Street Fighter IVSuper Street Fighter IVSuper Street Fighter IVSuper Street Fighter IV
09 Gamereactor UK
9 / 10
+
Perfect controls, wonderful online support, 35 fighters, amazingly polished
-
Should have been a downloadable expansion
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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Super Street Fighter IV

REVIEW. Written by Jonas Mäki

One of last year's best games has been polished, has recieved more content and better online support. Does it get any better?



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