MODERN GAMING
Street Fighter IV
Developer:  Capcom
Publisher:  Capcom
Year:  2009
Genre:  Fighting
System:  Xbox 360, PS3, Arcade, PC

17 years ago came a game that revolutionised the gaming scene for smooth graphics, characters requiring a lot of experience to master, and a classic soundtrack.  The sequel to a game that nobody noticed and would become one of two fighting games that split the gaming fandom.  Years after came another game, its true sequel which brought forth a beautiful parrying system that to this day makes it a top choice among gaming tournaments.
And now, finally, comes the next true sequel of one of the great masters of fighting games.  Street Fighter IV.

Story - Do you HONESTLY give a shit about the story of Street Fighter?  Other than what the characters are like, you barely get any in these games and that's not a problem.  Talk is cheap, let's fight.  But since a few of you MIGHT care about it, here it is.  Set between Street Fighter 2 and 3, the weapons division of Shadaloo, M. Bison's personal regime, have created something known as the BELCE Project, a superhuman able to turn opponent's moves into data and essentially learn every move it comes across to become a perfect ultimate fighter.
Naturally most of the Street Fighters don't give a shit about this except the few real justful ones such as Guile, Chun-Li and so forth, but everyone has their own agenda.  That's it, the rest is just fighting, but that's the main story you wanted to hear.  Happy now?  Good, now let's fight!

Gameplay - Very little has changed in the main Street Fighter series other than a few new characters and stages.  Control-wise, it's still the same six directions, the same three kinds of punches and three kinds of kicks.  Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses too.  For the sake of those new perhaps to Street Fighter though I best explain.  When fighting you can move in six directions.  Forwards, backwards, crouching, jumping up, jumping forwards and jumping back.  You can also do brief dashes back and forth just to really evade or close a small gap with an opponent.
There are three kinds of punches and kicks you can throw.  Light, medium, and heavy.  Light attacks are weak but very quick, while heavy attacks are strong but slow.  There's also throws which you do with both light kick and light punch at the same time.  To block against an opponent you merely move your character backwards and when the opponent attacks, you autoblock.  You can also taunt by pressing both heavy punch and heavy kick at the same time just to annoy your opponent.


Every fighter has their own different throws, attacks and special attacks.  Special attacks are performed by doing a specific movement of the d-pad or joystick (whichever you prefer in this game) and pressing specific attack buttons either just after or at the same time as the movement.  You can also perform stronger versions of these attacks called EX attacks, usually by pressing two attack buttons instead of one, like instead of using one punch button you do two of them, which require using one bar of your Super Combo gauge.
The Super Combo Gauge builds up with each attack you land on your opponent.  One bar of it can be used for EX attacks, ut if you fill all four bars of it, you can initiate a Super Combo, which characters usually have one or two of.

Finally, a new addition to Street Fighter is the Revenge Meter.  Whereas the Super Combo Gauge builds up from hitting the opponent, the Revenge Meter builds up when the opponent hits YOU.  And when it's full enough, you can initiate a very powerful Ultra Combo.  To vary between these attacks requires skill of the movement input required.  You don't wanna accidentally Shoryuken when you wanna Hadouken, right?
Lastly for new attacks is the Focus Attack, where you take a hit but immediately launch a counter attack by pressing both medium attack buttons at the same time, which while tricky to time, can be a great advantage.

Now onto the characters themselves.  All the original Street Fighter 2 cast is back including the four Grand Shadaloo Masters (the bosses of the original) as well as various others I shan't reveal to you.  You have to go find them yourself but rest assured a few favourites are there, with four new characters included since every Street Fighter game needs a few you'll probably never play as except for completionism.
There are various modes including the traditional story Arcade Mode, Versus Mode, Training Mode and Challenge Mode which has either time trials, survival mode (how many can you fight before you get your ass whupped) and the trials where you have to do various attacks precisely, which can help train you up for the arcade mode.


There's little to say about the arcade mode itself other than the difficulty levels you're given, as well as any number of rounds you want and time limit.  Well......there is the final boss.  The final boss, in classic Street Fighter tradition, is A FUCKING CHEATING CUNT.
The product of the BELCE Project is a big blue bastard with a black hole vagina who basically gets all normal style in the first round......the second round is when he starts being cheaper than a Taiwanese baby, or a Taiwanese prostitute, or hell both of them in a 2-for-1 deal, he is THAT cheap.  He will constantly teleport around the place, use his black cunthole to drag you close and pummel you (which is unblockable) AND constantly piledrive you which is also unblockable.

What is with Capcom having this merciless need to have such an arrogant prick with TWO stages of fighting from normal to CHEAP AS FUCK?  WHY!?!?  Capcom, we know you want us to be tested truly but I just spent TWO HOURS trying to beat this guy.  It is THIS game that is responsible for my first controller-throwing rage I ever had for the 360.
Then I forgot that there was that countdown to continue and before I got the batteries back in it was game over and back to the beginning.  Don't worry about your controller failing in the middle of a fight since it will autopause (and yes this did happen and I was thankful for that when fighting him).
I just don't get it, there's really powerful and there's being a cheating bastard.  You do not call Indiana Jones when he shot that sword-crazy arab a powerful fighter.  No, you call him a cheap bastard.  An awesome cheap bastard, but a cheap bastard nevertheless.  See my point?

Graphics - After the horror of the 3D/Digitized Graphics era of the mid-90s that Street Fighter unsuccessfully tried to do, Capcom have wisely decided to stay with 2D, but with 3D polygons to keep up with the times and single lines of fighting.  No sidestepping like Soul Calibur, just back and forth.  The graphics look goddamn fantastic, a wonderful blend of 3D anime in 2D perspective with calligraphy bearings over them all, it makes the whole game feel like an Anime, just as it should be.  Hell when you hit your opponent, you get ink spurts for effect, that's pretty cool stuff.
The backgrounds are pretty lively and always feel active, and of course what happens in the fight affects the background from rousing the crowd with a vigorous match to smashing your opponent against a distillery plant and blasting the cap off, very like the boxes and drums of Street Fighter 2, except people now react to these changes in a HOLY SHIT fashion, and there's quite a few of these stages to fight in, but it's not like one stage per character.  I however have a bias of love because one of them is in Scotland.  FINALLY.


The characters also look great in terms of facial structure, very like their original selves as if they walked out of the good anime movie (and not the awful nail in Raul Julia's coffin that was Street Fighter: The Movie).  They even react still with snarls of fury whenever they attack and eye-popping gasps of pain when they're hit.  The graphics verge on the fine line between serious Fist of the North Star style and jokey....well more cartoony anime style, I dunno, I don't watch enough to give you a good idea on it but the point is, they look fantastic.
Even the anime cutscenes look pretty good, and while they're a little pointlessly....talkative, they are at least skippable and have a great style to them, the classic Capcom style.

Music/Sound - Street Fighter has always been respected for its soundtrack, and this game is little different in its style of various themes from techno to pop to heavy rock.  Unfortunately the absolute worst of all the music is the very first one you hear, and also the one you will hear the most often.  The main theme.  It's the kind of shit played in Ibiza, annoyingly European in its techno feel and sickening singing.  This is the one piece of the music that could definitely have been given more thought, it couldn't be something more rocking instead?  It'll get on your nerves after a while believe me.
The only other thing to mention is whenever you meet a rival (one per character in Arcade Mode) that's not a new character, you get a kickass remix of one of the old Street Fighter themes, either for them or for your character, which makes the battle feel more special against someone who has a special connection to your character.

Street Fighter has been a franchise cash cow, and has been milked undoubtedly in the best and worst ways from awesome crossovers to the atrocious game based on the atrocious live-action movie.  But here Capcom have struck gold again with a game that plays just as great as any of the Street Fighter games to be fluid, hectic, strategic, reflective of your skills, and while some might be tired of it, some know that they love it more than their own aunts.
Ohhhh how I've missed having purple thumbs.

Fun and Innovation - 4
Replayability - 5
Gameplay - 4
Presentation - 4