Yes, it's the fighting game everyone has been waiting for, Street Fighter IV is out and the Hadoukens are rolling in. First of I just want to say Street Fighter has had a long history of games starting in the arcades in 1987, and has worked it's way up with many titles, now it has been 10 years and the newest Street Fighter is here.
Once again all your favourite characters are back, including Ryu, Ken, M.Bison, Vega and everyone else, but there has also been the addition of five new characters. Abul,C.Viper, Rufus and Rose, and my favourite El Fuerte, each with there own unique style of fighting.
First things first is the gameplay, there are 4 modes to play with starting with Arcade mode, this is most basic single player mode where you fight your way through a number of fighters before fighting last boss and watching those glorious credits. A few new changes have been made including the Rival battle, which is a set battle between your character and thier rival. There is also the inclusion of anime cutscenes adding story to the game instaed of full on fighting (not that this is a bad thing). Sadly there hasen't been the inclusion of challenges like the car destruction challenge in the old Street Fighter, which is a shame, i though that was a key ingredient that capcom missed out.
Also included is versus mode which is of course the best mode for beating the cra out of your mate, or you could just sit in the corner of the screen doing continuos Hadoukens like a little coward, but enough of that. There is also the challenge mode, where you either chose Time Trial, Survival or Trials, each one unlocking new colours for costumes, or taunts for to taunt you're opponent with during battle. There is also a training mode where you can hone your skills and hope to beat those with no life.
The Main mode that I want to look at is the Online Mode which is a great part of this game and deserves the praise that it so deserves (I am not worthy!!!). The whole online experience is brilliant, you can just go straight into the fighting or you can use arcade request mode. What this is, is a mode that once you turn, you can be challenged by any time by someone in the world, even during arcade mode, so now there is even more surprise when "A NEW CHALLENGER ARRIVES".
Now for the technical stuff, the graphics are a great new look, not just because of the switch from 2D to 3D, but because of the choice of cell shaded graphics, it makes the game pop out more and the fighting seems more real, one small problem is that some of the characters look too beefed up (also, for some starnge reason, Ryu has a ginourmous chin). Other than that the graphics are beautiful. The soundtrack is good, but not great, i have a feeling they poured more into the gameplay and did,nt spend time on anything else, but the intro music is plaesing to the ear at least. The charcter voice overs are superb although sometime not in sync with actual characters, but none the less, still superb, and now there is a cool new feature to turn on and off the japanese voices of the characters as well, which is a nice bonus.
There are only a few troublesome features to this game, such as, the difficulty, this may not be the game for anyone who inexperienced at this type of game, even on the least difficult setting it can still be a challenge for some people. And the thing that really bugs me is Seth, the final boss of the game, who is so cheap that he can't even have his own moves, he uses the same moves over and over again which seem to ber mainly, Zangief's pile driver, M.Bison's Teleport and Ryu and Ken's Shoryuken.
All in all this game is brilliant and will be one for the ages, I hope evryone one will enjoy the game (and has enjoyed my first ever review), and to all those hardcore fans out there, taste my fireball.
HADOUKEN!!!
Street Fighter IV 9/10
Once again all your favourite characters are back, including Ryu, Ken, M.Bison, Vega and everyone else, but there has also been the addition of five new characters. Abul,C.Viper, Rufus and Rose, and my favourite El Fuerte, each with there own unique style of fighting.
First things first is the gameplay, there are 4 modes to play with starting with Arcade mode, this is most basic single player mode where you fight your way through a number of fighters before fighting last boss and watching those glorious credits. A few new changes have been made including the Rival battle, which is a set battle between your character and thier rival. There is also the inclusion of anime cutscenes adding story to the game instaed of full on fighting (not that this is a bad thing). Sadly there hasen't been the inclusion of challenges like the car destruction challenge in the old Street Fighter, which is a shame, i though that was a key ingredient that capcom missed out.
Also included is versus mode which is of course the best mode for beating the cra out of your mate, or you could just sit in the corner of the screen doing continuos Hadoukens like a little coward, but enough of that. There is also the challenge mode, where you either chose Time Trial, Survival or Trials, each one unlocking new colours for costumes, or taunts for to taunt you're opponent with during battle. There is also a training mode where you can hone your skills and hope to beat those with no life.
The Main mode that I want to look at is the Online Mode which is a great part of this game and deserves the praise that it so deserves (I am not worthy!!!). The whole online experience is brilliant, you can just go straight into the fighting or you can use arcade request mode. What this is, is a mode that once you turn, you can be challenged by any time by someone in the world, even during arcade mode, so now there is even more surprise when "A NEW CHALLENGER ARRIVES".
Now for the technical stuff, the graphics are a great new look, not just because of the switch from 2D to 3D, but because of the choice of cell shaded graphics, it makes the game pop out more and the fighting seems more real, one small problem is that some of the characters look too beefed up (also, for some starnge reason, Ryu has a ginourmous chin). Other than that the graphics are beautiful. The soundtrack is good, but not great, i have a feeling they poured more into the gameplay and did,nt spend time on anything else, but the intro music is plaesing to the ear at least. The charcter voice overs are superb although sometime not in sync with actual characters, but none the less, still superb, and now there is a cool new feature to turn on and off the japanese voices of the characters as well, which is a nice bonus.
There are only a few troublesome features to this game, such as, the difficulty, this may not be the game for anyone who inexperienced at this type of game, even on the least difficult setting it can still be a challenge for some people. And the thing that really bugs me is Seth, the final boss of the game, who is so cheap that he can't even have his own moves, he uses the same moves over and over again which seem to ber mainly, Zangief's pile driver, M.Bison's Teleport and Ryu and Ken's Shoryuken.
All in all this game is brilliant and will be one for the ages, I hope evryone one will enjoy the game (and has enjoyed my first ever review), and to all those hardcore fans out there, taste my fireball.
HADOUKEN!!!
Street Fighter IV 9/10
