Street Fighter IV

Here we are at the world tournament, again, and things certainly look a whole lot different - but we're still in familiar, hadouken flinging, spinning bird kick launching, territory. So please refer to the following handy lists, provided below, to see what's what in the world of Street Fighter IV, and just what's the score with all the little bits and bobs you get with the spec ed:

THE GOOD:
- Great controls, really precise and fluid, just what you've come to expect from the series (well, since number 2 anyhoo).
- Lots of familiar faces mixed in with some sparkly new ones makes for a healthy roster of 25 brawlers with lots of interesting kicks, flips and slaps.
- Fantastic Graphics, not just your typical cel-shading jazz - this puppy's got some really nice effects to sling about, and sling them about it does, in big splattery buckets.
- Some nice rehashes of old tunes and some new ones that do the trick quite well.
- Superb backgrounds, really beautiful in some instances, such as the inland jungle, and full of nice little details. Also some are slightly interactive and destructible (only slightly), for instance on the airfield level you can uppercut the plane's wing off in the second round, and nearly all levels feature bits and bobs that fall over or shudder as you smack you opponents to the dirt.
- Awesomely satisfying punch and kick thuds that really rock the house (especially when pumped through your surround sound). Also the voices are well done and come in all sorts of tasty linguistic flavours to suite your ears.
- The online is simple, neat and works extremely well - everything you need to get cracking skulls the globe over.
- Sharp, addictive gameplay (Especially online)
- Lots of neat little unlockables in the following forms: 1.) New titles and icons to spruce up your online persona with (hundreds in fact, and I've found collecting these simple little efforts has become, for me at least, a sort of mad obsession!) 2.) Character colour changes 3.) Numerous new taunts 4.) Character, conceptual and promotional artwork 5.) Other Characters.
- Good animated opening sequences and endings for each character (much better than a still image and a bit of text - I just wish they looked more like the opening sequence instead of like every anime ever made.)
- Challenge mode is a great addition and a nice learning tool.
- Amazing opening sequence - really artistically innovative, not to mention full of smart little battles between numerous characters and of course the obligatory Hadouken, build up, awesomeness from Ryu.

THE BAD:
- The tunes that plays in the menus and throughout the opening sequence is a total cheese bomb rip off of much better music by the likes of Celldweller and Pendulum. It will get into your skull and it will scratch around in there like a rabid hamster till you are whistling along like a gibbering buffoon!
- A few new special moves for some of the old faves would have pushed things along a bit more, they all look better but are essentially the same. But, the new characters are interesting and the whole thing has been tightened, so what I'm really trying to say is: if you don't dig Street Fighter, and 2D beat `em ups in general, this ain't gonna change you oil. To everyone else: you're gonna love it so much!
- I wish you didn't have to go to the character select screen every time you get K.O'd in Arcade mode, just bugs me a bit - maybe I'm missing an option somewhere but sometimes I just want to get back in there and kick some hind quarters without all that razzmatazz - y' dig?
- Some of the stuff you got in the special edition was just not worth the extra money - although I traded some old stuff I wasn't interested in anymore for it so I don't feel as fleeced as I suspect some people do - it's not all bad news but I'll explain it in the following section:

NOTES ON THE SPECIAL EDITION AND IT'S CONTENTS:
THE GOOD:
- The movie that comes with it (The Ties That Bind) is okay, it's not mind blowing but it sets the scene well enough with some middle ground anime animation. Not a patch on the original Street Fighter II anime by manga from back in the day though - now that was sweet.
- You get some new outfits for some of the characters, however I have also listed this in the bad below for various reasons, some pertaining to my own biases (sorry!)

THE BAD:
- The figures in their little cardboard box are shoddy quality, badly painted and just a bit....blah. Don't know why they chose C.Viper either. Yeah, not too stunning.
- The Ties That Bind movie will only play in your 360 so if you want to watch it in another room while your wife watches Dancing on Ice or something equally hideous that doesn't star Sonny Chiba then you're out of luck my friend. Bit of a let down.
- The art book is a tiny, flimsy guide to doing pitiful combos and was hardly worth the shiny paper it was printed on. The least impressive thing I've ever seen with my own two human eye balls, complete filth.
- The cardboard box that comes with all this nonsense in is flimsy and likely to get crumpled before you even get it home.
- The brawler outfits are a bit naff - maybe some people disagree with me here but A.) I don't like the characters they're for anyway and B.) They're just not that inventive. However you may like the characters they're for and how they look, but I'd have rather had some yellow Bruce Lee style stuff for Fei Long and A reservoir dogs style suit for Ken, but that's just me.

CONCLUSION:
A Truly great game - in terms of polish and an overall tightening of game mechanics and new implementation this is a total and utter winner - the game rocks, no doubt about it, I'm hooked on online and can't stop trying to collect titles and icons, However it's just a shame that they hiked up the price for the spec ed when the stuff you get with it is more than just a little naff. Top, top, seriously good, game - crumby extras.

Welcome back Streetfighter and what a welcomed return. Fabulous game, but let down cos the standard control pad for the 360 is difficult to use to pull off the special moves, and now the arcade joysticks are almost so expensive and in such high demand you can't but one.

The games great, but you need a great deal of time and patience to bust out the special moves.

Firstly lets just get one thing straight, this is Street Fighter. It'll never claim to be the most amazing advancement in the beat em up genre or have the most engrosing storyline. It is what it is, the re-invention of an Arcade classic that changed the history of home gaming and had a lot to so with the life of the console you're playing it on now.

The graphics in this new version are pretty much spot on, exactly what you'd want and true to the Street Fighter roots, fluid motion and enjoyable backgrounds.

The controls can take some time to master (which I haven't yet) but once you've got the bread and butter moves sorted you can quite happily jump in for some 1 on 1 battles with your mates. You'll get out what you put in as far as learning the moves, the more you play the more you'll understand the various combos, supers, ultras etc and how to avoid them.

The pad works fine there's no real issues pulling the moves off once you know them, although the LB and RB buttons can become a tad fiddly.

As far as the Arcade mode is concerned be prepared to break your pad. As has previously been mentioned the difficulty levels are, to say the least wrongly titled. There are a number Easiest, Easier, Easy, Medium and Hard (I believe) I'd look at them as:

Easiest = First Timer,
Easier = Played a litte I know some moves,
Easy = I'm ready for a challenge,
Medium = I've got a spare pad, so I don't mind throwing this one at the wall
Hard = Its never gonna happen unless I live, sleep and breath this game and the people around don't mind me swearing and shouting lots.

Challenge modes and training modes are a welcome addition to the options, both of which will help you progress your skills.

The online play is a tad disapointing, no lobby systems other than one on one and even then you end up back out searching for a game after every match. Would have been nice to be able to set up a winner stay on friend lobby (in a pass the pad kinda way), it can take a little while to get into a game too.

The main thing about street fighter is its actually quite a tactical game and some of the matches really hit a nerve (good and bad) you'll laugh, you'll shout, you'll swear, you may even throw your pad against the wall...but when you turn it off you just want to come back for more.

Overall I really rate this game, there's nothing wrong with returning to classic and making it play and look like it always should have....after all how many re-mastered DVD's or Bluerays have you bought of old Movies?

If you're after cutting edge, look elsewhere...you won't find it here.