I remember when Street Fighter IV was first announced. I was super excited yet immediately saddened to find out that it was only going to be in Japanese arcades (to have to wait while other people played was killing me). Then, almost by accident, I stumbled on Eventhubs’ Arcade locator and saw that there was an arcade with the game near my house. I called up my buddy and ran down there ASAP. That was August 2008. 

When they finally announced a home release date, I got super excited (again) and acquired a Fightstick and an Xbox 360. When the game hit in the middle of February, I must have stayed up half the night playing and exploring, losing and winning, and then passing out a few hours before I had to get up for work. If you can’t tell, I really liked Street Fighter IV.

This is what’s scary about Super Street Fighter IV, I don’t fully understand what or how they did it, but I’m one week, and 20 hours, into Super and I love it. With Street Fighter IV, there was a nagging feeling that something was missing, but this upgrade feels right. Capcom managed to fix parts that I didn’t even know were wrong and add enough to make this the strongest Street Fighter release ever.

Gameplay

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I’ve played through the game with almost every single character and have used all of the new ones (online and offline), and the biggest addition has to be that each character feels useful and fun. The new characters are all different from the ones in the game before and each feels like a valuable addition to the cast. Returning characters (Cody, Adon, DeeJay, T. Hawk, Makoto, Ibuki, Dudley and Guy) feel true to their previous incarnations and the truly new characters (Juri and Hakan) feel like welcome additions to the cast. It’s even fun to see people online try to figure out how to best use Hakan. 

The returning cast all got a bunch of small tweaks and new ultras that vastly change the feel of the game. Whereas IV could feel slow and clunky, Super is quick and responsive. Even the controls seem to have their response refined. The new ultras completely change the way that some characters are played. Basically, and most important, each character (even Dan in the right hands) feels like he or she can be used to win. Currently, the character differences seem to be more about different play styles and less about poor damage output and weak combos. Now every character has a chance to win.

Online

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Online is another huge improvement over IV. The online modes are actually fun, instead of simply functional. Endless Battle (sharing a lobby with 8 people and taking turns fighting the winner and commenting on matches in progress) is a good way to play with friends or pick up new tricks. Team Battle (2v2, 3v3, 4v4) is neat, but too often it ends up being one sided if there is a really good player on one team, and Ranked is the same as always except you can see how you rank with each character and overall. Also, the Replay Channel is a fun way to see what people have been up to. Right now it’s a little short on videos, but this will change as the game gets older and more videos are uploaded. My biggest complaint about the online is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of people online yet, I’ve gotten pretty far into arcade mode without even getting a battle request (even 2 weeks ago in IV it was hard to finish a match without getting a request). I guess there are still a lot of people upset that the game wasn’t free DLC and are holding out by continuing to play IV.

Extras

The little extras that Capcom has included really help Super to stand out. Gone is the theme song of the previous game, which I’ll miss. In its place is an increased number of rival themes (one for each character), great for playing online and the option to pick between stage background music and rival themes. The 4 new stages are also amazing, especially the African Solar Eclipse stage. The trial mode has been completely revamped making it easier navigate, and the combos seem pretty useful. Capcom also changed the way that things are unlocked (all characters are available from the start) by tying a lot more of the titles, icons, taunts, and character colors to actual gameplay instead of the previous version’s trial and survival modes. This makes playing with your favorite character a lot more satisfying and allows beginning characters to unlock things even if they can’t win or do the harder combos. Also, the two filters (ink and sketch) they gave to people who owned the previous game are a neat freebee.

Overall

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This game is the definitive version of Street Fighter. Like Street Fighter 3, it took Capcom three very playable tries (Arcade, Console, and Super), but this final version is the one that people will still be playing for another 10 years. Everything has been revamped, the new characters and modes are amazing, the game is a lot more fun to play, and they’ve done a lot to step up community interaction. Coupled with the upcoming free tournament mode DLC and a price under $40, this is a lot more of a game than anyone could have expected. Ignore the haters, and the DLC naysayers, and drop the best $40 dollars you will ever spend on a game. Then prepare to whomp on a bunch of guys who try to fierce Dragon Punch you from across the screen.

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