Street Fighter 4 A-
by Capcom from Feb 2009

I’d really like a cybernetic left thumb. Perhaps one of my eyes. But specifically the thumb would be for long street fighter 4 sessions. However with a sore thumb, I must say, Street Fighter 4 is amazing and I am surprised at how much fun it is to wave a color changing scarf.
sf4rose

I’ve played fighters sporadically and always considered myself a novice, maybe intermediate at best. I know my hadoken (fireball) from my shoryuken (uppercut) but I don’t know what my favorite move is called, (spinning kicks).

A work friend of mine brought in perhaps the most visually appealing game I’ve ever seen. Street Fighter 4 oozes with cool artistic drawing effects, from paint brush splashes to straight up fierce looking “impact” waves, or explosions, or fire streaks. There is definitely not the size or depth of the graphics compared to a large world game like a fable 2 or gears 2, so its a lot easier for the artists to focus on the fantastic looking “VS” stroke that plays when you start a match.

Initially I just wanted to see the game, and bask in its artistry, and then as I picked it up and started playing, I remembered the high complexity of this gameplay that I had long forgot. It was not a button masher, you don’t luck out and beat someone like you can in other fighters. There aren’t even really cheap moves, or if there are, you’re playing the game wrong. Its a game of timing the uppercut when they jump, jumping over an attack and sweeping their legs out. Blocking the fireball and shooting back your EX fireball which blows through theirs.

After playing it for a while, and alternating through various characters, the depth of these games boggles me. I have a hard time understanding when and where, and even how to pull off some attacks of one character, let alone wildly different styles for up to 25 fighters. Some are similar, the Ken and Ryu .. and sakura have a lot of transfer. I knew how to play them from SF2 days on the Super Nintendo, so when I just HAD to beat that final Dr Manhattan-looking boss, I switched over to ryu and spin kicked my way to victory (spun kicked?). Some characters are just not my thing, I must have tried with Chun-Li over a hundred times and couldn’t get her moves at the right time to beat the boss. But I guess I was playing the wrong game style because I know for sure, there is a right way to win with Chun-Li.

This complexity of gamestyle can be found in some other video games, namely class based first person shooters, or role playing games with support/ranged/tank types. You have to understand your strengths and weaknesses to be effective. Fighting games too have this element but its a lot less obvious. A blue lady with giant legs doesn’t have an apparent strength or style. She kicks quickly, so part of my plan was to trap them close to me and kick to get a high combo. Sometimes I can get 7, 8, 10 kicks off to do some good damage, but then sometimes I get tossed before I can get any. It is a bit like chess where some moves set up other moves. A fireball will often cause them to jump, which is a great time to uppercut underneath them. I enjoy the game of chess, and find that I too am beyond a novice but not an expert. I can think a few moves ahead in chess, just like I can in street fighter. The speed however in street fighter can explode my mind and I sometimes wonder what neurologists could do by tapping into an expert gamer’s brain. I think I’ve developed the First Person Shooter part of my brain, I (sorry to rpgers) don’t think the RPG complexity is nearly as quick or complicated and that isn’t necessarily why RPGers play RPGs. Strategy games have some level of mental ability, but its on a larger scale, one I enjoy too.

In any case, the genre of fighters is an excellent one that is often forgotten. I truly enjoy the speed and planning that goes into it, and Street Fighter 4 is the finest game at rewarding good gameplay, and also looking fantastic in the process. The only way they could improve it is a more detailed training system, and/or some more online structured modes with tournaments or a better matchmaking.