Faster than you can say “Hadouken”, Street Fighter IV is back with a vengeance. This is the father no wait grandfather of all fighting games in my opinion. The franchise has gone through numerous changes throughout the years. Everything from characters to various versions. I felt that it tried a little too hard to please everyone with some previous versions like the Street Fighter EX series. But in hindsight I guess it was necessary to bring it to where it’s at today. The man responsible for Street Fighter is Yoshiki Okamoto who’s name is worthy enough to be mentioned in the same sentence with Yu Suzuki of Virtua Fighter, Shenmue and Outrun fame as well as Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of such hits as Mario, Donkey Kong , Zelda and Starfox to name a few.

It’s great to see the series get an extreme makeover in all the right places. Game play is phenomenal, the game runs smooth and pulling off combos is done with ease.  There are focus attacks, a super meter, a revenge meter, throws are back as well as an extensive training system. It does help if you have an arcade style controller but never the less I had no trouble stepping in people’s faces with this one.  My favorite character is still Akuma, who along with Gouken (Ryu,  Ken’s and Akuma’s older brother’s master) are the two main unlockable characters. Others are unlockable as well but you just simply have to beat the game with their rivals to unlock them.

It is amazing to throw fireballs and execute specials in High Definition. I also like the look on the faces of the fighters as they take a hit. The damage dealt is also proportionate to the move being done. While characters are modeled in three dimensional form the backgrounds remain two dimensional, with a lot of activity going on compared to previous games. I lost quite a few matches just by being distracted by the artwork.

When playing online bring your (A) game or be prepared to have your ass handed to you. The new characters are as colorful as ever, El Fuerte is my favorite he reminds me of the wrestler Rey Mysterio and is harder to catch than an STD at a Catholic nun convention. They all seem to have personalities in this game. The voice work is brilliant in either English or Japanese. It is really hard to find something to criticize this game for, the only thing I can think of is that I wish they would have had a moves list for the characters that you can access while playing via the pause screen. I also wish they spent more time coming up with a better last boss than Seth, not the one from Pineapple Express (you stoners).

He looks like a Silver Surfer rip off minus the surfboard. While some people might not spend hours upon hours with this game, it’s definitely something you can play for a few hours a day to hone your fighting skills and should be in your collection for when your friends come over. I know people with far worse fighting games on their shelves. Go out and buy this game to show your support whether you grew up with Street Fighter or this is “Round One” either way FIGHT!!

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