Street Fighter IV mega thread
- Thread starter mrtonguetwista
- Start date
Ok, I just got finished playin for like 2 hours and I'm gonna give you a breakdown on what I like, dislike, and what I feel are pro's and con's of the game.
First off, like others have mentioned, if you were a fan of any of the SF 2 versions, or Super SF, you'll feel right at home with the general flow/speed of this game (as a whole.) Some of the combo's will be easy to pull off, some will force you to readjust your timing as certain moves and combos have been changed (more on this later) but the overall feel is still SF2. The game opens up with a fight sequence, and most of you have probably saw it on the net. I however, do not like the singing for the song as it sounds like some Justin Timberlake/Kevin Federline type of shit, so I changed it to the Japanese voices. It still souds gay as fuck in Japanese but not as gay as it did in English.
You have a lot of options in this game like english or japanese voices, subs, etc. You can also change how high or low the health meters and combo gauges are on the screen. I played a game where I couldn't see either one of them and this adds to the challange as you don't know how much health you have left or where you are on your combo meter. You can change your controller to any button configuration you choose, and some of the buttons are already K+K+K or P+P+P, throw, etc so all you have to do is set them wherver you want if you don't like the default setup.
When it comes to training you can set the cpu to do basically anything you want them to, however, I didn't see a setting for having the dummy do just special moves or no special moves. However, what you can do is record what you want the cpu to do and then use the playback feature to have the dummy do it. The moves for each unlocked character can be displayed on screen and looks just like the move list from the book, and this is a good thing because the instruction booklet is on point. In fact, it's one of the best instruction booklets I've seen in a bit, so keep it by just in case you want to know what certain things do or how certain things are. There are trials in this game like survival mode or the mode where you have to do moves and combos that unlock achievments, artwork, videos, etc.
Now you've all seen the game on the net, but seeing it in person or on your tv screen, is a sight to behold. I'm running my 360 with a VGA cable @ 720 and the game looks beautiful. The backgrounds look cool and you'll spend some time watching the people in the background as some of them do very interesting things. Pay attention to the guy on the cruise ship, or the guys in Chun Li's old stage and you'll see what I'm talking about. However, some of the backgrounds don't have much going on, and still some of them have things in them that can be broken (a door for example.) So far, it seems there are day and night versions of several of the backgrounds. I played Chun Li and Blanka stages in both day and night and they look different. It doesn't have an impact on gameplay, but I guess they have a reason for doing this and this brings me to a con.
There doesn't seem to be that many stages in this game. I was expecting each person to have their own stage, but it doesn't appear that way. Because of this, you can end up fighting Ken in Blankas stage or something off the wall like that. It isn't a game breaker, but with as many characters as this game has, I was expecting a bit more from a stage perspective. Maybe you unlock more as you progress in the game, but I haven't seen that many.
This brings me to the characters and this is where the game has both pros and cons. From the gates you can play as the roster from SF 2 C.E./Turbo and the new characters (Rufus, C.Viper, Fuerte and Abel.) All the other slots are empty, so it's a no brainer that you have to unlock them by beating the game or achieving some other requirement (like getting perfects or not continuing...hint...hint...). I can't remember if Dan was unlocked, and I never liked him anyway so fuck him. The character animations are on point. Some of them are comical, but at times, when you avoid a special move the character will have a look on his/her face that says, "O shit that was close." Capcom put a lot of work into this one, and there are details on the characters that you'll notice as you play the game. Sagats trunks come to mind as a prime example of this.
All of the OG fighters pretty much control the same way they did in previous versions but there are some tweeks and little changes. For example, if you play as Vega (Balrog to those who are stuck on the japanese names) you can drop your claw and mask on purpose, but it'll cost you some of your combo gauge. What I didn't like about the game was how some of the characters have been slowed down. For example, Blanka was one of the most deadliest characters in the series, but he's been toned down a lot. I guess they were looking for balance, but IMHO, they nerfed him pretty bad. Blanka used to have a lot of reach, and strength, but this has been toned down, so you're gonna have to adjust if you want to do the jumping fierce, low fierce, cannon ball combo. And speaking of his cannon ball, the speed on it is slow as hell, so I'm letting other Blanka players know right now, he seems broken and is a shell of his former self. Ryu's hurricane kick? So slow that if you get hit with it, the game should be declared over, and you should be declared the loser. Vega? He's slowed down, but what's crazy is the new fat guy Rufus isn't slow and will be used to spam and cheese the same moves over and over.
I don't think the new characters were balanced well, but keep in mind these are new characters, so this is something different than my take on og characters who were nerfed. I did notice some character model clipping in the training mode, but I didn't notice it in the game. The 360 controller is hit and miss on this one, and it's gonna take some time to get used to. Most spots that will have tournies are most likely gonna use the 360 pad due to the shortage of sticks that were made. So, I say make sure you practice with the 360 (or ps3 pad if you have that.)
Another thing about moves I noticed were the various effects of the EX moves. I played as Ryu and did some EX fireballs and he would throw two of them. His slow hurrricane kick? Use the EX one and it speeds up, connects multiple times, but it's stationary, so you need to use this to actually set up a trap and hit someone from both sides. His EX dragon also has a wider arc that's very similar to Ken's regular dragon. Speaking of Ryu, I think they could have put a bit more into his ultra move. This guy is the posterboy for SF, and all these other people have sick looking ultra's but his is a measly fireball? WTF?!?!?! In his intro he throws a long ass fireball into a waterfall, but he does nothing like that in the game.
So overall how do I feel? The pro's outweigh the cons and the game is a must buy for SF and fighting fans. I say the game is a 9.2 - 9.5. I can't give it a 10 because it doesn't really add anything new, or reinvent the wheel, but it isn't supposed to because it's back to the SF2 roots. I think the speed and hit detection for a couple of moves could have been tweaked, but these aren't deal breakers. I haven't put it online yet, but I'll try to do that tommorow as I'm in a tournie on Saturday and need some practice. If you have any questions, comments, etc just ask me and I'll get back to you.
First off, like others have mentioned, if you were a fan of any of the SF 2 versions, or Super SF, you'll feel right at home with the general flow/speed of this game (as a whole.) Some of the combo's will be easy to pull off, some will force you to readjust your timing as certain moves and combos have been changed (more on this later) but the overall feel is still SF2. The game opens up with a fight sequence, and most of you have probably saw it on the net. I however, do not like the singing for the song as it sounds like some Justin Timberlake/Kevin Federline type of shit, so I changed it to the Japanese voices. It still souds gay as fuck in Japanese but not as gay as it did in English.
You have a lot of options in this game like english or japanese voices, subs, etc. You can also change how high or low the health meters and combo gauges are on the screen. I played a game where I couldn't see either one of them and this adds to the challange as you don't know how much health you have left or where you are on your combo meter. You can change your controller to any button configuration you choose, and some of the buttons are already K+K+K or P+P+P, throw, etc so all you have to do is set them wherver you want if you don't like the default setup.
When it comes to training you can set the cpu to do basically anything you want them to, however, I didn't see a setting for having the dummy do just special moves or no special moves. However, what you can do is record what you want the cpu to do and then use the playback feature to have the dummy do it. The moves for each unlocked character can be displayed on screen and looks just like the move list from the book, and this is a good thing because the instruction booklet is on point. In fact, it's one of the best instruction booklets I've seen in a bit, so keep it by just in case you want to know what certain things do or how certain things are. There are trials in this game like survival mode or the mode where you have to do moves and combos that unlock achievments, artwork, videos, etc.
Now you've all seen the game on the net, but seeing it in person or on your tv screen, is a sight to behold. I'm running my 360 with a VGA cable @ 720 and the game looks beautiful. The backgrounds look cool and you'll spend some time watching the people in the background as some of them do very interesting things. Pay attention to the guy on the cruise ship, or the guys in Chun Li's old stage and you'll see what I'm talking about. However, some of the backgrounds don't have much going on, and still some of them have things in them that can be broken (a door for example.) So far, it seems there are day and night versions of several of the backgrounds. I played Chun Li and Blanka stages in both day and night and they look different. It doesn't have an impact on gameplay, but I guess they have a reason for doing this and this brings me to a con.
There doesn't seem to be that many stages in this game. I was expecting each person to have their own stage, but it doesn't appear that way. Because of this, you can end up fighting Ken in Blankas stage or something off the wall like that. It isn't a game breaker, but with as many characters as this game has, I was expecting a bit more from a stage perspective. Maybe you unlock more as you progress in the game, but I haven't seen that many.
This brings me to the characters and this is where the game has both pros and cons. From the gates you can play as the roster from SF 2 C.E./Turbo and the new characters (Rufus, C.Viper, Fuerte and Abel.) All the other slots are empty, so it's a no brainer that you have to unlock them by beating the game or achieving some other requirement (like getting perfects or not continuing...hint...hint...). I can't remember if Dan was unlocked, and I never liked him anyway so fuck him. The character animations are on point. Some of them are comical, but at times, when you avoid a special move the character will have a look on his/her face that says, "O shit that was close." Capcom put a lot of work into this one, and there are details on the characters that you'll notice as you play the game. Sagats trunks come to mind as a prime example of this.
All of the OG fighters pretty much control the same way they did in previous versions but there are some tweeks and little changes. For example, if you play as Vega (Balrog to those who are stuck on the japanese names) you can drop your claw and mask on purpose, but it'll cost you some of your combo gauge. What I didn't like about the game was how some of the characters have been slowed down. For example, Blanka was one of the most deadliest characters in the series, but he's been toned down a lot. I guess they were looking for balance, but IMHO, they nerfed him pretty bad. Blanka used to have a lot of reach, and strength, but this has been toned down, so you're gonna have to adjust if you want to do the jumping fierce, low fierce, cannon ball combo. And speaking of his cannon ball, the speed on it is slow as hell, so I'm letting other Blanka players know right now, he seems broken and is a shell of his former self. Ryu's hurricane kick? So slow that if you get hit with it, the game should be declared over, and you should be declared the loser. Vega? He's slowed down, but what's crazy is the new fat guy Rufus isn't slow and will be used to spam and cheese the same moves over and over.
I don't think the new characters were balanced well, but keep in mind these are new characters, so this is something different than my take on og characters who were nerfed. I did notice some character model clipping in the training mode, but I didn't notice it in the game. The 360 controller is hit and miss on this one, and it's gonna take some time to get used to. Most spots that will have tournies are most likely gonna use the 360 pad due to the shortage of sticks that were made. So, I say make sure you practice with the 360 (or ps3 pad if you have that.)
Another thing about moves I noticed were the various effects of the EX moves. I played as Ryu and did some EX fireballs and he would throw two of them. His slow hurrricane kick? Use the EX one and it speeds up, connects multiple times, but it's stationary, so you need to use this to actually set up a trap and hit someone from both sides. His EX dragon also has a wider arc that's very similar to Ken's regular dragon. Speaking of Ryu, I think they could have put a bit more into his ultra move. This guy is the posterboy for SF, and all these other people have sick looking ultra's but his is a measly fireball? WTF?!?!?! In his intro he throws a long ass fireball into a waterfall, but he does nothing like that in the game.
So overall how do I feel? The pro's outweigh the cons and the game is a must buy for SF and fighting fans. I say the game is a 9.2 - 9.5. I can't give it a 10 because it doesn't really add anything new, or reinvent the wheel, but it isn't supposed to because it's back to the SF2 roots. I think the speed and hit detection for a couple of moves could have been tweaked, but these aren't deal breakers. I haven't put it online yet, but I'll try to do that tommorow as I'm in a tournie on Saturday and need some practice. If you have any questions, comments, etc just ask me and I'll get back to you.
I think that both games are gonna be dope. As far as one being better then the other there totaly differnt games with different styles of game play. In terms of overall history though Street Fighter wins just in terms of longevity. Plus for some people SF was the 1st fighting game they ever played and kicked off the fighting game franchises.