Street Fighter 4: The Downgraded Upgrade

Ah. My first blog entry. Hmmm…what should I write about… Well, for consistency with the title, I suppose I could write about Street Fighter 4.

Awwwe snap! Like a bad case of herpes, Street Fighter's back!

Round one…FIGHT!

Capcom’s long awaited fourth entry in the main Street Fighter (SF) line finally graced store shelves a couple of weeks ago. Fighting fans everywhere have had plenty of time to get accustomed to the new gameplay wrinkles and dish out some ultimate pwn-age to opponents across the net. So what’s the verdict? Does SF 4 live up to everyone’s expectations?

Without a doubt, this title is being critically acclaimed across the board. IGN gave it 9.3/10, Gamespot a 9.0, and the list goes on. In fact, you will be hard-pressed to find many negative overall reviews. The gameplay is excellent, the graphics are great, and most importantly, it manages to retain that certain Street Fighter charm.

The bottom line is quite simple: SF 4 is a great game.

The kid gloves come off

However (Come on. You knew this was coming), while I am heavily enjoying the game, I do have my issues with it. I’ve been playing the SF series since the time that Micheal Jackson was still black and Saturday Night Live was still funny. In short, I’ve earned the right to be a bit of a fighting game snob.

With each iteration of the series, new features were added in an attempt to raise the action to a new level of depth and excitement. Of these elements, there are three major features which have proven to be the most important in the evolution of the fighting game genre. These are super moves, counters, and air blocking. Instead adding to the features, Capcom yanked features from our fighting fingers. Thankfully, at least one and a half of these made the cut for SF4.

Air blocks were completely removed from the game while the counter system was mutated into the steaming pile of booty-doo byproduct called the “hyper armor” system.

Good times, but so was high school. And no one wants that many zits again.

There are many fans who are stuck in 1993 and think that SF2 (most likely, Super Turbo) is the best title in the series. Don’t get me wrong. I loved that game for the longest time and enjoyed schooling my peers in it as much as the next, but life goes on. These are probably the same people that still hold Golden Eye to be the best shooter of all time. Newer, more exciting game mechanics have been developed and adopted by the genre and shouldn’t have been completely ignored.

A Hadouken to the face

With the exclusion of air blocks and counters, the projectile spammer game has been given a breath of new life not seen since the early 90′s. In Alpha and the VS series, projectile spammers were a rare bunch, since higher caliber players had a number of answers to this dull strategy. Air blocking was removed from SF3 as well, but to retain a check on projectile spammers everywhere, the parry system was used.

So it seems that in every iteration, there has been some sort of check on the snoozer fireball freaks. These ensured that the fighting kept a high pace.

So what check does the SF4 have? What are your options?

Ryu concentrating his armpit odor into a giant ball of oniony death

Scenario: Sagat vs Ken

Sagat spams Ken with fireballs. The quick option is to do a jumping Hurricane Kick over Sagat and attack from behind. This is a viable solution. The only problem is that it only works if your opponent is a sub par player. The Hurricane Kick allows for effective screen traversal because of the fact that it suspends Ken in the air for a time. This also means that Sagat has additional time to recover from his attack. Depending on the timing and angle of the Hurricane Kick, Sagat has the option of a jumping attack, a Tiger uppercut, or even another projectile to intercept. Any skilled player can do it.

Ken’s next option is to absorb the attacks using his hyper armor and cancel with a forward dash to close the gap. The only problem with this strategy is that once again, Ken is at the mercy of the spammer. He is attempting to slowly inch his way through the barrage (all the while, taking damage even though using hyper armor) and all Sagat need do is throw in an EX Tiger Shot. Surely throwing so many fireballs has filled his super bar enough. Failing to have the energy, he simply needs to Tiger Knee. Ken is attempting to absorb fireballs, and the closer he gets, the more reactive he needs to become to any motion from Sagat. Sagat wins once again because even if Ken uses hyper armor in time, Sagat’s Tiger Knee has armor break properties and will land the crushing blow.

Then there’s the third option: Dish it right back to him. How…um….exciting?? I thought the days of hearing “Hadouken! Hadouken! Hadouken!” were long gone, but dammit, they’re back to haunt our asses.

Regardless, it’s all good in Chun-Li town

Ok. Off my soap box. Fighting game snob mode disengaged.

The projectile spammer tactic is back and here to stay. Might as well try to practice against it and adapt…again. Thankfully, the vast majority of people are still used to playing in good ol’ SF 3 or Alpha style, and you don’t run into the quarter circle marathons too often. There’s still plenty of furious fighting fun to be had from this beautiful game.

See you guys in the ring!