Perhaps Street Fighter%26rsquo;s biggest achievement, though, is in taking the classic 2D fighting template and making it relevant and exciting for gamers used to gorging themselves on next-gen stunners. SF4 is wonderful to behold in motion. The animations feel weighty, punches and kicks have real impact, and every fighter has been tweaked to inject a little more personality into each. Blanka is more aggressive and less cartoony for example, while Chun-Li is more fluid and graceful than ever before.
Changes in your favorite characters are more than skin deep too. Blanka, always one of the weaker characters, is now a much more worthy opponent. Heavyweight Zangief and E Honda (whose 360 rotational moves made them tough to get to grips with for novices) have also been beefed up, and are well worth revisiting. Capcom have done a great job rebalancing the characters and although there are still some discrepancies (Blanka%26rsquo;s annoyingly good actually, and Sagat%26rsquo;s just an absolute monster!) you can pretty much pick anyone from the character roster and be confident you%26rsquo;re not going to get an absolute pasting from worthless, Ken-abusing scum.
So we like it then and it%26rsquo;s by no means an exaggeration to suggest that this is up there with the greatest fighters ever made. It%26rsquo;s not in the slightest button-mashy like Soul Calibur, it doesn%26rsquo;t require the colossal 20 button commands from the likes of Dead or Alive and instead focuses on what%26rsquo;s important %26ndash; simplicity, strategy and fun. Exactly what you need before you begin to master its hidden intricacies%26hellip;
You'll Love
+ The interesting new characters
+ That it%26rsquo;s easy for everyone to learn
+ The satisfyingly meaty feel to the action
You'll Hate
- That the final boss Seth is a bit irritating
- The long wait for the console versions
- That we don%26rsquo;t have room in our houses for an arcade cabinet
Arcade Score: 9
Nov 19, 2008
