Review: Street Fighter IV

The PC doesn't really have many of its own beat-em up games. I remember a Virtua Fighter eons ago when I was a wee one, but there hasn't really been a fighting game ever since. Probably because these kind of games are best suited for couch potatoes, large plasma screens, and played with a buddy or family member.

But nevertheless, there are PC gamers out there who want to get their pure, brutal ass-kicking fun on and Capcom has been kind enough to answer with Street Fighter IV. Most fighting games would extend their generosity to cover only all the console platforms, but to include the PC is most delightful.

For those who don't have a clue what the game is about, you choose a character and employ a range of their specific fighting skills and flashy, ultra-powered moves to beat the crap out of the opponent, and move up the ladder to supremacy. There are pointless back-stories played out in anime cutscenes for each of the characters as a flimsy motivation for them to beat other people up senselessly. Attention doesn't really need to be paid to these mind-blowing plotlines as you really just want to get your freak on.


Street Fighter IV will keep fans happy with the return of many familiar heroes and heroines, Ryu, Ken, Cammy, Guile, Chun-Li, as well as villains Zangeif, Bison, Blanka. On top of which, new characters appear, like El Fuerte a Mexican brawler with a frying pan, Rufus an overweight but surprisingly fast fighter, and Crimson Viper, a female spy. Not all characters in the roster are immediately available to players though, with 9 characters to unlock through completion of the Arcade single-player mode.

The gameplay is pure, unadulterated fun. To get far in the Arcade mode, or to truly enjoy the game for what it is, learning the combos and all the attack moves is necessary. The action is edge-of-the-seat, fast paced and punishing at higher stages, but you never feel frustrated and will always keep coming back to try again.

It seems the game works well for both beginners and highly skilled players. Beginners will be prone to button-mashing and that can get you through most of the early stages easily enough, but once the enemies start to time their own attacks and pull off blisteringly combos, you will need to be able to time counters, and string combos of your own to win. In this way, Street Fighter 4 has done well to appeal to the hardcore fighting crowd and yet not alienate newcomers interested in trying this top fighting game.


Playing with the keyboard is not the same as playing with a gamepad which would make the moves much easier to execute, but it works well enough. Just be sure your keyboard can take the punishing toll. And of course, if you were to play with a friend on the same computer, a gamepad would be necessary. However, for friends who own a copy of Street Fighter IV themselves, internet play is possible all handled smoothly with challenge requests via Windows Live.

Windows Live itself has been a hindrance for many games, including GTA IV and Fallout 3. Logging in with the internet is a pain as at least half the time, there's some new Live patch to download, or it fails to connect. But once you get past this issue, at least the online component works decently. It also records all your achivements and championship data to give you bragging rights.

The graphics is entirely fresh and different from what is on offer with a lot of fighting games today. The new Tekkens and Soul Caliburs on the consoles boast highly detailed, realistically modelled characters and backgrounds, and even 3D fighting stages. But Street Fighter 4 flies in the face of all that complicated eye-candy with simple but highly stylized cel-shading, that is new and yet very faithful to the style of Street Fighters of old. And instead of having a 3D camera, Street Fighter melds the new graphics with old-school style by having the fighting happen on a 2D plane. It proves that you don't need to do anything different to still be very enjoyable.


However, a word of warning, the game does require at least a moderately powerful system, as the highly detailed cel-shading can lead to lag for insufficient systems. I recommend this game to be played at the optimal speed, at least 40 frames per second, otherwise it destroys the point of fast-paced combat. It is unfortunate that the game is not as leniently scalable as I expected. There's a benchmark tool in the game that allows you to tweak the settings to get the best results.

Many of the characters have had subtle makeovers, like all of the men being a lot more muscular and beefier, as they would be if they were fighting machines. Capcom have certainly not stint on the flashy moves department with each character having a very cool mini-cutscene of their own as they execute lethal finishing moves that leaves your heart pumping and fists pumping as you "FINISH HIM!", or her for that matter. The backgrounds also have had make-overs, with some familiar scenes from past Street Fighters looking spruced up, colorful and 3D, but still playing to the nostalgia of the gamers.

Capcom themselves consider the PC version of Street Fighter IV the "definitive version" over the consoles in that there is the ability to tweak a lot of the graphics setting to ultra-hyper fidelity as well as include interesting extra elements such as Ink, Posterize, or Watercolor streaks that follow the punch and kick motions of the characters. But I can't help but feel that even no matter how big an LCD screen you might have, it still looks better on a HD 1080p Plasma TV. Other things that make this the definitive version include downloadable content like different clothing for the characters, and perhaps even new backgrounds and characters in the distant future.


Sound is fine, although Capcom could have included some more heart-pumping tracks to beat other people up to. The main menu theme is pretty exciting though, a number done by a popular Japanese group Exile. There is the option to switch the dialogue between English or original Japanese which is a good addition to have.

All in all, Street Fighter IV is a must-buy for both fans of the game, and those who've never tried it but are interested in a good fighting game for the PC. The fighting is highly balanced, rewarding for skill-play, and just plain fun. It's addictivelyfun to watch with its beautiful, stylized graphics and no-holds barred attitude. It's got just the right amount of cheese and familiarity to Street Fighters of old, but make no mistake, Street Fighter has finally shed its excesses like the Alpha Ex nonsense, and entered next-gen gaming.

Now go kick some ass.