Capcom has been notorious over the years for constantly rehashing their major games not long after release, by simply adding a few new characters, maybe a new stage, then slapping a ‘Director’s Cut’ or ‘Hyper Turbo Championship EX Plus Alpha Dogz Edition’ tag to the end of the title, then selling it at full price. While hardcore fans (including myself), ate it up, this never pleased the casual consumer as they felt ripped off and angered that they spent all that hard earned money and now Capcom wanted it again. Good news my friend — those days are over. Capcom has learned from their past mistakes and Super Street Fighter IV proves it. 10 new characters, 5 new stages, new, improved modes and online play, plus rebalanced characters for only $40? My fellow fighter fans, Super Street Fighter IV is the premiere fighter on the PlayStation 3. Read on to find out exactly why…
Some of you might have just read that prior sentence and went ‘Whoa, whoa..Thomas, you must not have played BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, dude’. Not to worry, I bought the limited edition the day it came out. While BlazBlue: Calamity is a great fighting game, with some of the most beautiful HD 2D visuals around, it just can’t compare with Super Street Fighter IV. Even its re-release, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift doesn’t sound like it can offer the same content for the money. While Blazblue: CT and Street Fighter IV might have been on an even playing field, Super Street Fighter IV blows both of them away. One reason why is because of the addition of 10 new characters.
For those of you at home who don’t know who those ten are, let me break them down for you. Guy and Cody from the Final Fight series, Adon from the original Street Fighter and Street Fighter Alpha Series, Dee Jay and T. Hawk from Super Street Fighter II, Ibuki, Makoto, and Dudley from Street Fighter III, and the new guy and gal, Haken the Turkish Oil Wrestler and Juri, the Tae Kwon Do master for the S.I.N. organization. Rather than focusing on a couple past entries, Capcom went all out and included a character from almost every Street Fighter release, sans the EX series. I would have killed for some Skullomania! Thankfully, all 35 characters are unlocked the moment you press start, saving you all that time of having to unlocking them and more time trying everyone out.
The cast of new characters improve the game as it gives fans a pleasant variety of characters to choose from and helps keep the online mode fresh and non-repetitive. Remember how everyone used Ryu, Ken, and Sagat in SFIV? While some people still do and will always, although this time around you don’t see them as much. The only real problem with the ‘brand’ new characters is the same problem everyone had with Street Fighter IV. The ‘brand’ new characters introduced aren’t that popular and I can only see Juri moving on to future Street Fighter titles, such as Street Fighter V or whatever. Capcom attempted to spice up the series with some fresh blood, however fans won’t be begging to seem them reappear in future titles, such as the case for a majority of the Street Fighter III cast.
For those of you who have already played Street Fighter IV, then you already know how fantastic the gameplay is. If you’re new to the series, then let it be known: SSFIV is perfect for first time fans yet features the depth that the hardcore fans of the series demand. Sure, Capcom didn’t make any drastic changes or improvement to the series (besides the move from pure 2D to 3D characters on a 2D plane) but why mess with solid gold? The ‘Street Fighter formula’ is absolutely addictive and is the cream of the crop and the best around for a reason. With every release Capcom fine tunes and further perfects the formula. There is nothing to worry about with the gameplay, as it becomes more and more addicting as your learn the immense catalog of moves for every character.
One of the new moves introduced in SFIV was the Ultra combo and were easily one of the best new additions to the game. Capcom has added a new Ultra combo for every character in Super Street Fighter IV and the best part is that the new Ultras are much easier to perform than their original counterparts. Apart from being a part of the ‘new content’ for the game, it seems they’ve been added to help even the par for new fans of the series or first time buyers against series veterans.
Another addition to the ‘Super’ package are the two new online modes. Endless battle and Team battle have been include and help keep the online portion of the game from being limited. Endless battle lets up to 8 players battle it out; you keep going until you get your ass kicked, then you set back and watch until it’s your turn again. The team battle lets you put two teams of up to four players or heck..you could even do 1 vs 4, if you think you’ve got the stuff. Good luck with that!
