HALO WARS
With a lineage like Street Fighter IV’s, the thick cloud of anticipation that’s been looming over it since its announcement is all but expected. With the numerous successful sub-series and cross-overs the franchise has spawned, there’s been a whole lot of hope and skepticism alike amongst fans. Will the franchise harness the pace of the Alpha series, or will it be the boring sloth fest that EX was?
As you might know, Street Fighter IV moved away from the traditional sprite-based 2D art style and found its way into the arms of 3D cel-shaded character design with full 3D backdrops. The ink effect that was flaunted in the game’s first trailer, isn’t as prominent as it seemed previously. Instead, it’s been added in subtle ways to enhance the cel-shaded look, by giving it a 2D feel reminiscent of the older iterations by spilling it around the stylized ink around some of the special moves. The resulting effect is a 3D rendered game that stays true to the series’ 2D roots, and at the same time overhauls the visuals and outdoes most fighting games in the current generation where presentation is concerned. Initially though, the 3D transition left all of us skeptical since the last 3D attempt of the series - Street Fighter EX - failed miserably. The biggest flaws in EX were that it was painfully slow, and the fact that you could sidestep almost every special attack (since the game played out on a three dimensional plane) made it the least tactical of the lot.
Thankfully though, Capcom hasn’t made the same mistake a second time; so while Street Fighter IV is in 3D, all combat takes place on a 2D plane. It pretty much sticks to what worked best for the franchise, so all you skeptics and purists can breathe a sigh of relief. If you’re looking for the blazing pace of the Alpha series though, you’ll be a little disappointed.
Street Fighter IV has shed the insane pace that the Alpha series popularized, and has instead stuck to the Street Fighter II pace. While I loved the pace of Alpha, this change works incredibly well for SFIV since there are so many layers of tact introduced, that it would be close to impossible for all but the elite to play the game without button mashing if the pace was any faster.
The additional layers of tact are the new Revenge/Ultra system and the Focus System. The Revenge system is an addition to the Super system that was introduced way back in the series. As opposed to the way you can build up ‘super’ energy by executing special attacks, you can fill up your Revenge meter by getting hit. Once your Revenge bar fills up, you can execute a devastating Ultra Combo, where the camera breaks away from its standard static position, giving you a cinematic view of your pummeling the enemy in your fighter’s unique way, or vice-versa.
The fact that the revenge meter builds up only when you take a beating means that the losing side always has a fighting chance. In fact, if you manage to connect both—an Ultra combo followed by a Super combo, you can drain close to half of your foe’s health! Thanks to this, you’ll see a ton of match turnarounds where the losing side ends up victorious against all odds; and on the flip side you’ll be on your toes even when you’re close to winning a match since you know that you can get your ass handed to you in a matter of seconds. The nail-biting finish is what’s always driven the Street Fighter communities that crop up around arcade machines the world over; and that is exactly what’s been enhanced in Street Fighter IV, so I can imagine that veterans will have a blast playing this game.
Another new feature added to the combat is the Focus Attack. This is Street Fighter IV’s counter system—where when you hold down the Middle Punch and Middle Kick buttons, you move into a new stance that allows you to absorb your enemy’s blow and follow through with a counter attack. If the buttons are held down long enough, it results in an unblockable attack that renders the opponent immobile for a very short while, allowing you to follow through with a free attack. The tactical significance of this system is immense since you’re no longer restricted to blocking attacks, instead you can counter, dodge and evade incoming blows, changing the gameplay orientation from all out offensive and timing based, over the fine line into balanced territory where defense plays an equally important role.
All these new variables thrown into the mix can be quite overwhelming for a novice, or even intermediate players. Unfortunately, there’s no in-game tutorial to help you understand them, which means that you’re going to have to do a lot of reading if you want to understand the combat in and out. Most casual players may never even bother, so for them the combat will be just like any other Street Fighter game, which isn’t that bad at all.
The arcade mode allows you to pick players from the old roster plus four new ones, such as Abel, El Fuerte, Crimson Viper and Rufus. Each character has a short 2D animated intro video that plays when you start the single player mode, telling you a bit about their story. What follows is a string of numerous bouts, followed by your facing a ‘rival’, which is followed by the boss character—Gouken. The battles start of pretty easy but the difficulty level climbs quickly, to the point that it can become really frustrating for novice Street Fighter players. So if you’re new to the series and you wish to buy the game to play it against the AI, we suggest you reconsider since the area it shines brightest is when you fight other human players.
As it stands, online functionality is limited to the Arcade mode. If you’re online and you’ve kept the match making feature on, you can be challenged by other players looking for an online game. In the near future though, Capcom will release a free expansion pack that will include the brand new—Challenge mode—that’s meant exclusively for online play. This mode will add a new point system (ranks as well, perhaps) and a complete Tournament matchmaking system to help you take competition to a new level. While we can’t say it’ll be a great addition without trying it out first, it’s good to know that Capcom is working to enhance the online community of the game even before it is born.
To sum up, Street Fighter IV is undoubtedly at the zenith of the franchise where depth and balance is concerned. There’s a really deep combat system in place for those who wish to immerse themselves in multiplayer bouts, but the lasting appeal is limited when it comes to new players since it can get repetitive if you don’t enjoy the intricacies of versus games. If you do however, there’s no game better than Street Fighter IV.
Category: HALO WARS
0 comments