Street Fighter IV Review

    Sure, most people haven’t played this game in about 15 years as the last, oh, I don’t know, 70 iterations involved 7 year olds beating your ass after nailing 20 button long combos. But, that doesn’t detract from the fact that the original Street Fighters essentially pioneered the modern fighting genre. And let’s get something straight from the get-go: this game doesn’t reinvent anything. It just does everything freakin’ amazing.

    For one, the graphics don’t suck. ( Anyone remember the last Street Fighter?) Secondly, the game isn’t a piece of shit. I mean literally, that pretty much covers the entire game. If you ever said to yourself  ”Golly Gee, I want to play a fighting game!”, this is for you. I have no doubt in my mind that this game is rivaled only by Soul Calibur IV as the best fighting game of the last few years. At least, of the last few years. I would be right behing anyone In arguing that Soul Calibur II or SF: Alpha: A Warrior’s Dream, SNK vs. Capcom 2003, or Marvel Vs. Capcom were all better overall games. Why? Because they were geared towards console gamers while retaining that arcade spirit. For instance, my friend Jan, whose sole criteria for games is flashy graphics and gas masks would be much, much more inclined to pick a game he can have a blast with online, and is easy to play.

     That’s where SF IV falls flat on its oversized arse. How? Hm…..Oh yeah, the final boss is IMPOSSIBLE. No overstatement. I believe I personally am a very accomplished player in terms of SF and I had to turn the difficulty down AND  switch it to a single thirty second round and even then, I couldn’t K.O., I would have higher health and win by default. Also, the online mode, at least from the time I’ve put into it, suffers from MAJOR lag. Like, if a baseball player on steroids, lag steroids, and a the world’s biggest turtle had  a kid that was an online mode in a fighting game, dis would be it folks. I mean, brohan, this game is like a sculpture of your Grandma made of molasses in freakin’ quicksand. Oh yeah, and to pour really good quality Kosher salt into the wounds, you pratically need a good arcade stick (like a $130 Hori) to play this.

    This game isn’t gonna change people’s pea brained Halo minds about fighting games. Mainly, because this game feels like one step forwards, one 3/4 a step back.

    Verdict: 8.1/10 Cautious Editor’s Choice