My whole basis for judging value in an entertainment product comes from Street Fighter. Back in my late high school/early college days, my friends and I played a heluva lota Street Fighter 2 at the arcade. It's a quick game, and at a quarter a pop, you could spend a lot of money fast if you last too fast, too often (which I did at first). But eventually we all got better. I remember one regular at the arcade was so good he'd actually pay for other people to play against him because no one would throw away their quarters with him at the joystick. He would even give lessons on how to pull off a special move or time the perfect throw. I never got great at the game, but I got decent, and could pretty much count on $5 in quarters lasting me a solid hour in the arcade. I decided that $5 was therefore just about the right amount of money for an hour's entertainment. Weirdly enough, almost two decades later I still think that's the right price, although I've sure as hell spent lots more money for much shorter entertainments since then. At $60 though, Street Fighter 4 is a bargain.(warning – Flash heavy site).
It's taken a long time for this newest incarnation of the world's bestest fighting game evah to come out, and given that length of time, it's surprising how little has changed. That's a good thing. The graphics are greatly improved – 3D modeled fighters, bright colors, rich textures, smooth animation, and appropriately hulked out art design combine to make a pretty, cartoony, exciting-looking game. But 3D fighters don't augur a 3D game. Street Fighter 4 remains blessedly two-dimensional, with fighters squaring off in a straight line with nowhere to move up left and right, up and down. By ignoring the pressure to add in that depth of field, Capcom has maintained the core of what works so well. Messing too much with the winning formula of well-balanced, versatile fighters is like adding a third dimension to chess. Yes people did it and it looked cool on Star Trek, but nobody really wants to play it. It's ruining a classic in service of a fad.
So Street Fighter 4 is anything but ruined. It plays like the original, and then more so. There are new wrinkles to the core mechanic, including focus attacks and super moves, but these just add depth to the game's already deep strategy and timing. They don't break or change the rules. T There are all the old favorite characters and some cool new ones (and some fat dude in a yellow jumpsuit named Rufus who is not cool). The new characters, the secret characters, the old favorites – they all work, they all offer some fun options, and they're all comparable to fighters you might be familiar with. The tournament scene for Street Fighter has thrived for decades, and Capcom clearly respected the lessons from those hardened players. I think all this is good. But it also means that I, and probably you too, are not going to be good at Street Fighter 4.
This is a hard game, or it can be. The default “Medium” difficulty setting proved beyond my abilities when I first loaded the game, even playing with familiar characters like Ken and Ryu. Ratchet that down to Very Easy and give yourself some time to get used to the game. I know tutorials usually suck, but Street Fighter 4 has some good skill challenges and a versatile practice mode. Pick one character and spend ten minutes learning his or her moves. That up front investment will make playing the game a helluva lot more fun. Whatever you do, don't let your early online experiences be the basis for you judging the game.
I probably played 20 bouts against opponents online before I won a single round. Now I can win about one in five. But hey, I'm getting better, and when those wins come, it's awesome. When I was young and mostly played with my friends in the same room on the old Super Nintendo, everyone was about the same skill level and you could pass the controllers around for hours. It's awesome being able to play people from all over the world, but most of those people are better than you. Some of those people will make you think you're not even playing the same game as they are. That jerk who held me in a corner and just shocked me to death with Blanka and I couldn't do anything about it? I hope he dies in a fire. But this game is selling like mad already, and since you're going to buy a copy too (right?), I have a feeling the population of mediocre players like me will be burgeoning in coming weeks. The game says it can match based on skill level, and that seems to work for me. Or maybe I'm just getting better. Either way, I'm having a blast. In fact, I think I'll go Dragon Punch the hell out of some dudes right now…
This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2009.