Welcome back to the Street Fighter series!
From the moment, Capcom announced Street Fighter IV, I am confident I was not the only one checking regularly on updates for the game and checking out when the release date will be.
But it is here, and it is fresh too! Capcom has managed to bring back to life the Street Fighter franchise after the so so Street Fighter III. Do not get me wrong, I liked Street Fighter III and I still play it from time to time on the all mighty Dreamcast but I'm not here to review the said game, I'm only saying that Capcom should have kept all the original Street Fighter 2 crew and should have added the new roster of character from the third chapter.
A mistake they sure have not made in Street Fighter IV. All of our favourites are back. As a bonus, we also get some characters from the Street Fighter Alpha series (Like Rose, Gen, Sakura, Dan, ...) but we're also getting a bunch of new faces.
The new characters, namely C.Viper, Rufus, El Fuerte, Abel and Seth are nicely integrated into the large selection of characters, in other words, they do not feel like outsiders, they feel like proper Street Fighters (to me anyway).
I know a lot of people, mostly critics, are saying that Seth is just the cheapest character around, but hey, so was M. Bison in Street Fighter 2. I do not believe the latest chapter should suffer in its review because of Seth.
Anywho, the presentation of the game is flawless, from the very stylish intro movie to the 3D rendering of the characters, and the 3D stages, everything feels fresh and new.
The animation of the characters is outstanding, everything is so fluid. There are some minor graphical issues, such as a fist going through your opponent's body or a foot through their costume and so on so forth but nothing major.
The game is very accessible offline, it is easy enough to pick up and play, learn the moves through the new Challenge mode. One thing though is the online play, if you haven't played or trained on this game before hand, stay away from online fights, you'll quickly come to regret fighting someone online.
I personally found that the game does not quiet match you with someone of the same level. And most of the players online are really experienced so my advice is train well and give online a go. At the end of the day, the more you'll loose, the better you'll perfect yourself for the next fight!
I could go into technical fight details here but I won't, there are enough reviews out there of this marvellous game that will teach you the inside and out of Street Fighter IV.
I cannot stress this enough, this IS the best fighting game there is out there. Capcom has done it again, pick yourself a copy either on consoles (PS3 and 360) or on the PC. This is a game that has to be tried to be fully appreciated.