Solid and addictive game but quite lacking in variety.
In terms of other aspects to this game, there really are none. It has an arcade mode and a few (two) crappy extra modes and a mind numbingly difficult trial mode in which you learn your characters moves. A few extra modes are sorely missed and would have added a lot of value to this game.
The arcade mode has some promising flourishes but in the end falls FLAT. It has terrible TERRIBLE anime cutscenes (I love anime but these scenes are nasty) that are extremely short, ambiguous and nonsensical. Each character has a rival who they face before fighting the last boss (who is so boring) and this redeems arcade a little.
During a rival fight your characters speak to each other while fighting and it seems really cool actually but some of the rival pairings are plain ridiculous!! Almost everyone is rivalled with Abel for some reason too ¬__¬. Had capcom extended the talk during battle a little further to every match in arcade and replaced the cutscenes with ingame or CG and a better story I would not be in heaven. Unfortunately they dropped the ball BIG TIME here.
The stages and stage music are really boring. There are no more character specific stages which is a let down for me and seriously, the stage music is terrible. They should have just implemented the character themes for stage music. ¬__¬.
Lastly, the online matchmaking is terrible. It takes eons to find a match and if you FINALLY do at the character selection screen you always have the opponent wait for you to pick first so he can counter pick ¬__¬. There are also no penalties for disconnecting before you lose a match........only benefits ¬__¬.
I know it seems like I hate this game and I do, a little. But only because it could be sooooo much better!! Overall, this game is something I would recommend to people who have siblings or gamer friends. Others would only like it if they want to play it really competitively.