Indeed, Capcom have successfully managed to further refine the gameplay and overall quality in Super Street Fighter IV that it’s almost worth purchasing again, and at nearly half the price of the original to boot. To begin with, Super Street Fighter IV tends to feel more fluid and refined in its mechanics. This isn’t to say that the original was not fluid; in fact, it’s arguable that Street Fighter IV was the best fighting game released last year. But Capcom seem to have further refined and polished the mechanics behind the game, so it will likely be far more noticeable to the competitive and hardcore fan base, as they will see where the balances and tweaks really lie. As for the casual fan base, the game is simply more accessible and even more enjoyable, particularly because there are even more characters and features to use now.
The crowd have a great view of Chun-Li.
Super Street Fighter IV introduces a total of 10 extra characters to use in the game. These range from older characters from the older games, such as T.Hawk and Dee Jay, to entirely new characters such as Juri and Hakkan, who bring entirely new fighting styles to the table. None of the new additions feel out of place either – they all fit in nicely into the roster of Street Fighter characters, and considering how often we’ve seen Juri being used in the game’s online component, they seem to be awfully popular. Apart from new characters though, older characters all gain an additional Ultra move and tweaks to their move list, so relearning and remastering each character will be a task many players will likely sink many hours into. Oh, and did we mention all characters are now unlocked from the get-go? We think that’s a God-send, because it let’s you jump straight into the Multiplayer component without worrying about unlocking your favourite character.
Apart from the additions to the character roster, you’ve also got a fair amount of new modes and features to play with in both Single Player and Multiplayer. With the Single Player mode, Arcade feels a lot more balanced, with medium now feeling like medium rather than ‘medium-for-three-matches-then-it-gets-really-difficult’. They’ve also added some old school mini-games from the days of old in between fights, such as trying to destroy a car in 60 seconds, or destroying as many oncoming barrels as possible. Rival battles are great now too, with lines of dialogue being said throughout a fight, intensifying the match between the rival opponents.
Shut up woman get on my horse.
It’s Multiplayer however that’s seen the biggest improvement, not only from a features perspective but a technical one too. Match making is now much better on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with region locking now an option and matches being found and connected to quickly and very easily. Titles and Icons are once again around for unlocking as you accumulate wins and losses, and new modes have been added for diversity in the Multiplayer environment, including Team Battles, and Endless Mode which is our personal favourite. Endless Mode connects multiple players to one server, and each take turns in fighting the victor of the last match. It never ends until you really want it too and can be set up for private matches between friends, so this will surely be the most popular addition to the Multiplayer segment. There’s also a replay feature which we’ve only toyed around with a little bit, but it essentially allows you to watch and save replays from all around the world. Functionality is a little confusing initially, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a nifty feature to use and will surely come in handy for those who want to save their most memorable fights.
Super Street Fighter IV is some of the best value we’ve seen in a game in a long, long time. The already excellent gameplay from Street Fighter IV is here, just further refined and polished into an even more powerful package, and with a boatload of extra content to boot. You’ve also got a new intro which, though pretty superficial, is awesome in its own right anyway, and there’s plenty of new music and audio effects which, though subtle, are much better suited to the game. Capcom seem to have everything that was great about Street Fighter IV and made it even better, then added another extra coat of polish over the things that players didn’t quite like, and put a budget price point as the icing. If you’re any kind of Street Fighter fan, this is an essential purchase, and if you’re on the fence about it, well now’s the time to pick it up, as Super Street Fighter IV simply sets in stone the franchises status as one of the best fighting games around. Fantastic stuff.
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