Game Review: Street Fighter IV

If you've ever had a relationship with games during your life, chances are that you've had an affair with Capcom's Street Fighter series. Whether you remember spending your youth slotting coin after coin into arcade machines because you were only one near-impossible fight away from facing the final boss or muting the TV because you were playing long past your bedtime, fond memories of this arcade fighter will have resurfaced from the back of your mind when the latest addition to the classic series, Street Fighter IV, arrived to the Xbox 360. But how does the daddy of arcade fighters compare to the young upstarts of the later generations?

Everything looks to be shaping up nicely thanks to the awesome introduction, as old favourites from the Street Fighter roster show off the fancy new art style with even fancier moves. As you recognise iconic fighters from the series you'll marvel as their new moves splatter the screen with paint and bursts of colour, and salivate at the prospect of joining the fights yourself.

When you get into the fight, everything feels very familiar. Very little has changed since the original Street Fighter over twenty years ago. It's still the classic 2-dimensional gameplay that made the series famous, with all the characters and moves from the older games as well as all the new characters, stages and special moves that you'd expect from a sequel. Even though it's essentially the same game from twenty years ago, the new moves and superb graphics keep it surprisingly fresh, at least until you begin the frustrating process of actually trying out the fancy new techniques.

Pulling off anything more flamboyant than a timid poke can be among the most fiddly and frustrating experiences imaginable. Instead of the A, B X and Y combinations used by other fighters, combinations and special moves in Street Fighter are mostly done by flicking the thumbstick in various different directions. This sounds fine in theory because it worked back in Street Fighter's arcade days, but in practice it doesn't really work. Unlike the stocky joysticks of old, the 360's thumbsticks are just too slippery to pull of the movements needed for most of the combos, so unless you're lucky or very, very patient (which you're most likely not, because you're playing Street Fighter IV), most matches are going to make you feel like Alfie Patten fumbling for the clitoris rather than a hardcore Street Fighter.

Without the flashy moves, Street Fighter feels slow and clunky. With only the occasional fluky Hadouken to add spark to three rounds of sloppy kicks and failed grabs, even playing versus with a friend can be a repetitive and dull experience. This isn't something you can dip in and out of and really enjoy, so unless you're willing to plough hours of your life into learning the moves and experimenting with the characters it's probably not going to be as fun as other fighters.

But if you do take the time to get into Street Fighter IV, you're going to find that it's time well spent, as Street Fighter has a level of depth that other fighters just don't have. Fights will become faster and unpredictable as you learn the strategies and special moves, and everything will feel so much more satisfying than it did when you first picked up the controller and fumbled your way to victory. It's time consuming but genuinely rewarding, and you're going to be getting so much more from Street Fighter if you're a little patient with it.

The patience needed to master the tricks of Street Fighter will come in handy for when you attempt the single player modes. Not because they're particularly long, just because resisting the urge to hurl your Xbox, controller and television out of the window after the final boss beats you to a bloody pulp for the umpteenth time in a row is going to require the patience of a saint, and unless you've got your head round the flicky, fiddly combinations this game is going to relentlessly kick your ass until you're left in a broken mess, sobbing in the corner of your bedroom as the television taunts you with yet another hilarious bad win quote and mocking countdown. Again, it's not the sort of thing you can dip in and out of and really enjoy, but if you're willing to persevere with the challenge you'll get so much more satisfaction from it.

So, despite the franchise's iconic status, Street Fighter IV is still going to divide opinion. The fiddly controls, sloppy fights and seemingly unassailable difficulty curve are going to be a real turn off for some. But for others, the nostalgic glee of chaining Shoryukens before blowing away their rival with an Ultra combo is going to be the most satisfying feeling in the world. It all depends what you want from a game like this; if you want an arcade fighter that can be picked up every month or so then Street Fighter IV isn't bad, but you'd probably have more fun with something else. However, if you want to spend hours mastering an in-depth fighter with a variety of characters, moves and challenges, this is probably the best one out there. Now you just have to work up the courage to leave your mum's basement and go outside to buy it.

Summary: Street Fighter IV successfully brings the franchise out of the cold, dank hole of HD remakes and into the next generation, but pretty colours won't mask the fiddly controls and insane difficulty that will likely put off most players outside the hardcore crowd.