Product Description

Street Fighter IV brings the legendary fighting series back to its roots by taking the beloved fighting moves and techniques of the original Street Fighter II, and infusing them with Capcom's latest advancements in next-generation technology. Everything that made the legendary Street Fighter II a hit in the arcades, living rooms and dormitories across the globe has been brought back in Street Fighter IV. Players will be able to play their favourite classic characters, such as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Guile, along with new characters, including Crimson Viper, Abel, El Fuerte, and Rufus. Characters and environments are rendered in stylised 3D, while the game is played in the classic Street Fighter 2D perspective with additional 3D camera flourishes. Six-button controls for the game return, with a host of new special moves and features integrated into the gameplay system. Street Fighter IV brings a brand new fighting game to fans the world over.

• Stylised 3D environments and characters
• Traditional "2D" Street Fighter six-button gameplay
• Classic Street Fighter characters re-imagined for a new generation of gamers, including the original cast of Street Fighter II
• New brawlers: female super-spy Crimson Viper, lucha libre wrestler El Fuerte, mixed martial artist Abel and more!
• New special moves that go beyond any Street Fighter fan's wildest imagination, including Focus Attacks, Super Combos, and the revenge-fueled Ultra Combo system
• Amazing locations never seen before in a Street Fighter game
• New gameplay elements provide challenges for both newcomers as well as the most seasoned Street Fighter pro

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #321 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Capcom
• Released on: 2009-02-20
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Format: Unknown format
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Subtitled in: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
Amazon.co.uk
Street Fighter IV brings the legendary fighting series back to its roots by taking the beloved fighting moves and techniques of the original Street Fighter II, and infusing them with Capcom's latest advances in next generation technology. The result is a truly extraordinary experience destined to reintroduce players, both familiar with the Street Fighter series and those coming to the game for the first time, to the time-honoured art of virtual martial arts.

The old rivalries continue. View larger.

Plenty of bosses to battle. View larger.

New faces to reckon with. View larger.

New Ultra Combo angles. View larger.

What Was Old is New Again
Knowing a good thing when they see it, Capcom has gone to great lengths to ensure that everything that made the legendary Street Fighter II a hit in the arcades, living rooms and dormitories across the globe all those years ago has been brought back in Street Fighter IV, and this naturally starts with the characters. Fans of the franchise, as well as the fighting genre in general, will be happy to know that whether you prefer to stick with the superior abilities of top tier characters or explore the ins and outs of mid to lower level combatants, when it comes time to pick your fighter there is a wide array of choices. Also, not only will players be able to play as and against their favourite classic characters, such as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Guile, Zangief, Blanka, Sagat, etc., they will also be able to take on new characters. Just a few of these include:

	Abel This young French amnesiac comes from a mixed martial arts and mercenary background and is dedicated to chasing down the remnants of Shadaloo.
	Crimson Viper This tough and beautiful agent assumes a businesslike demeanour, ignoring all emotion and obligation to her fellow man. She wears a high-tech suit filled with deadly gadgetry..
	El Fuertes This fighter divides his time between perfecting his Lucha Libre skills and his cooking abilities, yet surprisingly his indomitable spirit is a match for even the legendary Red Cyclone.
	Rufus This portly fighter has declared himself America's greatest fighter and uses his own brand of Kung Fu in his decidedly one-sided rivalry with Ken for top dog in the States.

In addition, characters and environments are rendered in stylized 3D, while the game is played in the classic Street Fighter 2D perspective with additional 3D camera flourishes. Six-button controls for the game return, with a host of new special moves and features integrated into the gameplay system. Street Fighter IV brings a brand new fighting game to fans the world over.

Key Game Features:

• 3D environments and characters.
• Traditional "2D" Street Fighter six-button gameplay.
• Classic Street Fighter characters re-imagined for a new generation of gamers, including the original cast of Street Fighter II.
• New brawlers: female super-spy Crimson Viper, lucha libre wrestler El Fuertes, mixed martial artist Abel and more.
• New special moves that go beyond any Street Fighter fan's wildest imagination, including Focus Attacks, Super Combos, and the revenge-fuelled Ultra Combo system.
• Amazing locations never seen before in a Street Fighter game.
• New gameplay elements provide challenges for both newcomers as well as the most seasoned Street Fighter pro.

New Combat Features: Focus Attacks and Ultra Combos
Although Street Fighter IV is designed to draw heavily from past game features in its franchise history, it does offer some stunning new gameplay options. The first of these are Focus Attacks. These moves allow players to absorb the energy from an attack and quickly counter with their own. Used properly, Focus Attacks allow for tremendous flexibility during combat and are the end result of efforts by the game's development team to evolve combat away from the rigid memorization of set combination patterns, giving players the freedom to be creative against opponents. The other new combat feature are new powered up moves called Ultra Combos. Like standard combos their purpose is to unleash maximum damage on an opponent, but unlike the combos of old, when performed correctly these long strings of punches, kicks and moves result in changes to the in-game camera angle and quick cinematic which illustrate the strength of your skills like never before. Taken together, these two new features herald Street Fighter IV as the new king of the fighter genre and a force to be reckoned with for years to come.

Product Description
Everything that made the legendary Street Fighter a hit in the arcades, living rooms and dormitories across the globe has been brought back in Street Fighter IV. You will be able to play your favourite classic characters, such as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Guile, along with new characters, including Crimson Viper, Abel, El Fuertes, and Rufus. Characters and environments are rendered in stylized 3D, while the game is played in the classic Street Fighter 2D perspective with additional 3D camera flourishes. Six-button controls for the game return, with a host of new special moves and features integrated into the gameplay system. Street Fighter IV brings a brand new fighting game to fans the world over. Amazing locations never seen before in a Street Fighter game New gameplay elements provide challenges for both newcomers as well as the most seasoned Street Fighter pro

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Customer Reviews

Its been a long wait....but it was worth it.
Firstly lets just get one thing straight, this is Street Fighter. It'll never claim to be the most amazing advancement in the beat em up genre or have the most engrosing storyline. It is what it is, the re-invention of an Arcade classic that changed the history of home gaming and had a lot to so with the life of the console you're playing it on now.

The graphics in this new version are pretty much spot on, exactly what you'd want and true to the Street Fighter roots, fluid motion and enjoyable backgrounds.

The controls can take some time to master (which I haven't yet) but once you've got the bread and butter moves sorted you can quite happily jump in for some 1 on 1 battles with your mates. You'll get out what you put in as far as learning the moves, the more you play the more you'll understand the various combos, supers, ultras etc and how to avoid them.

The pad works fine there's no real issues pulling the moves off once you know them, although the LB and RB buttons can become a tad fiddly.

As far as the Arcade mode is concerned be prepared to break your pad. As has previously been mentioned the difficulty levels are, to say the least wrongly titled. There are a number Easiest, Easier, Easy, Medium and Hard (I believe) I'd look at them as:

Easiest = First Timer,
Easier = Played a litte I know some moves,
Easy = I'm ready for a challenge,
Medium = I've got a spare pad, so I don't mind throwing this one at the wall
Hard = Its never gonna happen unless I live, sleep and breath this game and the people around don't mind me swearing and shouting lots.

Challenge modes and training modes are a welcome addition to the options, both of which will help you progress your skills.

The online play is a tad disapointing, no lobby systems other than one on one and even then you end up back out searching for a game after every match. Would have been nice to be able to set up a winner stay on friend lobby (in a pass the pad kinda way), it can take a little while to get into a game too.

The main thing about street fighter is its actually quite a tactical game and some of the matches really hit a nerve (good and bad) you'll laugh, you'll shout, you'll swear, you may even throw your pad against the wall...but when you turn it off you just want to come back for more.

Overall I really rate this game, there's nothing wrong with returning to classic and making it play and look like it always should have....after all how many re-mastered DVD's or Bluerays have you bought of old Movies?

If you're after cutting edge, look elsewhere...you won't find it here.

GREAT GAME WRAPPED IN A FLIMSY BOX OF TRICKS.
Here we are at the world tournament, again, and things certainly look a whole lot different - but we're still in familiar, hadouken flinging, spinning bird kick launching, territory. So please refer to the following handy lists, provided below, to see what's what in the world of Street Fighter IV, and just what's the score with all the little bits and bobs you get with the spec ed:

THE GOOD:
- Great controls, really precise and fluid, just what you've come to expect from the series (well, since number 2 anyhoo).
- Lots of familiar faces mixed in with some sparkly new ones makes for a healthy roster of 25 brawlers with lots of interesting kicks, flips and slaps.
- Fantastic Graphics, not just your typical cel-shading jazz - this puppy's got some really nice effects to sling about, and sling them about it does, in big splattery buckets.
- Some nice rehashes of old tunes and some new ones that do the trick quite well.
- Superb backgrounds, really beautiful in some instances, such as the inland jungle, and full of nice little details. Also some are slightly interactive and destructible (only slightly), for instance on the airfield level you can uppercut the plane's wing off in the second round, and nearly all levels feature bits and bobs that fall over or shudder as you smack you opponents to the dirt.
- Awesomely satisfying punch and kick thuds that really rock the house (especially when pumped through your surround sound). Also the voices are well done and come in all sorts of tasty linguistic flavours to suite your ears.
- The online is simple, neat and works extremely well - everything you need to get cracking skulls the globe over.
- Sharp, addictive gameplay (Especially online)
- Lots of neat little unlockables in the following forms: 1.) New titles and icons to spruce up your online persona with (hundreds in fact, and I've found collecting these simple little efforts has become, for me at least, a sort of mad obsession!) 2.) Character colour changes 3.) Numerous new taunts 4.) Character, conceptual and promotional artwork 5.) Other Characters.
- Good animated opening sequences and endings for each character (much better than a still image and a bit of text - I just wish they looked more like the opening sequence instead of like every anime ever made.)
- Challenge mode is a great addition and a nice learning tool.
- Amazing opening sequence - really artistically innovative, not to mention full of smart little battles between numerous characters and of course the obligatory Hadouken, build up, awesomeness from Ryu.

THE BAD:
- The tunes that plays in the menus and throughout the opening sequence is a total cheese bomb rip off of much better music by the likes of Celldweller and Pendulum. It will get into your skull and it will scratch around in there like a rabid hamster till you are whistling along like a gibbering buffoon!
- A few new special moves for some of the old faves would have pushed things along a bit more, they all look better but are essentially the same. But, the new characters are interesting and the whole thing has been tightened, so what I'm really trying to say is: if you don't dig Street Fighter, and 2D beat `em ups in general, this ain't gonna change you oil. To everyone else: you're gonna love it so much!
- I wish you didn't have to go to the character select screen every time you get K.O'd in Arcade mode, just bugs me a bit - maybe I'm missing an option somewhere but sometimes I just want to get back in there and kick some hind quarters without all that razzmatazz - y' dig?
- Some of the stuff you got in the special edition was just not worth the extra money - although I traded some old stuff I wasn't interested in anymore for it so I don't feel as fleeced as I suspect some people do - it's not all bad news but I'll explain it in the following section:

NOTES ON THE SPECIAL EDITION AND IT'S CONTENTS:
THE GOOD:
- The movie that comes with it (The Ties That Bind) is okay, it's not mind blowing but it sets the scene well enough with some middle ground anime animation. Not a patch on the original Street Fighter II anime by manga from back in the day though - now that was sweet.
- You get some new outfits for some of the characters, however I have also listed this in the bad below for various reasons, some pertaining to my own biases (sorry!)

THE BAD:
- The figures in their little cardboard box are shoddy quality, badly painted and just a bit....blah. Don't know why they chose C.Viper either. Yeah, not too stunning.
- The Ties That Bind movie will only play in your 360 so if you want to watch it in another room while your wife watches Dancing on Ice or something equally hideous that doesn't star Sonny Chiba then you're out of luck my friend. Bit of a let down.
- The art book is a tiny, flimsy guide to doing pitiful combos and was hardly worth the shiny paper it was printed on. The least impressive thing I've ever seen with my own two human eye balls, complete filth.
- The cardboard box that comes with all this nonsense in is flimsy and likely to get crumpled before you even get it home.
- The brawler outfits are a bit naff - maybe some people disagree with me here but A.) I don't like the characters they're for anyway and B.) They're just not that inventive. However you may like the characters they're for and how they look, but I'd have rather had some yellow Bruce Lee style stuff for Fei Long and A reservoir dogs style suit for Ken, but that's just me.

CONCLUSION:
A Truly great game - in terms of polish and an overall tightening of game mechanics and new implementation this is a total and utter winner - the game rocks, no doubt about it, I'm hooked on online and can't stop trying to collect titles and icons, However it's just a shame that they hiked up the price for the spec ed when the stuff you get with it is more than just a little naff. Top, top, seriously good, game - crumby extras.

Streetfighter IV - A Casual Gamer's Review
I will freely admit my purchase of this was motivated by nostalgia. I will also freely admit that I am rubbish at fighting games. But there is always something about Streetfighter. Something indefinable that made me go back again and again.

This iteration looks incredible. The backdrops and characters have been exquisitely created. At some point, if you purchase the game, pause it and crawl over to your screen and watch it from a few inches away. The attention to detail is outstanding. For those of us who have grown up with Zangief, Blanka and Ken; they have never looked better.

Controlling the gang has not changed and is very easy to pick up. Console pads have always been a bit clunky with the SF series in my opinion, but unless you can find an expensive arcade joystick option, it is all you have.

The modes are your typical fight game fare - I was expecting a little more from this. I remember a great option from I think Streetfighter 2 Alpha called "World Tour", where you were set specific challenges instead of purely beating the opposition. It revitalised it a bit for me and I would have liked to have seen something similar.

Overall, this game is an excellent purchase and would be a dead cert purchase apart from one factor - the difficulty. I am not a hardcore gamer by any means and so don't expect to complete it on anything above medium. I gave up on more than one occasion on the second easiest setting because of the final boss. And this was after waltzing through all the other fights - the difficulty spike was unfair and became very frustrating. A far better playing friend of mine had a similar response, so I know it can not just be my innate awfulness.

It is still fun though, even if I have to play on the easiest setting. The movies and dialogue accompanying each character is a gleeful glimpse into the complete randomness of it all. I could not believe how understanding Ken's wife was!

I do recommend this game, but with reservations around the difficulty. I don't play multiplayer much and so this is not factored into my score. I would happily add another star on for this, as I expect there is a lot of value to be had from multilayer with your mates. If you are a SF aficionado, it has to be a cert. If you are wondering what the fuss is about, you could do a lot worse for £30.