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: #268 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Capcom
• Released on: 2009-02-20
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
• Format: Unknown format
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Subtitled in: English, German
• 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

And The Fight Continues!
A mighty sequel, and a perfect example of how to update a classic franchise for the current generation.
Everything, from the cheesey title music to the fighters announcements, brings back nostalgia.
The visuals make Stret Fighter 4 stand out, whilst retaining the feel of the series. The cel shaded look is outstanding, and the animations really bring the characters to life. Classic fighters are immediately recognisable, with some beautifully done exaggerations (like Guiles hair). New additions to the roster all appear to bring something new. El Fuerte for example, plays like no-one in the series history.

Gameplay is accessible from the start, as the core fighting moves have been revised. Its now easier to perform 2-3 hit combos on the fly. Rather than ruining balance, it prevents button bashing, even from new players. This lower entry level helps to encourage complete mastery of your chosen character and their abilites.

The frighteningly good, elite Street Fighters have also returned. A session online revealed that even on release day, some players are impossibly good. Winning just a handful of fights, online brawling is a humbling experience, even during these early days. The option to play a ranked battle, or one just for fun, will make online suitability and pairing easier. There's also a fight request system (which can be turned off), that allow invitations to be sent whilst playing.

Single player alone has some impressive modes. Arcade seems virtually untouched, with a nonsense story explaining each fighters involvement in this tournament. Challenge mode is a nice addition; a series of tasks, with categories like survival and time attck. A typical challenge would be: defeat 12 characters in a row, within 250 seconds, with 5 second bonus for each one defeated. Extremely addictive, and as they only last minutes, add massively to that 'one more go' factor.
A near flawless brawler.

Street Fighter 2.5
Capcom seem to be churning out some impressive releases in 2009 with the excellent Resident Evil 5 recently and Ryu, Ken, Chun Li and co are back in the forth entry in the long-running beat `em up series in `Street Fighter IV'.

THE GOOD:
- Some of the best visuals on the PS3 with Manga-style graphics, so much detail in the background and very impressive cut-scenes.
- Very easy to just pick up and play. Very easy learning curve too so even players new to the series will get the hang of it in no time.
- Plenty of game modes including being able to play online.
- Decent soundtrack, lots of new tracks and some remixes of the classics from previous games.
- Lots of characters and bonuses to unlock and plenty of trophies to work for.

THE BAD:
- It does feel a little too similar to the classic Street Fighter II, just with shiner visuals - if you've recently purchased the SFII HD Remix from PSN, this may feel like a little bit of a waste of money.
- Online mode isn't great, sometimes it is really hard to find a match.
- The new characters are quite dull and are rubbish in comparison to the regular roster. You'll never use them.

Overall this is a very good beat-em-up, especially for fans of Street Fighter II, just don't expect anything new really.

Unfair, hyped and outdated!
After waiting for this game since the day it was announced I was so pleased when it finally came out. After having played many 2D beat'em'ups during the Neo Geo era in the 90s and calling Samurai Shodown 2 my own, I had since lost interest in the genre and planned to rediscover it now with SFIV. Sadly, none of the flaws of these games have been fixed almost 15 years later, which makes the whole experience completely insufficient: While the graphics sure look nice, the gameplay is ridiculously unfair to the point that it is no fun to play anymore.

One might think that tactics and skill would solve this problem, but the answer is much simpler: just put your pad on auto-fire with the heavy kick and watch every enemy go down. Ergo: Completely misdesigned gameplay! It does not feel as if the player really influences the outcome of battles against the CPU. This is clearly exemplified in the final battle against the new, embarrasingly idiotic boss creature "Seth", who knocks the player around for most of the time, performing incredibly difficult moves which any regular gamer would never be able to pull off like that. As I mentioned before, the same flaws were appearent in the earlier 2D games of this kind, with the CPU being clearly advantageous in terms of being able to easily counter each and every move the player makes with an appropriate stronger move. Thus, winning against Seth either means using auto fire or being very lucky. This, in my opinion, is disappointing and alienating beyond belief.
Furthermore, the game offers a trial mode, in which you can "practice" your moves. Sounds nice in theory, but it actually shows you that some moves that are required to advance are near impossible to perform. Perhaps I am too old for this, but no matter what, it just seems neither fair nor right to me.
The sound design is another sad story for my taste. With the old SFII having such great music, it is extremely annoying to hear the melodies as technoed up as they appear in this dancefloor-wannabe game. Even the punches, contrary to what one would expect, don't sound full or strong, even when played over an expensive 5.1 Surround set. Why?
In essence, the single player mode is rubbish, the story involuntarily funny and the boss character is gonna make you want to trash your console. As for the 2-player mode, I have decided not to even bother anymore. While I bought this game to play against other gamers, I see no point anymore in doing so with all these appearent flaws. I neither have the time nor the energy to invest weeks to unlock all the stuff in the game just to spend some few hours using them to play against others.
While this really saddens me I want to close this review by saying that video games have evolved since the time 2D-beat'em'ups were the state of the art genre along with jump'n'runs. There are games like Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil or Dead Space out there, games with a feedback that allows you to really feel immersed in it, feeling like your actions really do matter and that you really influence what is happening. Game designers have had to learn to balance a game, otherwise these titles would not have been possible to design. SFIV completely lacks that natural balance and is thus a failure in my eyes. Players should "enjoy" a game and not constantly have to "beat" it or "struggle" with it. I for one expect that from a game, and so should other gamers. SFIV provides nothing like that for me. If I ever again have the urge to play this kind of game, I will buy the forthcoming Samurai Shodown Anthology collection for the PS2, but I have really had it with this unfair, outdated game principle. Sorry!