Street Fighter IV Game Review

I am not a fan of the Street Fighter Series. I played Street Fighter II, arguably the best one, many times at a friend's house back in the day. Every round went the same: I picked Blanka, got my ass kicked as I aimlessly mashed controls, and stopped playing after a few rounds. So what compelled me to get Street Fighter IV given my hatred of the Japanese Fighting game? It was on sale at a Blockbuster going out of business. And so we come to the fabled bad news, good news scenario. The bad news is I still suck; the Japanese have a way of making very complicated fighting games with no tutorials. The good news is that, partially thanks to extremely very very easy mode (that's not the actual name but you get it), I love this game! Now for the review:

First, the fighting mechanics. The fighting mechanics are awesome and still complicated, by now with the 360's dual-axis set-up, a lot less complicated than the time I played Street Fighter II. I play as Ryu who is fairly easy to learn, and my only complaint is that every time I try to do an Ultimate Attack, my character jumps in the air or shoots the same fireball out. Alas, this is a noob problem, but, the fighting is fast pace and fun enough that it got this noob to play for hours and even look at some tutorials online to get better!

Second, the difficulty. Even playing on very easy the last two opponents in the "classic" mode are hard and very cheap. The last both, Seth, is the cheapest I have seen in all my 14+ years of gaming. He has one attack that sucks you on and is instant death. So why even bother? Well, when bashing buttons leads to victory you feel very accomplished. In fact, I can proudly say I now win 3 of 4 matches. There is joy in the struggle, but it's one that would be less difficult if the game had a tutorial in it (or my game's manual wasn't missing)

Third, the graphics. Love them. Fantastic! Brilliant! It is cartoony and serious, bringing the street fighter game to life in a dazzling way. If any IGN'ers are reading this, they probably give the game a 9 or 10 on this section alone.

Fourth (and last) characters, arenas, and modes. The game offers many modes from do-it yourself training, to classic, to online, death match, etc. The campaign (or classic) also has cool anime cutscenes that make no sense, but are nice anyway. The characters are all quirky, unique, and I'm drawn to them. There are also many characters to unlock so you can get a solid amount of gametime out of this baby. The fighting arenas are all over the world and each have their own cool thing (one arena is a drive-in movie and teenagers are flipping cars and going wild over the fight). the music is sweet too.

Outside of the Super Smash Brothers Series, the only fighting game I was ever able to get into was Dead or Alive 4. Well folks, add Street Fighter IV to the list. Maybe it's a coincidence that both end in IV, or maybe I'm just older, but I thoroughly enjoy this game besides sucking tremendously.

Final Score: 8

The game gets an 8 because it is in dire need of a meaningful tutorial or else noobs like me will stay noobs and play this game once in a while once all the flare leaves.