Speaking purely from a fighting game noob’s standpoint, I really struggled with Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. The lack of a solid tutorial and the overall complexity of the moves really detract from the experience of a new user, turning each and every fight into a struggle for survival against opponents who can kick you into next week even on the easier difficulty settings. Unless you’re a seasoned pro or are prepared to battle through some confusing command prompts and combos that just don’t seem to work no matter how carefully you do them, then Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition probably isn’t the game for you. I’ve spent many, many hours with the title and have seen a bit in terms of improvement, but the fact remains that the learning curve bends more sharply than a roundabout.
That said, I can understand why other users laud this game as a revolution in the fighting franchise. I’ve played several online games and the fluidity and timing that people execute moves in is amazing to behold, even as I’m getting annoyed because I can’t possibly hold a candle to most users. If you can master how to play Super Street Fighter IV and the various intricacies that come with this process of learning, you’ll probably find the experience to be an enjoyable, almost tactical experience where you calculate your next moves carefully based on your opponents. Think basically of this title as being like chess, now with added people shouting ‘HADOUKEN!’ and some dodgy hairstyles.
The Arcade Edition of this game is the latest in the series of the same game being repackaged by Capcom and hitting retail once again, now with a few added features. Thing is, the added features in this version of the game don’t seem to justify the pricing of the new title. What you’re getting here is basically Super Street Fighter IV, four extra characters, and a few tweaks to gameplay balancing and some menus. If you’re an absolute Street Fighter IV nut these are probably added things you can’t possibly do without otherwise you’d end up sobbing in a corner of the room, but for the casual fighting game fan I find it extremely difficult to justify buying this additional content, when you can probably get the exact same game probably for a cheaper price.
The new characters are Yun and Yang, a pair of twins who are used separately (one has a cap, the other, an impossibly floppy emo-do), Oni (the evil form of Akuma) and also Evil Ryu who – you guessed it – is the evil form of Ryu. They’ve been added to the already extensive cast and while SSF veterans will love the new content, I personally felt as if it was adding too many characters to a cast that already seems completely oversaturated with people who all feel a bit samey. For example, around half of the characters have special moves similar to one another (namely the Hadouken fireball) and while the way they execute it is a bit different, the fact remains that the variation isn’t too drastic. Each character does have specific intricate combos that are rock hard to master but extremely effective when put to use, but to me I found several of the characters I used (particularly Evil Ryu/Oni) to be just carbon copies of others with a slight twist. Not a good twist either, like you get at the end of cracking novels – more sort of a twist of lemon in a glass of coke after the lemon’s gone sour. In other words, makes your lip curl a bit and leaves a bit of a bitter aftertaste.
Another of the inclusions is the ability to have an online competitor challenge you to a fight mid-battle in arcade mode. However this means that basically every two minutes you’ll get a request, kicking you out of your arcade fight just as you were about to win, thus meaning you’ll have to start all over again. It’s a nice idea, but I’d prefer if you could actually choose to accept a fight rather than instantly being taken to the online lobby screen.
Naturally I’m speaking as a fighting game bystander here, I’m sure each character has bells and whistles that make them superior to others, but there’s no real way of telling this/experimenting with the characters to determine how well certain moves work while others don’t. There is a sort of tutorial system in the form of ‘challenge trials’ which make you choose your favourite character and have to execute their signature moves in order, but this is an extremely annoying affair as well. The dummy character you practise on will routinely block your moves for no apparent reason, the explanation of how to execute the moves is limited (and that’s being nice) and the overall feel for a new user coming into the game is a great sense of alienation and annoyance combined into one neat package. More than once I have flung my controller away in disgust, I can tell you.
However once you’ve battled through your annoyances, using the moves can get easier and you start to appreciate more how intricate the battles can be. Fireballs, for example, can be used tactically to keep an enemy at bay, while a well-timed ‘ULTRA’ attack can be the difference between complete destruction and a sweet victory when you have but a smidgeon of health bar left. In short, you have to train extensively with a character before you can get anywhere in this game, battle through some aggravating training, then you have to refine these techniques in an actual battle where the enemy will attack you back. It’s a long winded process that basically has to be repeated for each character to become effective, but I can’t deny it’s pretty good to finally be able to beat someone by unleashing a barrage of special moves once you know what you’re doing.
Once you’ve established a bit of a presence on the arcade mode and beat up a few of the AI controller characters, your next step, logically, would be to take the battle online against real people. Here comes the real lesson – most people online are those who have painstakingly slaved away mastering the intricacies of a certain character, and imminent defeat for those, even if you think you’ve made headway on the arcade circuit, is probably pretty much inevitable. I have to feel because of this Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition is much more geared towards the SF fanatic than any new users, as any hope of coming into the game with little to no experience will mean you’ll soon be nursing your characters’ many bumps and bruises with disinfectant and a sponge.
Speaking as a new user, I would prefer a much stronger tutorial that leads you into the game and tells you all about the intricacies, but instead I had to look them up online to even understand what some of the button prompts meant, detracting greatly from my overall experience. I sat, dumbfounded when I was trying to work out what on earth it meant by pressing punch 3 times on the command prompt, and thus wasted half an hour pressing punch 3 times and nothing happening. Turns out (after a bit of online research) this means that you should press L1 instead, but there’s absolutely nothing within the game that tells you this. It feels flawed in a way and really makes the game difficult to play and slightly less accessible.
I’ve rambled on for a long time now about how this game isn’t geared towards the new user, and while it isn’t, the experience for a Street Fighter veteran will be a much different affair. The game is polished, characters are balanced, and the way to play the game becomes a much more clever way of playing a fighting game. Rather than being a button masher, the fighter finds themselves locked in a battle where they must always evaluate their decisions, and while it may not be an excellent way to play a game for a new user, learning the game and then becoming a master is, in itself, an achievement that is not to be sniffed at.
Graphically Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition shines with a great level of artistic style. Characters look ludicrous and muscly (in a good way), the backdrops and general colours are vivid and there’s usually a whole lot going on in a stage if you have a moment to admire the view in between trying to input a difficult command. It doesn’t look a whole lot different from SSF4 but there are some new characters to ogle at in this version. A particularly highlight is the nice big shiny circular-shaped crater in Evil Ryu’s chest – watch out for that one.
One of the truly best parts of this game is that each character has a lot of unlockable skins, some of which change their colours while others give them new hair and new styles of clothing. These are generally unlocked by utilizing your favourite character and it helps to keep them looking fresh (although it has to said Seth looks more than ridiculous in a snot green colouring).
The sound of the game has a real retro style that I love lots. The menu screen music is full of synth beats and more than once I’ve found myself unconsciously humming along to it. The grunts, sound effects and other soundbytes in fights give the battles a real sense of style, and the humorous, deep-voice fight announcer only makes the experience more awesome. More deep voiced announcers should be used in games in my opinion – just look at Unreal Tournament. That guy’s awesome.
Overall Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition is an unworthy investment if you’re not a hardcore Street Fighter fanatic. Frustrations are rife within the system - although it can be rewarding upon mastering – but the game itself has a lot to offer for those prepared to go through an extensive learning process with little help from the game itself. For those who already know how it works, the extra content doesn’t seem worthy of your extra money, if you must have it, get it, but otherwise I’d recommend you just stick with Super Street Fighter IV, as this feels like somewhat of a cash-in to me rather than a worthy title for release.
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