Kris Game Reviews´s last post: Street Fighter IV a Welcome Addition to the Franchise

This game is very deep – deeper than any example given in the review. Capcom has a history of making the most balanced and deepest fighting games out there and SF4 is no exception. While I still miss the parrying system of 3rd Strike, the new EX (2 medium buttons) and countering armor-breaking moves adds a whole new level of depth to the system.

I’ve noticed 5.1 sound in quite a few places – especially with the interactive parts of levels (like dragon-punching a wing off of an airplane, busting open a lid to a huge steam vat, crackling fire from torches, etc). Being a 2D game, I think its hard to get a true 5.1 feel, but the audio in this game is pretty impressive to me.

This game has a very polished feel to it – the menus, the collectibles, the training, time trials, ranked matches, costumes, downloadable content, etc.

The online multiplayer works well as long as you have full bars or 1 bar below full. In my experience, anything below that and the game’s performance suffers. The good news is – when playing with anyone even remotely local, you should be able to get 4 or 5 bars easily and if you do, the game plays perfectly and you forget you are playing online at all.

You won’t find many people playing newer characters because of the same reason you didn’t in the past – people have 15 years of experience with certain characters and it takes a LONG time to get good with other characters – and then to say it doesn’t have depth? tsk tsk

That being said, I actually think a few of the characters show some great potential while others (like Dan) appear to be nothing more than punching bags. However, I won’t pass judgment because I’ve been wrong about this before.

Sagat is still the strongest character, but his speed has been reduced significantly and his recovery time from moves seems to have been upped as well which, to me, seems to have balanced him out quite a bit.

Overall, I think this might just be the greatest fighting game ever made from a competitive standpoint. The graphics are absolutely amazing and fluid, and yet, they don’t get in the way of the action (something that Samurai Showdown and Marvel fighters have had a reputation of suffering from).

If you are even the slightest fight fan, you should pick this title up. It will take you a lifetime to master even a handful of characters. That being said – if you don’t pick up a good arcade stick or fighting gamepad, don’t waste your time trying to be competitive – the standard controllers just won’t cut it.

I love that kind of game. Like in Dragon Quest VIII where you fight the same skeletons from Dragon Warrior for the NES and you’re like wow, this is cool.