Street Fighter IV Review

It's obvious that each iteration of the long-running Street Fighter series has been carefully tuned and tweaked to the finest degree, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Street Fighter IV. The lessons learned in the franchise's 20-plus years have been used to prune back the core fighting experience to create something truly special. Street Fighter IV isn't a success simply because it's one of the most technically complex 2D fighters ever made, it's a success because it's also wrapped inside a layer of absolute accessibility. Never has the old "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master" adage been truer than it is here.

The Street Fighter fundamentals have remained consistent over the years; your job is to knock out the other guy or gal. All 12 of the classic world warriors--Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka, E. Honda, Zangief, Guile, Dhalsim, Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison--are back and playable from the outset, and they're joined by six brand-new and diverse characters. Abel, a mixed martial arts grapple-style character; Crimson Viper a female fighter with sweeping, airborne fire attacks; Rufus, a rotund fighter whose body makes him a bit of a sight gag despite his deceptive speed; and El Fuerte, a pro wrestler whose rushes and air throws make him a slippery foe. Ryu and Ken's sensei, Gouken, also makes his playable-character debut in Street Fighter IV. Naturally, he didn't teach the boys everything he knows, so when they meet again he has a few tricks up his sleeves, including a horizontal and vertical fireball EX move. The game's new end boss, Seth, fills the last spot and joins the list once you've unlocked everyone else. Character balance is absolutely spot-on across the entire roster, and as a result, you should never feel that you can't compete simply because you've chosen one character over another.

You'll need to finish the game multiple times and in special ways to unlock the complete character list. Doing so will make fan favourites Cammy, Sakura, Akuma, Fei Long, Rose, Gen, and Dan playable. Like previous games in the series, Street Fighter IV lets you perform powerful super combos, but it has removed air blocking and parrying completely. Developers Capcom and Dimps have added a completely new gameplay system: focus attacks, a new multipurpose offensive and defensive ability that can be charged to one of three levels by pressing and holding the medium punch and kick buttons simultaneously. There's no onscreen bar to show how charged your attack is, so you'll need to rely on the progressively darkening ink splashes surrounding your character model. Each character features a unique focus animation, so you shouldn't have any trouble working it out after a few rounds with each. Focus attacks make you vulnerable to damage because you need to be standing still to charge them (though you can dash forward or backward to cancel them), but the trade-off is that you'll absorb the first hit without the penalty of an animation reset, allowing for an instant counterattack if you land it. They can also act as armour-breaking moves, shutting down more-powerful attacks. Successfully landing a fully charged focus attack will deal damage and crumple your opponent to the ground, giving you the chance to follow up with an unblockable hit as he or she falls.

The new mechanic also lets you use part of your EX power-meter charge to exit animations early and chain bigger combos together. They take a little getting used to and some serious thumb dexterity, but once they're mastered, you can perform moves such as dragon-punch stalls directly into super moves or use them to juggle players in midair with multiple hits. Your revenge meter builds as you take damage, whereas the EX meter fills as you dish it out. EX power rolls over to the next round, but revenge must be built from scratch each time. This becomes a crucial risk-versus-reward mechanic. Do you take hits to build revenge and power up an ultra attack, or do you deal damage to burn your EX on improved moves, cancels, or save it for a super finisher? The flexibility of this system means that you're free to play according to your strengths and style. But just like reversals, EX power-ups, and ultra combo attacks, focus attacks serve to mix up the experience only for veteran players; such is the game's balance that they have never been required to win a match, and they act more as an additional weapon in the arsenal of a skilled player. They're waiting for you when you want to take a step up and learn how they work, but well-timed basic punches and kicks are just as effective.

The single-player mode is robust and has a lot to offer across several components. Arcade mode pits you against a set number of fights from your unlocked-character roster and culminates in a showdown with Seth. Along the way to your goal, you'll always encounter a rival fight. These are regular fights accompanied by an in-engine exchange with your opponent. They're a welcome mix-up but often add nothing to the character's storyline because some fighters clearly don't even know why they hate one another. Each character's adventure is bookended by an anime-style cinematic movies that explain his or her motivations for attending the tournament. They're quite short and keep story to an absolute minimum, but they get the message across and do a reasonable-enough job of filling in the gaps. Given the amount of additional content shoehorned into this game, we were slightly disappointed to find that no bonus levels have been included, especially since we had high hopes of reliving our car and barrel smashing from Street Fighter II.

Regardless of whether you're down with busting out a tatsumaki senpukyaku at will or think it's some kind of egg-noodle dish, there's a difficulty mode here for you. Eight levels ranging from very easy to hardest are available, so you're sure to find one appropriate for your skill level. That said, even at the gentler difficulties, Street Fighter IV is no cakewalk because your opponents will occasionally mix things up with surprise super and ultra combos. First-timers will have no trouble picking up, playing, and learning as they go. Playing on the medium or above difficulty will also enable score tracking, letting you submit and compare to other players on the game's online leaderboards.

Prior to the 2002 release of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, video games based on the high-octane anime and manga series all had one thing in common: Unless you were a hardcore Dragon Ball Z fan, they were generally quite unbearable. Though the Budokai series has had its ups and downs, all of the Budokai games so far have had a level of polish and accessibility that has merited praise without requiring the "for a Dragon Ball Z game" qualifier. That said, fans looking for a straight follow-up to Budokai 3 will be surprised by what Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi has to offer, and possibly a little disappointed.

Originally released earlier this year in Japan as Dragon Ball Z: Sparking!, Tenkaichi deviates quite significantly from the standardized 3D fighting formula that the core Budokai games have generally adhered to. Developed by Spike, a Japanese studio best known for its somewhat technical wrestling games, Tenkaichi inserts a fairly simple, stripped-down fighting engine into the framework of a free-roaming, third-person action game.

For the majority of the game, you're given a behind-the-back perspective on the action, though the camera will lean a bit to the side when you get up close to your opponent and will cut to an entirely different camera angle for special moves. The main reason behind this rather unorthodox camera angle (unorthodox for a fighter, anyway) is to let you run and fly around the environment as you please. The free-roaming components definitely gives the game a more authentic Dragon Ball Z feel by increasing the overall scope of the fights, though it's stymied somewhat by force fields that limit the size of the levels. It's not unusual to find yourself stuck up against one of these rainbow-colored boundaries, which kind of ruins the whole illusion. Another negative aspect is that there's not much in the way of direct camera control. The problems this creates are twofold. For one, it's not hard to lose track of your opponents, and though you have a radar that can help you pinpoint their location, it's often not quick enough. Secondly, the camera isn't quite flexible enough for the game's fully 3D environment, and you'll regularly find yourself viewing the action from a rather uncomfortable angle.

By using the L1 button to lock onto your opponents, all of your movement instantly becomes relative to their position, allowing you to dash right at them or do a bit of circle-strafing. The lock-on function is a little inconsistent; you can lock on to an opponent from a great distance, though if you choose to move to do a little circle-strafing rather than attack head-on, you'll lose the lock. Hand-to-hand combat is pretty simple, since the square button is the only way to throw a punch. A few consecutive taps will dish out a nice little combo, and you can vary your attacks by holding a direction as you launch your attacks. Additionally, you can create longer combos by throwing in instant teleports and energy attacks. You can launch simple energy (or "ki") attacks with the triangle button, and holding down L2 and triangle will produce a much more substantial blast. You can expect to see your favorite characters trotting out their most well-known moves, as well as power struggles when two characters throw massive energy attacks at you at once.

The simplicity of the combat in Tenkaichi is a bit deceptive, as much of the controls are contextual to your current situation. For example, the circle button by itself serves to block incoming attacks, though if you press to the left or the right just as your opponent is attacking, it instantly teleports you to the side, giving you an opportunity to strike your attacker. On the other hand, the main function of the X button is to let you dash in any direction quickly, though when you use it correctly in the middle of a combo, you can trigger an attack that knocks your opponent across the screen. The combat isn't any deeper or more varied than what's found in the core Budokai games, but it's not as friendly for button-mashing, and the learning curve is much steeper. It's commendable that Spike wanted to try something different here, but the dividends don't quite justify it.

Tenkaichi might have an unorthodox control scheme, but the game mode options are pretty straightforward. The Z Battle Gate operates under the contrivance of restoring Shenron's memories by reenacting classic Dragon Ball moments, though the "classic" status of some of these battles (Krillin vs. Yamcha!) is somewhat suspect. Rather than having you just knock down one opponent after another, the Z Battle Gate regularly gives you conditions to win certain encounters, such as requiring you to use a special finishing move, and you'll also find yourself squaring off with characters in matches that feel more like boss battles than standard fighting-game matches. Z Battle Gate is the first menu option in the game, but the competition is fierce right from the start, and you should probably go through the tutorials and practice modes first to avoid frustration.

You'll earn loads of Z items in the Z Battle Gate, which are special performance-enhancing modules that you can apply to different characters. Each character has a limited number of slots for these enhancements, though certain Z items can be fused to create a single, more-powerful item. It's not entirely unlike the character customization system found in the core Budokai games, and it has an appreciable impact on the capacities of the different characters.

The ultimate battle mode puts a unique spin on the standard tournament and survival modes found in other fighting games. Here you're put at the bottom of a 100-fighter tournament, with the goal of working your way up to number one. Winning matches will bring you up a rank and can also earn you points. Rather than knocking you down a rank, losing a match will deduct from points you've accrued. It's a nice buffer against losses, though the consequences for running out of points altogether are severe, requiring you to start the mode all over again. It's just too harsh, and it makes for more moments of frustration than are necessary.

The other two modes found in Tenkaichi are the world tournament mode, which gives you several tiered tournaments to fight in, and the dueling mode, which lets you go one-on-one against either the computer or another player. The multiplayer game isn't as compelling in Tenkaichi as that found in the core Budokai games, largely because the behind-the-back perspectives require the use of split-screen for two players. With the expansive nature of the levels and the outstanding camera issues, these things create more technical hurdles than players ought to be expected to wade through.

Some clumsy camera work aside, Tenkaichi looks pretty good. Though some of the fighters' finer details appear a little blocky up close, they're all fine 3D renderings of their 2D counterparts. When powered up, characters crackle with energy, and well-timed use of slow motion gives many of the attacks some extra punch. Some of the between-fight animations can look a little mechanical, but in action everything feels smooth and exaggerated in an appropriately DBZ manner. Though the power struggles have an appropriately over-the-top feel to them, regular energy attacks don't always carry the grandeur they ought to and are further diminished by canned attack routines that always play out the same way.

The Dragon Ball Z name carries with it several decades of signature sound effects, musical themes, and character voices, which Tenkaichi basks in. All of the sound effects for punches, powering up, instant transmissions, ki blasts, and the rest of the Dragon Ball Z trademarks come through crisp and clear. As has become expected, the American voice cast provides character vocals, though you might get the impression that some of these actors are growing weary of the characters. If you've been exposed to the US version of Dragon Ball Z exclusively, you can have your mind completely blown by switching the voices to use the original Japanese voice cast instead. Rounding out the sound effects is a soundtrack that balances the funk of the original Japanese DBZ soundtrack and the more rocking American version. It can create some inconsistency, and there are a few occasions when sound fidelity is questionable, but the payoff is quite worth it.

Despite the fact that Tenkaichi doesn't quite live up to the higher standards set by Budokai 3, the execution is still good enough, and the game makes the kind of thorough use of the license that will keep the DBZ devout happy. Make no mistake, though--the gameplay is different enough that Tenkaichi should be considered a spin-off more than a sequel, and Budokai fans should approach it with a bit of caution.