One of the world’s greatest… yes… I said it… greatest fighting franchises scissor kicks its way onto the PS3 that not only pays homage to the original games but transforms it into something very special for next generation consoles. Although the original game still dates well, the franchise did need a facelift and boy did Capcom sure do this. With updated gameplay, high resolution graphics, new characters and even online play… Street Fighter has definitely hit 2010 hard!

Features

• Enhanced online play featuring new modes:

• Up to eight players can participate in elimination battles.
  Participate in an endless elimination online match where the winner stays on and plays against the next player in true arcade fashion. Spectators can also chat with each other as they watch the match.

• Record matches and discuss the action while watching replays of great matches from players around the world.

• Tournament Mode coming as DLC after launch.

• Return of the classic car and barrel bonus stages made popular in Street Fighter II both available in arcade and challenge modes:

• Car stage: Annihilate the car with regular and special moves before the time runs out.

• Barrel stage: Players are given 20 barrels and must destroy as many as they can within the time limit.

• More classic Street Fighter characters re-imagined for a new generation of gamers, including favourites DeeJay and T Hawk. 

• All playable SFIV characters will be unlocked out of the box. 

• Gameplay has been rebalanced to provide challenges for both newcomers as well as the most seasoned Street Fighter pro

At it’s core, Super Street Fighter IV is a fighting game but unlike Tekken and Dead or Alive, this franchise features a more innovative attack system and all the characters actually feel quite different as you control them, whether the alien-like Seth or one of the world's greatest fighters, Ryu. Speaking of characters, for the purists, all the classic Street Fighter characters are included in this game such as Ryu, Chun-Li, E. Honda and Bison. However to keep things fresh and as mentioned, there are six new additions to the franchise such as El Fuerte and Crimson Viper.

Each of the fighters in the game have their own unique style of fighting which made the original so entertaining and is mirrored here quite successfully. The new characters also add a few spanners into the fighting style such as El Fuerte, the wrestler or Crimson Viper who feels that she has been taken out of those cool Chinese martial arts movies with all her flying attacks. As soon as I put the game into my PS3, it was like coming home again. The introduction movie was great and featured an almost hand-drawn style of cinematic with lines and painting animation as the story is introduced.

As to gameplay, the title contains arcade, versus, network battle, challenge and training. The arcade mode takes you through the story of the character you have selected and if you do lose, you can start as another character at the same place you lost. You can change the difficulty , number of rounds and even time limits. One interesting aspect is the fight request in arcade mode that allows you to play online and accept challenges but this can be disabled.

The control system has been well mapped on the PS3 controller as you kick, punch, block and combo your way to victory. Another interesting development of this game is the inclusion of focus attacks that was a little tricky to pull off but once I managed it, it really did add something interesting to the combat. By charging your focus attack, you are open to attacks, however if you succeed, the first hit you take is negated and then you can counterattack. If you use it correctly, you can knock your opponents down or cancel their power-up attack and then unleash a finishing manoeuvre on them.

To throw a spanner in the work, you also have a EX power meter that allows you chain combo attacks together but in order for this meter to rise, you need to land successive hits, whereas the more punishment you take, the more your revenge meter goes up. Strategy indeed!

If you're new to the franchise, don't fret because the training option allows you to play each character and even see their button list for attacks etc. The difficulty level can be set to very easy which is too easy but once again perfect for newbies. On the other hand, those use to fighting games will be comfortable on a mid-range settings or higher and I did try the hardest setting and got my ass handed to me on more than one occasion. Needless to say as each character is so different, there's plenty of learning to be had and you'll find your favourites in no time but with so many characters available, you might be playing this game for quite some time, especially if you're trying to master the ultra combo.

The game supports multiplayer both offline and online. But where it does shine is through online and provided you have a decent internet connection, you can join in ranked or unranked matches. If you are playing offline and you have fight request turned on, the game will pause if someone from the net has challenged and you have the option of accepting or declining. Quite cool. I also love how you can track other players statistics which is a great way to monitor your characters. Fancying joining in a tournament? That option is also there. This game has it all, gameplay and gameplay options!

Graphically, the game is quite stunning in high definition and although it pays homage to the original, the state of the art graphics sets it apart from its predecessors. The characters have an almost cell-shaded quality to them and all the characters are extremely well animated. Add in a plethora of great tournament arenas and Street Fighter IV has definitely landed in the 21st century. The game is quite colourful and has a very high frame rate with no slowdown whatsoever.

The voice acting of the game is as cheesy as ever as is the cool Japanese pop soundtrack that suits the genre perfectly. A special mention should be made to Michael McConnohie, the king of voice acting who has been in anime, movies and video games with his very distinct voice. His Seth is perfect!

At the end of the day, Street Fighter IV is easily one of the best fighting games for quite some time that is high on content and high on gameplay. With unlockable content from modes to taunts to name a few, this game has it all and whether you want to play online or offline, both are equally good. The game is quality from start to finish and even if you're not a Street Fighter fan, I still recommended that you check it out, even a rent before a buy. Definitely great value for money! A++