Add Resident Evil 5 to the mix a month later – not to mention the money I’ve already spent at the Capcom PSN store for Bionic Commando: Rearmed and MegaMan 9 – and there goes a lot of money for a jobless gamer such as myself.

But alas, lack of money aside, it shall be a glorious time for gaming.

God I love and hate you at the same time, Capcom.

Street Fighter IV has finally landed in Melbourne arcades and today, I finally got to play it. And play I did, a good $14 dollars worth ($2 per game, ugh) with my time spent mostly getting re-acquainted with the old familiar cast – namely Guile, E.Honda, Vega (Claw), M.Bison (Dictator) and Zangief. As such, I have yet to try any of the new characters, although I did make a few observations from playing against the computer, as well as players who used them.

Having played Street Fighter games for several years now, mostly frequenting Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, I have to say that it was very easy to pick-up-and-play, especially if you have even the most basic knowledge of SF2, you’ll feel right at home with the original twelve world warriors. Practically all of the old characters have retained their original command lists, with some gaining a few additional moves as well.

In terms of the characters themselves though, Zangief seems especially strong in this game. A lot of high priority moves, an apparent 0 frame Ultra combo start-up, tick throw traps and super armour for his EX moves make him extremely formidable.

The new characters, Abel and Rufus seem quite strong from what I can tell. Abel seems like an all-round powerhouse that can roll through fireballs, seems to have a good mix-up game with his Change of Direction move and his Ultra Combo appears to go through fireballs – whatever stage of animation it is in.  Rufus‘ Ultra Combo seems especially effective as an anti-air move as it hits in full when someone (like me) tries to jump in. Scary stuff.

Seth, the final boss of SFIV, is pretty cheap. Not on the level of Gill or any SNK boss mind you, but he certainly covers a lot of ground. As you’ve probably read from other places, he’s basically the Dural of the Street Fighter universe – borrowing moves from other fighters. He can sonic boom, dragon punch, teleport, do a hybrid SPD, Urien tackle/sweep and do Dhalsim’s stretchy cr.HP. I couldn’t beat him, but a friend made him look like a walk in the park.

As for the new Focus Attack system (MP+MK), I didn’t use it much or I haven’t found an effective means of using it, but some players seem to be picking up on it pretty quickly, experimenting with the EX Focus Dash Cancel and whatnot. We’ll see how this develops, as it is incorporated into higher level play in future.

Overall, Street Fighter IV is quite a refreshing game. The learning curve may seem a bit shallower than say, 3rd Strike (and that’s definitely not a bad thing for some people), but there is quite a lot of fun to be had, based on the pick-up-and-play factor and familiarity/nostalgia alone. It is like meeting an old friend whom you haven’t met in a long time and I’m sure that’s what SFIV producer Yoshinori Ono was aiming for. However, I know that when SFIV hits consoles/PC, I’ll be having a very hard time performing Ultra Combos and lariats with my current arcade stick (I have a Virtua Stick High Grade), due to the 3 button+ input flaw, so I might have to invest in another stick when its released. Bah.

Street Fighter IV is currently available at Crown Casino’s Galactic Circus and Bourke Street’s Bluehouse amusement centres in Melbourne.

The image header is just a placeholder for now, though I might grow to like it. What should you expect from this blog? Nothing but grammatically bad, poorly-written opinions and reviews on a cherished hobby: gaming.

This isn’t going to set the world on fire, nor will it seperate itself from the already sprawling masses of gaming blogs already found on the Internet. Looking at past experience, updates will generally be sporadic and is determined by when and if I feel like writing something with burning vigour and/or passion.