Fight love

by ERIK LEIJON

Forget the long-winded introduction this week, let’s get to the nitty-gritty. My obsession with Street Fighter has lasted for 17 years, and the fourth installment will only reinforce this longstanding love affair. In its initial simplicity and classic roster of combatants, Street Fighter 4 (X360, PS3/Capcom) may be cowtowing slightly to players who foolishly missed out on the criminally underrated (although nearly impenetrably complex) third edition, but this retro-meets-modern brawler is by no means empty nostalgia. There’s a deep fighting game hidden behind the glossy exterior.

Most of the hoopla surrounding this landmark, improbable comeback release concerns the incredible visual spectacle. All the original SF2 characters are back, although this time, instead of two-dimensional sprites, the fighters are beautifully animated in full 3D. They look like anime characters come to life, making manic facial gestures as the fights go on. Ryu’s famous bandana blows in the wind, while Guile’s immaculate hair lightly waves as he sets up a sonic boom attack. The game looks incredible; precisely how one might have imagined a 3D Street Fighter would look.

The new characters are unoriginal and likely won’t make the cut on any future iterations, especially the tired Lucha Libre cliché and a spandex-sporting, obese American named Rufus. Even much-hyped female fighter Crimson Viper looks like an SNK cast-off.

Questionable new faces aside, what makes Street Fighter 4 such a great—and slightly disappointing—game is just how true the developers have remained to the SF2 formula. For those who haven’t played a fighting game since 1992, within minutes you’ll be pulling off hadokens and hundred hand slaps like a pro. The quarter-circle-forward style of move input remains iron-clad after all these years, although because of the limitations of modern console controllers (specifically the horrid, near unusable X360 pad), they made input recognition a little too lenient. This is to the detriment of hardcore, acronym-obsessed fighter fans, who in recent years have become overly protective of their favourite genre as arcades have closed en masse and reduced their obsession to niche market status.

It’s commendable Capcom is trying to make the fighter en vogue again by simplifying the gameplay, but this transition isn’t without problems. They still haven’t designed a comprehensive tutorial system, so there’s no way to learn the ins and outs without receiving numerous beatdowns from the AI or some unforgiving online player.

I mentioned earlier SF4 is deeper than it appears, and this is largely due to the focus attack system. By holding and releasing the two weak attack buttons at the right time, fighters can absorb attacks and counter them automatically. It basically works like a parry from SF3 or guard impacting from Soul Calibur, although the system is more than simply deflecting strikes. Focus attacks can turn the tables on a cheap button masher, or can be cancelled in midstream to throw off conservative opponents. Even beginners will pull off simple focus attacks, but it will take hours, months and likely years of training to master all the techniques. Precisely the excuse I was looking for.

Recession proof?

Many local newsbits for those wondering how the worldwide gaming industry meltdown is affecting Montreal. Mass Effect 2—currently being developed in Edmonton by BioWare—will be getting some help from a new, 30-man support team at EA Montreal. Testing and translating gaming firm Babel Media will be “significantly expanding” their Montreal operation in 2009. Babel handles outsource QA for the likes of Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft. This week, EA Montreal also announced a brand new project from the Army of Two development team—although journos have been gagged concerning the meaty details. EA Montreal did suffer some cuts, as did almost every one of Electronic Arts’ studios.