When Street Fighter IV came out gamers were excited, but the hype was limited. Sure we were all happy to see our favorite Street Fighter characters step into the ring again, but we had no idea whether the game would be good or not, whether it would work in pseudo 3-D, or whether its advertised “back-to-basics” fighting system would be any fun. As a result, Street Fighter IV just didn’t stir up as much buzz as it could have. Fortunately it’s some time later now and we have let the reality of Street Fighter IV sink in, and all the buzz that should have built up for the original has now carried over to Super Street Fighter IV, its sequel. It’s more of the same, but it’s a lot more of the same, and that’s exactly what fans wanted.

The game plays exactly as it always has. You have 3 punches, 3 kicks, a variety of special moves, focus attacks and cancels, ex specials, supers, and ultras. First person to reduce their opponent to 0 life wins. It’s the same old Street Fighter formula, and nothing all that innovative has been added to its Super iteration. Characters do get to choose from two different ultras now. Many are useful enough to open up new play styles for their characters, but some just fall flat. Counter and status changing ultras especially seem to fall into disuse. Everything else, however, is classic Street Fighter, from Guile’s sonic hurricane, to Ryu’s new metsu shoryuken (very reminiscent of the Shin Shoryuken). There has also been a bit of balance tweaking, but nothing to an extreme or even noticeable extent. Sagat players may find themselves not winning every match hands down from now on, but no character in particular has been seriously hit with the nerf bat.

Super Street Fighter IV assumes that you know what you are doing as soon as you come in. Its tutorial has been reduced to little more than combo practice, and Time Attack and Survival are totally gone. In its place is a greatly expanded online mode that allows you to set up battle in whatever way you like. You can run tournaments, start a rotation, play a “king of the hill” style match and many more. You can easily record matches and watch matches between the best fighters in the world. The online is probably the most expanded part about the game, which goes to show that Capcom admitted that any fighting game lives or dies by its versus mode.

That’s not to say that there aren’t other distractions to keep you busy when you aren’t chucking your hadokens at your opponent. Modernized versions of the original Street Fighter II bonus levels have been included, which can be played alone or accessed by a playthrough of Arcade mode. New anime cutscenes and an updated story have also been included, and they are slightly better than the ones we got in the original Street Fighter IV, but they are mostly forgettable, and serve to do little more than give this fighting fest a vague skeleton of a reason to actually occur. You can unlock new costumes, soundtracks, and other goodies as you play the game, but all characters are unlocked from the get go. Thank god.

Speaking of characters, it’s the characters that are Super Street Fighter IV’s biggest draw. Ten new characters have been added, bringing the cast up to thirty five. This is one of the largest Street Fighter casts to date. Dee Jay and T-Hawk return, Dee Jay in particular being more deadly and more smiley than ever. Three new combatants from Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter III have also joined the fray. Alpha gives us Final Fight veterans Cody and Guy as well as a second Muay Thai fighter Adon. From the Street Fighter III cast we have Dudley, the gentlemanly boxer, Ibuki, the teenage ninja, and Makoto, who is best known for punching you in the crotch before punching you in the face. Two new characters also join the group including Juri, an insane psycho Tae-Kwon-Do bitch, and Hakan, a Turkish oil wrestler.

All of these new characters have their own strengths and weaknesses that add a lot to the game. For example, all of the Street Fighter III characters have transitioned smoothly over to Street Fighter IV, keeping many of their Third Strike combos and mechanics in tact. This greatly alters the way the game is played, especially against people like Guile or Sagat who rely on Street Fighter II tactics. Many people are speculating that Dudley, with his long combos, and Makoto, with her ability to combo both her super and ultra together, will be particularly high tier. As for the other characters, Cody is a force to be reckoned with, boasting a list of powerful and safe moves. Guy and T-Hawk leave a little to be desired, but as I said before Dee Jay certainly shines and Adon is as good as he ever was. The two new characters, while interesting in terms of personality, fell into disuse quite quickly. Juri is interesting but just doesn’t match up with some of the other characters and Hakan is really more of a joke character than anything else.

The best part about Super Street Fighter IV, is the price tag. Capcom is only charging forty bucks for this title, as opposed to the sixty you spent on the original. Still, paying for Street Fighter AGAIN may turn off some fans, especially fans that don’t have a lot of money. Suffice it to say, this version is the definitive Street Fighter IV. You might as well sell your old original copy because you won’t be coming back to it after you give Super a try.

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