There are regularly video games that I look forward to for many months, sometimes years, and ultimately disappoint me. The hype rarely lives up to the result. However, once in a while, a game truly lives up to everything I hoped it would and today, that game is…

Street Fighter IV

I have been playing Street Fighter II regularly since I was in elementary school. The fun characters combined with simple fighting style have made it withstand the test of time. Many sequels and spin-offs followed, including Champion Edition, Turbo, Alpha, Marvel vs. Capcom, Street Fighter III and more. None were ever quite as good as Street Fighter II, which essentially defined what a great fighting game should be like.

When I first heard that Street Fighter IV was in development, I was concerned that it would be ruined by complication that switching from 2D to 3D has brought to so many fighting games. Side stepping, flying between levels… it’s all unnecessary. Just give me the classic left and right movement with the ability to jump and I’m happy.

Now that Street Fighter IV has been released, all my worries are gone. I played it for over 8 hours the day it came out and loved every minute of it. The game feels just like Street Fighter II, but with an amazing art style, some useful but simple additions in the way of power-up meters, and a fun array of new characters. All of the classic elements of Street Fighter II remain but with the addition of surround sound and high-definition graphics. The classic characters look better than they ever have and it feels like reuniting with old friends.

While I haven’t unlocked all of the new characters yet, most of the ones I’ve seen have been great new additions to the world of Street Fighter. I don’t want to include any potential spoilers here, so I won’t comment on any unlockables. C. Viper, Abel, and a few of the unlockable characters fit in wonderfully, as if they’d been with the group from the beginning. El Fuerte doesn’t quite work as well but is very amusing and fun to watch. So far, the only characters I dislike are Rufus (he fights cheap and his character design is kinda lame) and Seth, who really doesn’t seem to mesh with Street Fighter at all.

One bit that annoyed when I first played was that Chun Li spoke in English. More specifically, after winning a match, she exclaimed “I did it!” instead of her classic excited utterance of “Yatta!” That just didn’t feel right. Fortunately, it’s possible to unlock a mode where you can have certain characters speak Japanese instead of English, which enables Chun Li to return to giggling and saying, “Yatta!” Whew.

My only other gripe is having to hear the “Indestructible” song over and over, in the menus and even sometimes during fights. It’s not a great song and it just endlessly loops.

The biggest advice I can offer for those who are finding themselves having a hard time on the higher difficulties (Medium and up) is to run through the Challenge Trials for each character. It’s a great way to learn the special moves, unique basic punches and kicks, and even a few combos. Trying to complete the trials can be very frustrating, so if you encounter a combo that you simply can’t land, just give up and move on to the next character. Learning the basics is what’s most important and you can grow from there.

Overall, I look forward to Street Fighter IV eating many more hours of my life in the coming weeks/months/years and can’t imagine the world of Street Fighter getting any better than this.

If you are a Street Fighter fan and haven’t picked this game up yet, buy it NOW. You won’t regret it.