Triple Chimp: February 2009

Well, well, well... All the talk of Nazi zombies 'round this joint have brought this Mexican zombie out of hiding. Roy trapped me in our tool shed out back with my PS2 and a copy of TimeSplitters again, and since I'm a stupid zombie now (Thanks again, Adry!), I couldn't figure out the damned door knob. Took me a month to figure it out, but gosh darnit, here I am, free to feed on braaaaaiiiiiinsssss... Ahem. And play STREET FIGHTER IV BEFORE ALL YOU SUCKAS!

I'm gonna be a jerk about this and write a review à la Harry Knowles, tell you all about my day, what I was wearing, what I had for lunch (brains, duh), and what my Zombie poop smelled like that day (for you, Effie)... all before I even get to talkin' 'bout SFIV.

As you guys might already know, arcade cabinets for Street Fighter IV will not be released outside of Japan, at least for the time being. Any cabinets found elsewhere are illegal, and arcades found out are subject to huge fines, believe it or not... There may be a few cabinets legally distributed to Korea and Australia in a month or two (I think), but that's besides the point. Now, only a handful of cabinets made it to the states (again, illegally). And holy hot damn, if there ain't three in Austin! Arcade UFO is now one of my favorite places to hang out. Click on the hyperlink for directions and more...

I shouldn't be at all surprised that more than a few of my colleagues in the grad film program here at UT Austin are huge Fighter fans... beginning with my roommate Roy. We've spent countless hours beating up on each other, and it's always great to release some stress. Moreover, I've improved drastically since playing with Roy on a regular basis. Just as stone sharpens stone, Roy has... sharpened... err. Nevermind.

So I've been buggin' Roy to go with me to Arcade UFO since I found out they had a copy of SFIV and he finally conceded. I started off the evening at the Hole in the Wall. Tossed back a pitcher or two of Fireman's #4 and tried to convince a few friends I ran into at the bar to join us for Fighter. No takers. But that was fine. I was too jazzed to care.

Now, the arcade... this place is a converted laundromat. It's dinky, it's cramped, but holy crap, I've never seen nicer arcade cabinets. Most, if not all, of the monitors are now HD, there are imported Japanese games that I never would have seen otherwise, and the dudes that hang out there mean business. Arcade sharks. The kind of sharks that hover over your shoulder, watch you play for 5 - 10 min, plunk in their quarters, and then proceed to hand you your butt (presumably because they know your style from watching). Awesome stuff. But, finally, on to the game.

Surprisingly enough, there wasn't too long a wait for SFIV. They have a neat setup that let's 3 people play at a time. Gone are the days of rubbing shoulders up against your opponent. This setup has three different cabinets, one per player, that are networked to cycle through. Machine A fights against machine B while machine C plays the computer. If Machine A wins, then it matches up against machine C while machine B plays the computer, and so on. Very cool system (You get your own HD screen and plenty of room to play). Even cooler still, the machines are back to back, so you don't get to see your opponent. All very mysterious.

I haven't had that much video-game-induced adrenaline pumping through me in years... Of course, I'm sure the beer didn't hurt, either. And I didn't do too bad for myself. Out of 30 matches, I probably won about 10. Not bad for a SFIV virgin.

The Graphics: Just like the rest of you guys, I've spent the last couple of months looking at screen grabs and videos from the game. I did NOT like what I was seeing. SFIII: Third Strike had some beautiful 2D sprite animation. Aesthetically, the game was moving towards a more naturalistic representation of the characters, and now SFIV was gonna cartoon-y it all up. Well, I've been converted. Despite ridiculously goofy images like this one...

The graphics just fit. Especially with the new animation style. It's hyper-kinetic and very much "anime." I got chills watching Zangief lumber "big-boy" style towards me the few times I played against the computer... just his "walking forward" animation alone! And Blanka looks even more savage as his green, rippled stomach quickly pumps in and out with every breath, like the wild animal he is. Good stuff. Special moves are appropriately flashy and the inkblot theme works beautifully, too.

The Gameplay: Oh boy... where to begin. The timing is different. It's definitely going to take a while for fans of the series to nail the timing on this new iteration. Things are... curt. Staccato. Jumps, in particular, seem really sharp. Quick up, and much quicker down without really spanning too long a distance. Does that make any sense? Took me about 3-5 matches to really get into the swing of it. But once I did, it was pure Fighter fun.

There are only a few more things I'll mention here. New gameplay mechanics do indeed enhance the tried-and-true Street Fighter formula, most notably the "focus attack." Pressing both middle punch and middle kick, makes your fighter of choice turn all inkblotty. He/she changes their stance, going into a slow "I'm about to beat your ass" animation. Reminded me very much of Yoshimitsu's critical stab attack from Tekken. Okay, so... great. But here's the cool part. The longer you hold down the two "middle" buttons, the stronger your attack will be. Of course it takes excellent timing, but if you execute the move to it's fullest potential, it's entirely unblockable! Even cooler still, and this might be a bit tricky to explain... if you start the focus attack, you can cancel out of it by dashing forward or back. But, inevitably you're going to take a hit while you charge up the focus attack. You're essentially a sitting duck if you commit to the move. So, here's the neat part. If you take a hit, you will lose life, but on your life bar, the lost life doesn't disappear, but rather grays out. If you don't pull off the focus attack, or you let your opponent hit you again, then that grayed-out life is lost. If the focus attack is successful, it regenerates! Very, very satisfying to pull this one off...

Other than that, there are the standard Super Combos (ex, double hadouken and a punch), an Ultra Combo, which I haven't quite figured out yet, and when you do a regular special move but use two attack buttons (ex, hadouken with both jab and middle punch), it makes you flash yellow as it's executed, but, again, I have no idea what this does and I'm too lazy to research online...

The Sound: Eh... it was too loud in the arcade to really make anything out. Pretty sure the jams are solid, though.

So, all in all, an awesome experience. Game ships for the home consoles on Feb. 17th. Start stretchin' out those thumbs now, kiddos...