I actually got a chance to play this game back in October at an expo in the UK. But having gone to Japan last month, I got several chances to get hands on with Street Fighter IV and kick some challengers arses in the process, which was largely gratifying.

Playing Street Fighter IV is instantly familiar due to it not playing that differently to other titles in the series. The moves are done the same, the premise of the game is the same and unlike Street Fighter III, we have a large number of familiar faces. This is Street Fighter IV’s instant charm. The fact that there doesn’t feel like there’s much of a learning curve and that everything falls into place within your first round. You can jump in, pick a character and work it like you own the game at home. Whilst some may argue “What’s the point in this game if it plays like the rest?”, a fair bit has changed. Street Fighter IV does away with air blocking, dizzy gauges, guard gauges, selectable super arts and ISM’s. The only additions come in the form of focus attacks which can crash a characters guard, stop them mid attack and allow you to get a few extra hits in if the attack connects – in a similar fashion to the guard crashes from the EX series. Despite Capcom claiming that IV would play more like Street Fighter II, it actually shares a great deal in common with Street Fighter III. The way attacks land and the flow of matches feels very similar.

Street Fighter IV throws some new faces into the mix and newcomers Crimson Viper and Abel are welcomed additions to the cast. Crimson Viper is weak, but has some deadly specials. She fights similarly to Benimaru from SNK fame and even has the electric summoning powers and super camp dress style to boot. Crimson vipers’ gambit is the variations in her special attacks. Depending on which strength of punch of kick attack you press, her special attacks will vary in trajectory and range. So you can play games with your opponents and keep them guessing as to where you’ll land your special. She’s nowhere near as cool as staple Street Fighter ladies Chun-Li, Cammy and Sakura – but she’s a cool character to use. Abel is a fireball throwers worst nightmare. His over-arcing specials and dodge rolls enable him to get in the face of fireball throwers quickly. He’s much more versatile than Alex from Street Fighter III, but not as powerful as Zangief. He is a great character to use though. I usually don’t go for characters like Abel in beat ‘em ups, but I found myself picking him quite a bit. He’s much more fun to use than he looks. I didn’t pick El Fuerte and actually forgot he was even in the game due to not even fighting him that often. So not much I can say on him other than he’s pretty quick and annoying to fight against as he zips all over the place and is constantly spouting off some rubbish as he does so.

The graphics in the game are sharp! Everything is clean and the characters are superbly animated. The action runs at a steady 60 frames per second and is incredibly fluid. The expressions the characters pull during fights are a nice touch also. Whenever a character initiates a super combo, the face of the recipient looks incredibly worried. Even with all the action going on, the characters facial expressions are always noticeable, which brings the characters to life that bit more. The dynamic camera also ensures super combo’s looks as impressive as possible when they connect, adding extra humiliation points to the poor sucker on the receiving end, especially if they get K.O’d at the end of it.

Overall Street Fighter IV is a great game and a great sequel. It’s a tough call as to whether it’s better than Alpha 3 – which wowed with its large selection of characters, ISM’s and new defensive and offensive maneuvers which were accessible to all characters. But it’s just as fun to play. The arcade version was stellar, which bodes well for the feature packed home console versions which will impact early next year. Street Fighter IV is hardly ground breaking, but it’s the first Street Fighter game in a long while that will get fans excited again.