Street Fighter IV Critic Reviews

At the end of the day, that's really what this Street Fighter is: it's a title that's built for newcomers, yet tweaked for old school vets from the arcade and console days.

It will be like playing "SFII" for the first time all over again, only with the years of love and experience you've since gained already built in. To long-term Street Fighter fans, everything old is new again. To the new players, we simply say welcome to the party. You're going to have a hell of a good time.

This is, in almost every way that matters, the perfect Street Fighter.

Don’t let the lack of a third dimension fool you. Street Fighter IV is possibly the best beat-’em-up ever made. A must-have.

It's this blissful sense of nostalgia that makes Street Fighter IV the runaway success that it undoubtedly is. Street Fighter hasn't changed per se – at heart, it's still the very same game you played all those years ago - but it's been tweaked and enhanced to within an inch of perfection.

Street Fighter IV combines old and new in powerful ways, resulting in a game familiar enough to bring retired fans back into the fold while being different enough to appeal to the players who have stuck with the genre since day one.

Street Fighter IV is not just a top notch next-gen version of Street Fighter, it is in essence what Capcom always wanted the Street Fighter franchise to be.

It's updated graphics, awesome animation, and great fighting makes Street Fighter IV a great pick up.

Capcom and DIMPS have done an amazing job with Street Fighter 4. It's obvious from front to back that the people working on this game knew the legacy they were contending with, and found the guts to finish this project with conviction. This is no mere copycat; this is a proud new addition. It's a bold, confident fighter that celebrates its heritage while bringing fresh, new ideas to the table, arriving in a remarkably complete package that -- if this were the last Street Fighter to ever be created -- earns its rightful place in the series' canon.

This isn't just a prettier SFII - it's the absolute king of fighting games.

Even if you haven’t touched a fighting game since the 16-bit era, one match of Capcom’s new masterpiece will remind you why you spent so many hours at those now long-shuttered arcades.

SF IV represents the best tribute that could ever be made to the series, but it also found, in an apparent easiness, a way to spread perfume and charisma, opening perspectives for modern fighting games.

This game deserves a place on everyone's shelf, from the most casual fan of fighting games to the most hardcore. No matter your personal skill level, you owe it to yourself to buy this game. SFIV's incredible art style, rock solid gameplay, and infinitely compelling multiplayer make it stand out as one of best games of this generation.

Street Fighter II was great. Street Fighter III was great, but for different reasons. But Street Fighter IV… well, it’s great. Or, to be more specific, GREAT carved in 300-foot high letters into the side of a mountain for all to see. True, it’s taken over fifteen years for Capcom to get it right but now, finally, we have a beat-’em-up that truly lives up to the name it represents. Perfection achieved, Capcom – best quit while you’re ahead, eh?

A brilliant touch is the option to turn on a feature that allows Live/PSN players to challenge you even when you’re playing the singleplayer modes. In this era of home entertainment, it’s the closest you can get to someone coming up to challenging you in an arcade. The competition is likely to be ferocious and the fight for online supremacy is likely to continue for many, many years.

But overall this is an incredible package that is without a doubt already a contender for game of the year.

If you're a novice, a training mode and eight levels of difficulty will help you find your way. If you're a pro, SFIV contains all the depth you've ever loved about the series, without compromise. Capcom simply got the feel of Street Fighter perfectly right.

Street Fighter IV is no less than the new standard for beat-‘em-ups. It's a triumphant return for the series after an eight year hiatus and is a seamless blend of the old and new, at once accessible to lapsed pugilists while being nuanced enough for the dedicated core to wallow in its depths.

Capcom reincarnates the essence of the classic Street Fighter II in this fourth chapter: a tribute to the old school 2D fighting genre embodied with outstanding visuals and online capabilities. Street Fighter IV should be considered a new climax among beat-'em ups: perfect in its execution, solid gameplay, addictive as a masterpiece, and extremely fun. It is only weakened by a few pale scenarios and uncharming tunes, not to mention Capcom's decision to charge for the alternate costumes.

Street Fighter IV has returned from a nine year hiatus (man, that makes us feel crusty) to successfully wrest back the crown of ‘most awesome fighter on the market’. It is a shining beacon of quality and hope in an otherwise dying, largely forgotten genre of video gaming. Recognising this, Capcom has wisely kept it accessible to newcomers, sufficiently evolved for veterans, and chock full of the chess-like depth that made the series so infinitely playable in the first place.