SF4 - Gripes

To follow up with the last post praising the game, this post will be the gripes I have. These are very nit-picky gripes; but gripes all the same.

1. Down loadable content. Someone wrote it better for me here. I'm not quite as bitter as that writer, but their points are all completely valid. I shouldn't have to purchase extras on the day of release for a game that has been 2 decades in the making. Especially when they are not really "content" but just different costumes and colors. Jeers to you, Capcom.
   
2. Seth. This guy is an abomination of bosses, in my opinion. Previous bosses have been Sagat and M.Bison. These bosses had their own traits, characteristics, and weaknesses. Sagat had his speed, range, and power; M.Bison had incredible defensive abilities and even more power than Sagat. But even he had weaknesses. This new guy has none of his own abilities, instead he uses the best abilities of all characters in the game. This gives him unsurpassed power, range, speed, and the ability to fight from all areas of the fight. You try ranged, he throws projectiles, and closes the distance via teleportation. You try close up and he destroys you with something similar to Akuma's Instant Hell Murder, an uppercut with Ryu's power and Ken's combo, or Zangief's piledriver. Even on the easiest mode this guy is ridiculous to fight. I've read posts that say that he is easily dispatched by just using HK/HP combos at opportune times. Why in the hell would I enjoy playing a boss whereby the strategy is little pokes; completely disregarding the reason I like playing a certain toon?! Jeers to you, Capcom creativity.
3. Getting back in the mix. After losing to Seth in a matter of seconds, I'm forced to waith through his worthless flavor text, then the option to continue (this is a staple of SF, so not a big deal), then the character select screen, then the matchup screen (that can't be sped up or skipped), then the intro cut scene. I waste more time trying to get back into the fight then I do losing it. Jeers to you, Capcom Devs.

Ok, that should do it for me. Again, these are minor issues, but they still irritate the living crap out of me. Maybe we'll see some of the addressed in a patch or something... if that can be done.

Street Fighter 4: aka "The return to childhood"

First.... Stop reading this and go buy the game. Seriously. I'll wait. Now, open the box and get that "new game" smell. Breathe deep and remember back to popping in that SFII cartridge into your SNES for the first time. This will not be the first time that you will have this feeling.

I have not played a game that is so beautiful to look at that could take me back to times sitting up all night with my buddies, mouths agape, beating the living hell out of one another. I instantly felt at home with this game. The technical aspect is nearly perfectly redone. I could even use all of the old combos I used to be able to do. The timing is a *little* off, but nothing like the abominations that came in between SFII and SFIV.

As far as the visuals... amazing. I can almost see Capcom throwing down the gauntlet when they started dreaming up this game. "Hey! Everyone else is doing remakes of old games, lets blow them away!" And... they did. From 10,000 feet away, the game looks and feels the same as it always did. Up close, it is just stunning. People's clothes move independently of their bodies, hair is free-moving, character's faces keep locked on to their opponents, and special moves are just... special.

The music is updated, but definitely grabs its roots from those old-school 16-bit riffs. Sound effects are subtle, but impressive. It actually took me about 5 minutes into the intro to realize that the music was the original track, just updated; and it is wonderful.

Gameplay? Perfect. I get the same feelings I did back in the day when I broke so many controllers getting pissed off at the CPU opponents. The same mix of finesse and technically. If you've ever played a (good) Street Fighter game, you'll be both right at home and blown away.

Amazing.