Pach's Real Talk: Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition

Greetings gamers! Y'know I think it's time we had ourselves a little talk. This is just between you and I, but I don't think you've been taking care of yourself the way that you should be. I thought someone should tell you. Lately it seems as if your standards have fallen. Your dreams have all but faded away, and the light seems to have left your once sharp and hopeful eyes. That whore you've been seeing... Capcom I think her name is... she's sucking the life out of you, duder. This is just from one concerned friend to another but... you've been playing Super Street Fighter 4 haven't you?

Real Talk.

It's going to be important to note first off... that I don't DISLIKE SSF4. I just feel like we deserved better. We'll be looking into the pros and cons of this game by (and I hate doing it this way, but you can't make an omelet...) comparing it in many ways to the fighters that it competes with on a national and international level present day. In general this will cover the SF4 series in its entirety since pretty much every game has been a rebalance/character expansion of the previous. This will also assume basic knowledge of a few fighting game terms (so I apologize in advance if YOU'RE A SCRUB). It's going to take a while, and we'll try to stay constructive... but... well we'll see.

This particular post hits very, very close to home for me (as those of you who have actually taken the time to check out my avatar can see). I have been there since street fighter 2, street fighter 2:turbo, alpha, 3rd strike, 4th strike, and "holy crap another one really?": extreme edition. And you know what? The more that I thought about it... the more I realized how much they all truly fell short. Now hang on, before we all jump down ol' Pach's throat we need to take a darn good look at our childhoods here. This is one of those things where we didn't quite realize we'd been eating horse meat until we had a steak. We loved it at the time because "Hey, we've got meat! We can share with our friends! Look at the sweet fireball my meat just shot at yours!" But now I'd like to think we hold ourselves to some higher standards. Just because street fighter 2 touched you as a child doesn't mean you have to go around stripping for extra cash and giving handy's in the alley for XBLA points! Damn it, you're better than that! HAVE SOME SELF RESPECT!

First off, lets clear up two common myths that the Capcom matrix has programmed into your brain:

1.) SF4 has made fighting games approachable to newer players, which has been a huge part of its mass appeal.

This is complete crap. Fighting games by their very nature have an "Easy to learn, hard to master" philosophy. Anybody who says that SF4 (specifically) introduces new players into the genre has spent their entire childhood getting stomped on by people who have been playing fighting games longer than them. Think about this: nobody complains about getting stomped on by the CPU, they complain about getting stomped on by their friends and peers... meaning that if you play as much as your friends and peers, you can compete to a certain degree. Don't you dare try to tell me that this game is simple and that makes it easier. It's simple minded... but it's not simple to the point that an idiot could succeed regardless of skill, which is the same friggen style as every other hardcore fighter.

SF4 has, beyond anything else (and we'll talk about this more later), the best TIMING of any fighting game to date. Players hadn't had a massive fighter release in quite a while other than expansions on Guilty Gear, KoF, Tekken, and Marvel. SF4 got in on the ground floor back in 2008 right around the time people were done jerking off to 3rd strike and wanted something new all around.

2.) SF4 revitalized the fighting game community and made the genre into a national and international e-sport.

Self-entitled freaks like you and I have been holding tournaments, staying up late practicing combos, arguing tiers, and neglecting relationship duties for years... there is no use pretending that these games weren't popular with us before now. The main reason for the fighting game community explosion over the past 3 years can be summed up with 4 words. The God-Damned Internet. Streaming, youtube videos, and incorporation of netplay with our fighting games simply meant we no longer needed to have friends to get the full enjoyment out of our addiction (which...admittedly is a big deal for some of us).

Now, I know what you're thinking: STREET FIGHTAH DID THAT FIRST BRO! Well... sort of. But that's like saying if Thomas Edison hadn't invented the light bulb we would all be living by candlelight at the moment. With online play in almost every other multiplayer gaming genre, it was an advancement that was going to happen one way or another. Don't give credit where credit isn't due.

Now ONTO THE BREAKDOWN!

Lets hit the pros first:

1.) The core gameplay.
If you learn everything there is to know about SF4, you will essentially have the basic mechanics to ride (training wheels and all) into any other fighting game. That says something for its design.

2.) Netplay.
Hey, remember when you used to need friends? Guess what? Now you can be a complete dick in perfect anonymity with netplay for street fightuh! Play all night if you want! Your new friends will never leave you ever.

3.) The cast of characters.

There are a hell of a lot of people to choose from in this game. From the racist black DJ (maracas and a crest clean smile? come on now...) to the mexican luchador that named all his special moves after freaking taco bell meals. QUESADILLA BOMB, BABY! You'll be able to find something you like here on, at the very least, a cosmetic level that suits the way you want to play.

4.) The move list

You'll find no super duper over the top combos here, and the special moves are all accessible to someone that doesn't know what a QCF is. There is also every type of special move in this game from double input, to charge, to 360's, to fireballs, to SHORRRRYUKEN.

The game is functional. It serves its purpose as an evening of fun for a bunch of bros that like to shoot fireballs at each other until one of them flips a table over, but...

The cons:

1.) The core... friggen... gameplay
Okay. Lets just get this out of the way really quick. I am going to list the mechanics that EVERY complete fighting game has, and then the ones that street fighter has.

Street Fightdurp first -In street fighter... you can strike with multiple strengths, do special moves with multiple strengths, do super special moves, jump, jump attack, throw, command throw, dash forward, dash backward, soft parry, counter, throw block/counter, block, overhead hit, trip, soft roman cancel, and taunt like a dick.

Now for the most part, every other fighter in existence has those mechanics (which is why I said that learning these mechanics are a gateway). But ON TOP of that, in order to make their games balanced, other fighters have a combination of - hard parry, instant block, air dash left, air dash right, super jump, a burst system/combo break system, roman cancels, a block gauge/super block, chip damage from normal attacks, ground tech left, ground tech right, ground tech up, air tech, and air block. ON TOP of everything else, they have these. That's not including the in game strategy that comes with having these mechanics and a more complex move set.

I can almost hear you thinking: "Hey bro, 3rd strike was the best fighter ever, they had parry, you can't say that stuff about ALL street fighters". Ok. A.) Yes I can because parry is just a retarded excuse not to have an air block. B.) 3rd strike was the most unbalanced piece of crap ever, and the ONLY reason you see people winning tournaments outside of tiers is because the game has been around for 10 freaking years, and C.) 3rd strike STILL lacked all the other mechanics that make sf4 a bland fighter.

At its very heart, street fighter has watered down every single character by not giving them the complex universal mechanics that allow them to do interesting things. Your standard combo is going to be jump attack, heavy attack/link, special move, and maybe finish with a super. That's it until you're at Daigo's level (and even then it's mostly the same). Literally every character has these as their core combos. Their CORE combos. Every character. The soft roman cancel from focus attacks barely mixes this up because you can't use it to interrupt 100% of the moves that are inputted. This is one of the main reasons that this game suffers.

2.) NETPLAAAAAAAY
Ok, so you now no longer need friends in order to enjoy fighting games.....Huzzah!
But oh, you need a pretty freaking awesome internet connection. Oh you have one? That's awesome, but when I mean YOU need a pretty awesome internet connection, I mean that your OPPONENT does as well. Also, did I mention that your new internet friends are dicks?

Now, I will be the first to admit that net-coding is a skill that I don't and will most likely never have. You might as well tell me it's magic and that the internet stork hands down baby connections to lonely nerds and nerdettes. BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A GENIUS TO SEE HOW TERRIBLE THIS GAME'S LAG IS.

As with any genre of gaming that uses the internet as a medium for multiplayer, lag is an issue. No one is arguing that... but netplay with fighting games is a little different when it comes to affecting gameplay. With shooters or rts games lag usually results in a few extra bullets out of your semi-automatic gun not coming out properly, or your game pausing for a few seconds while the other person reconnects during a zergling rush. This means that 2 out of your 150,000 bullets didn't enter your opponents head... or they did and you just didn't see them. With fighting games however, this messes with the inputs and timing that are inherently key to the gameplay.

So picture this: your character has an excellent opportunity to finish his opponent after he whiffs a move. Your finishing move input is back forward back forward punch. However, you are lagging so instead of that killing move you get - back LAG back LAG punch. This happened in a split second, but the game only read 3 inputs instead of 5. So instead of killing the guy, you dash back and throw a right hook like a chump. GG internet.

3.) The cast of characters (from A to D!)

Contrary to popular belief, the cast of street fighturr is actually not as big as it seems. It boasts 39 characters in total, but in reality there are only 4. There are shotos, charge characters, losers, and Yun. That's it.

But Pach, whatever do you mean? I've seen people winning big tournaments with a wide variety of characters! I've seen some sweet YouTube vids with Hakan players punking bitches!

First of all, no you haven't you dirty liar. Second of all, I'm talking about true variety here. Every single solitary character in SF4 falls into one of these 4 categories:

Shoto - Character with a variation of (or literal duplicate of) Ryu's fireball, like-some-pound-cake swirly kick, and SHORYUUUUUKEN.

Charge Characters - Those who have a move set that requires one to "charge" the input by holding it in a specific direction (usually back to forward, or down to up).

Losers - Everyone who isn't in the above 2 categories, who has a different strategic focus (such as grapplers), or who just can't come out on top no matter how they try.

Yun - Remember that movie about the one ring to rule them all? Yun is the ring of power if Frodo got stabbed by Sam halfway through the second movie.

But in all seriousness... not only do the characters of this game lack any actual variety, they are incredibly imbalanced. At EVO2011, many tried to claim that Yun isn't as overpowered as people originally thought because he didn't come in 1st. However, the ENTIRE top 20 roster was filled with characters from the S and A tier lists which still amounts to about 4-5 characters (out of 39). So regardless of who managed to shoryuken and FADC Ultra their way to the top spot, the balance of the game hasn't been seriously addressed since its release in 2008. The 2012 update may drop Yun from top tier to A tier, but that still doesn't change the fact that this game has terrible character design overall.

4.) Eht evom tsil...

Er... crap sorry I got AUTOCORRECTED for readers who are reading from right to left. If that went right over your head, don't worry about it (but I don't know why you're reading this post). It basically means that if you do a super move (and even some specials) from the move list in SF4, the game will AUTOMATICALLY adjust your character so that they attack directly where your opponent is at the time the move comes out, regardless of the opponent's positioning from left to right on the screen. A concept which is so unfathomably ridiculous that I have trouble typing it without hurling my keyboard across the room.

But that aside, lets talk about priorities for a minute here. No, I'm not talking about why you're reading a blog right now instead of contributing to society you selfish jerk, I'm talking about special move priorities!

To put it simply: in the rock/paper/scissors of fighting games, there are a lot of special moves that rank under the "shotgun firing vibranium buckshot" category. These special moves are spammable, mashable, and totally designed to make you feel like a pro when really you've just learned how to piss people off.

Picture this: You weigh 500 lbs because you're made of muscle hardened by many years of bear wrestling and surviving direct contact with tornadoes. For whatever reason, that skank in a skirt that's barely pushing a buck ten on the scale wants to fight with you. So you decide you're going to dash at her with your arms in the air, grab her, and slam her on her tiny, non-tornado hardened head. Her response? A simple sidekick. To put things in perspective this is like throwing a baseball at the side of a building to try and stop it from falling on you. But for some reason... the sidekick works! You're hurt! Jesus god you're hurt! THERE'S BLOOD EVERYWHERE! Was that a shotgun she just hit you with?! Oh god make it stop!

You've just experienced a classic example of SF4 special move priority!

5.) Capcom

Since 2008, Capcom has released 3 editions of SF4, about 6-15 costume packs, and a metric

ton of downloadable videos and content. Each and every edition of the game needed to be bought

over again for between 15-40 dollars, and every costume pack ranged from 5-15 dollars. Patches

released to seriously re-balance the game? One. Two if you include the one to be released in 2012.

Why? Because they want to take all of your money and put it into a giant machine that will blow

up the rebel base on Alderon.... and because we let them do it.

The Bottom Line:

With the success of SF3:3rd Strike, Capcom got a blank check from fans to do whatever the

hell they wanted in SF4 knowing that we would buy it regardless. And in classic battered

housewife fashion, we came back for the 2nd edition, and the 3rd edition, and we will be back

again in 2012 for the update. Why? Because the game is deep and it brings in new users to

our paltry fanbase? No. It's because we assumed the first time he smashed our fine dinner china

was because we didn't cook his steak the way he likes it... and that he really loves us no matter

what our jealous friends might say.

Capcom released this game 10 years after the success of 3rd strike, and with some clever

marketing and advertising managed to get the game into every home that had a street fighter fan

in it. The introduction of netplay kept the old players, and allowed new players a cost effective

way to get better outside the arcades. But other than that they did nothing new with this game,

simply flashing up some old mechanics with new art styles and a few new characters. Innovation is

what we should have gotten with SF4, not a throwback to our childhoods.

We deserved better.