Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition (PS3)

Super Street Fighter 4 PS3

This game is made by Capcom and I think that thsi is a really good fighting game. In this game you have a choose one of 36 fighters all of whom their own physical and unique fighting characteristics. The game is where you have to beat your opponents in order to progress in terms of fighting achievements. I have noticed in the time that I have played this game that after 2 or 3 fights in which you have successfully won, you get to the bonus stage where you have to take part in a physical and somewhat enduring activity i.e breaking up moving barrels, or attempting to beat up and destroy a car. The game is in some respects violent which might not suit some people, although it does comprise a game with a goood level of fighting gameplay and also this has colorful graphics. In short I can not think of many disadvantages of this game, with the exception being that it is quite hard to learn different fighting combo shots. This can make the fighting seem a bit more tricky. In short I have played this game many times and have been more than impressed.

The Graphics

This in my mind is what makes the game stand up more than anything else. The game is played with 720p HD format. The graphics are colorful and vivid. The fighting ground location is within the Street, When fighting there is a good level of variation in terms of when you hit an opponent and to my eyes this is what makes the game so good to play. Depending on the opponent you have to fight, you will fight in different locations. In the background of the actual street fight venue you will see people who are spectators and other background details.

The background details are interesting as I have seen one scene fight where the fighting is near an underpass and you can see kids cheering and see them jumping up and down. Another scene I saw was where you are fighting on an air field so you simply not just fighting in street scenes.

GamePlay

In arcade mode the game seems easy against somewhat easy opponents but as you win matches I have found that the opponents become more harder to defeat. In each fight you have the choice to fight one round against the CPU opponent or you can play a best of 3. As mentioned earlier the opponents become harder as the game progresses and it is quite important to learn combination moves. This is because your opponent will duck and dive, jump at you and throw combination hits at you. Each fight is 30 seconds long, and the winner of the fight is the player that has the most energy left. Also the winner of the fight is usually determined by winning the round by knockout, which is illustrated on the screen as a KO.

Whilst the each round of fighting is quite short, it is important also to learn moves and how to throw the Sonic boom fire ball shots. You must also learn how to outmanouevure and counter attack your opponents moves.

When fighting there is a real time and responsive animations to the moves and it is a fast paced game. Again over the past few months this factor has added to my interest in the game. Also in the arcade mode there is a Manga animation which details a Japanese story. The Manga animation starts before the fight in the arcade mode. The loading of the fights is pretty quick which is always a good sign.

Again when fighting each player has their own control pad movement and when the special 'Ultra Combo bar is full you can do your special move which results in your player hitting your opponent with around a 4 hit combo. This takes away quite a bit of energy from your opponent. Each player has there own set of moves which makes the game more varied. When you lose a game in arcade mode you have to press the continue button which allows you to have a rematch of the same fight.

The characters from the original Street fighter are in this game with the same moves, but the game is better than the Original in my opinion. One weakness I noticed regarding the characters is that you do not see any brusing and the fighters even when beating up the car do not feel any pain. Also when blocking against your opponent you do not get any energy taken off your health level.

In arcade mode you fight around the world so it is quite entertaining to be one minute fighting in Japan, then India and so on. I never thought I would hear the sound of elephants and Indian music on this game but it does happen. All of the characters do seem quite overly built and from observation their arms seem much bigger than their heads. I have tried on many occasions to get the hang of the combos and anything over 4 or 5 hit combos are particularly difficult to master. 2-3 hit combos are easy.

One disadvantage I have noted is that some players have fairly limited moves so this makes the fighting seem a bit repetitive.

Finally in arcade mode there is approximately 6 or 7 fights but the final is much harder. This makes the game quite short in length overall which is fair enough. Though you have to be good enough to complete it.

The game also has a versus mode where you can play your friends and other people connected to your ps3 console system. There is also a network battle mode which you can use to play online games. Also there is a challenge mode, and finally a training mode where you can use this to learn your favourite fighters moves.

Sound/Music

The sound played during fights has an aracade feel to it, the music has a fast paced feel to it. The music at times is varied depending on the location of the fight.

Conclusion

The game has lots of new characters and good locations. This would appeal to many gamers but it does pay from my experience to learn the moves. I paid around £10 in a used but good condition from amazon.co.uk. For many months I have found myself entertained watching the good animated graphics which come in HD format. Some of the moves are more than one dimensional wihch I liked. You can not press all of the buttons and expect something to happen whilst fighting, You have to time your moves correctly and block their moves in order to progress.

Another aspect of this game is that it is more challenging than the Original arcade game and is more fast paced.

For £9-10 this game is excellent value for money. At this sort of price it would be worth investing in.