Cheapest Street Fighter IV

What a piece of trash this game is. There are many more issues, but here's what I find most glaring of disappointments:

Multiplayer. You spend most your time working through loading screens, stat screens, ready screens, character input screens and character introductions that very little time is actually spent playing the game. Opting out of the game is also very difficult, as there is only one screen that you are able to do so. It is extremely difficult to find someone to play that doesn't lag. I live in San Francisco with a great cable connection, and this is just inexcusable how the game only matches me with players with low pings, and how difficult it is to find people to play. The experience is like you wait and wait for someone to join, and they're either: away or too lagged to play.

Player Base. Most players hover around one fighter. Other fighting games are designed so that you can have fun with multiple players. Not SF4. The reason: it is so prohibitively difficult to get any sort of advantage that you're spent using a select few fighters (Ryu, Ken, Zangief, Abel, etc.) I am absolutely shocked if a opponent picks anyone other than Ken.

Square Gate. For some reason Capcom decided that the original dragon punch motion was too difficult to pull off. Their solution: redesign the joystick's 'gate' (or the restrictor plate that lies underneath the joystick) from a fluid circular motion to a square. This makes it so that your joystick is drawn to the corners, but the top, bottom, left and right don't sit well so your joystick just slides to the corner. Very frustrating when you're trying to block high - you'll either jump back or block low. Doing 360 Zangief or fireball motions are very difficult as well, as your joystick rotates it knicks and knacks across the corners. This square gate's purpose was to facilitate the dragon punch input change, which is also counter-intuitive. You crouch forward then back then forward? Sorry, this was just a bad change. None of the other Street Fighter games have this feature.

Timing. Capcom really messed this up. Most fireballs knock you down, killing the momentum of the game. Most moves have a delay between input and action, so you must plan ahead to absurd degrees. They slowed down the game to make it more like Street Fighter 2, but this was a bad move. Remember Super Street Fighter 2 and how slow that was after the awesome Street Fighter Turbo? They changed Super when they updated the game, and none of the other Street Fighter games were that slow. But - there's a reason why Capcom slowed the game down! Read on...

Combos. Combos are prohibitively awkward. There are still the 'simple' move cancel combos that made Street Fighter famous. And there's Supers and Ultras, which are nice. But trying to combo into an Ultra is often times an exercise. Jump in with a punch, then tap jab twice and move cancel into a special - as that special connects, focus cancel (medium punch + medium kick), tap forward twice - then do the ultra move. This is typical and is such an awkward bunch of commands it requires a painstaking amount of practice to get right (or even remember). I didn't even mention the 'EX' moves, where you must press more than 1 punch or kick button at a time. Good thing Capcom knew how difficult they were and included Trials that show you a lot of these combos. Good luck, you'll need it.

These commands must be input very fast, with precise timing for the combos to pull off. The real reason why Capcom slowed the game down. Great, thanks a lot.

Counters. In previous Street Fighter games certain specials and other moves would counter different attacks. It was a pretty simple concept. Even in Street Fighter 3 with EX specials it made sense (but was a huge step up in difficulty, especially with the parrying technique). In SF4 it is taken to a ridiculous degree. For one, EX moves pretty much counter anything. That loses a lot of the breathtaking gameplay that made the original so great. They totally defeat the purpose of the regular specials counters, when if you want to counter a move all you need to do is press another punch or kick button. Yay! Second, removing parrying made sense as it was very difficult to learn and unfair for players that did know it, but introducing Focus Attacks just slows the game down. Making it so you can time a ridiculously animated Focus Attack while an opponent is getting up - and landing it into some super-over-powered ultra move to end the match just makes it a silly magic trick.

In previous Street Fighter games you really felt proud of a win, because you had to use cunning and tactics to win. In SF4, the more combos, Focus Attack or EX counters you learn will determine whether you win or not. The feeling is not pride in outsmarting your opponent, but out-learning him.

After the excellent Street Fighter 3 and Alpha series, Street Fighter 4 is just such a disappointment that I feel sad that it will probably be years before we see a Street Fighter that is fun again. If ever.Get more detail about Street Fighter IV.