Genre: Fighting
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: February 17, 2009 (U.S.) / February 12, 2009 (JP) / February 20, 2009 (EU)

While current fighting games have dedicated fan bases, they're not really accessible to more "casual" players, so a less-experienced gamer who tries to jump into the more popular fighting titles may be overwhelmed by everything he's expected to know. A lot of gamers wish for the simpler days of Street Fighter II, where the system was easy enough that anyone could pick it up and play. Street Fighter IV is Capcom's attempt to bring fighting games back into the spotlight by creating a title that's simple enough for casual fans, while challenging and balanced enough for the hardcore.

Street Fighter IV has an incredibly robust cast of characters, combining old favorites with new fighters for a total cast of 25. Street Fighter II fans will be glad to know the entire cast of that game has returned, from the iconic Ken and Ryu all the way down to the claw-using Vega and the evil M. Bison. While some of the characters have been changed or modified, they're still basically the same. Ryu still uses fireballs, Zangief still grabs and pile drives you, and Blanka still shoots electricity at anything unfortunate enough to come by. Since the game takes place only a brief period after the events of Street Fighter II, you'll find that not much has changed among the cast, making it very easy for players who left the franchise during the Street Fighter III years to find their favorite characters without worrying about a lot of changes to the basic move roster.

If you've played the arcade version of Street Fighter IV, you'll already be familiar with many of the characters, but there are also some returning favorites who are exclusive to the console versions of Street Fighter IV. Returning from the Street Fighter Alpha franchise are the popular joke character Dan, the elderly Gen, the enigmatic Rose and the peppy Ryu fan schoolgirl Sakura. Coming back from Super Street Fighter II are assassin-turned-secret agent Cammy and obligatory Bruce Lee homage Fei-Long. Each of these characters will be quite familiar to fans of the franchise, and while they didn't appear in the arcade version, don't assume that means they're weak.

New to the Street Fighter lineup are six characters, each with his or her unique abilities and fighting style. Abel is an amnesiac grappler and martial artist from France who serves as a good beginner character. Crimson Viper is the only new female character, a deadly serious fighter who uses a special suit armed with gadgets and gizmos to crush her foes. El Fuerte is a luchador chef who is the fastest new character in the game, using an incredibly speedy and flashy fighting style to overwhelm his opponents. Rufus is perhaps the strangest new character, as a huge, almost cartoonish American who, despite his tremendous bulk, is a speedy powerhouse of a fighter. In addition to these four, you also have Seth, who is an artificial cyborg warrior and the final boss of the game. Fans of the late EGM will also be amused to find out that their famous rumor about fighting Shen-Long has actually come true with the introduction of Gouken, who is Ken and Ryu's master and brother to the evil Akuma; he uses his amazing fighting strength entirely for self-defense.

Despite the 3-D graphics, Street Fighter IV is still a 2-D fighting game, and indeed, it plays very similar to the older Street Fighter titles, although with some modern improvements. As with most fighting games, you and an opponent battle each other until you drain the other's health. Special moves are still done through joystick motions and button combinations, and all of the familiar motions still perform the same techniques that they always have, although some of the more complex ones have been eased up slightly. Street Fighter IV is a more ground-focused game than some of the recent fighting titles, with no super-jumps (except for Crimson Viper), no air blocking and no parrying, although there are still plenty of cancels and counters to be found.

As in many other fighting games, Street Fighter IV has a super bar that builds up as you hit your opponent or get hit yourself. When the super bar is full, your fighter can perform a devastating Super Combo for pretty nice damage. Street Fighter IV also brings back the concept of EX Specials, essentially more powerful versions of your special attacks, from Street Fighter III. They're not quite as powerful as a Super Combo, but substantially more so than a regular special. However, you can't use EX specials at will. Your Super Bars are divided into four segments, or "stocks," and each time you choose to use an EX Special, you'll use up a stock. It's a trade-off, forcing you to take longer to get your Super Combo in exchange for additional power at that exact moment, which can pay off greatly in the end. You can also your two of your stocks to "cancel" a Focused Attack, which I'll explain a bit more about later. The Super Bar remains filled for every round of a fight, so if you build up four stocks during the first round, you can perform a Super Combo at the beginning of the second round if you so desire.

In addition to the Super Bar, you also have a Revenge Meter, which is a little different from the Super Bar in that it only fills as you get hit. It doesn't matter if the hit does little or no damage, or is blocked by a Focused Attack, just as long as it hits. When you get hit, the Revenge Meter begins to fill, and once it reaches halfway, you can perform an Ultra Combo, which is essentially a flashier and more powerful Super Attack. Once the bar is halfway full, you can continue building it up, further increasing the damage of the Ultra Combo. However, once you use it, hit or miss, the Revenge Meter is gone. Furthermore, Revenge Meters don't remain with you between rounds so if you hold onto it too long, you'll lose it.

The most important new mechanic in Street Fighter IV is the Focused Attack. Despite the name, the Focused Attack is as much a defensive measure as it is an attack. By pressing the medium kick and medium punch buttons at the same time, you'll unleash a Focused Attack, which usually has three levels, depending on how long you hold down the buttons to "charge" it. During the first level of a Focused Attack, which occurs just as you press the buttons, you'll instantly nullify the first hit of any move that occurs while you're attacking. Any damage you would have taken from that move is taken away from your health bar, but as a gray meter instead. If you can avoid damage long enough, that gray meter will replenish, and it will be as if you never took damage at all. In addition, if you hit an enemy who is attacking you during an uncharged Focused Attack, you'll stun him, which leaves him vulnerable to a powerful counterattack.

Charging the Focused Attack for a brief period gives you the same benefits as an uncharged Focused Attack, but if you hit, you'll always stun, even if the enemy didn't attack first. A fully charged Focused Attack has the same benefits of the first two levels but is also completely unblockable. This mechanic allows you to do many things at once, such as build up your Revenge Meter, not take damage and weaken the enemy; it can even be used to stop a poorly timed maneuver by "canceling" it. However, it has some weaknesses. Many characters have attacks that "break" a Focused Attack. Using these attacks will nullify the protection offered by a Focused Attack and leave your character vulnerable. Focused Attacks also only stop the first hit of an attack, so multiple hits will still do damage, no matter what.

As mentioned above, Street Fighter IV is a 3-D game, despite the 2-D gameplay, and it uses this to great visual effect. The cel-shaded character models look absolutely fantastic in motion, capturing the visual style of the Street Fighter II sprites while lending their own flair. Some of the visual expressions are a bit silly, but that just lends them further charm. If you paused Street Fighter II at certain points, E. Honda or Ryu would also look quite silly. Street Fighter IV isn't simply using 3-D models to use them, though. A number of the game's special moves use the camera to great effect, causing the viewpoint to twist and turn around the combatants in a way that a 2-D sprite-based game simply couldn't.

Street Fighter IV may not be the deepest or most hardcore fighting game to come out in years, but speaking as a more casual fan, it certainly is the most fun. The gameplay is simple and easy to learn, but it has enough complexities and gimmicks to keep you working on improving your favorite character for quite a while. The wide and varied cast does an excellent job of providing everyone with a possible character to use. The new and improved visuals look fantastic in motion, and are one of the best examples of 2-D gameplay and 3-D graphics I've seen. Already available in arcades and hitting consoles in two weeks, Street Fighter IV is a fighting game for everyone.