If someone, some mad man or woman, decided one day that they had tired of hunting big game across the world, tired of hunting for basic thrills in defying death, and decided that the only thing left on Earth to hunt was 61FPS bloggers, well, we’d be pretty easy prey. A simple process: set a trap out in the woods, say a leaf-covered pit, and place a small box in the center of the trap as bait. Write the words “street” and “fighter” in conjunction on said box. Not even a full day later, this theoretical hunter would find me sitting in the bottom of the pit, pawing at the box, wondering aloud why I can’t make it do a proper dragon punch. We like Street Fighter here, a lot, and we’ve been waiting very patiently to play both of its latest incarnations. We’ve been thwarted in earlier attempts to get our greasy mitts on Street Fighter IV and were given only a teasing sample of HD Remix back in June. But yesterday, the wait ended with a hearty walkthrough of both, courtesy of Street Fighter guru and Capcom Community Commandant, Seth Killian.
Both HD Remix’s director, Dave Sirlin, and IV’s lead, Yoshinori Ono, have made it clear that both games were made with the express purpose of both renewing Street Fighter as a cultural force and making the fundamental, genre-defining play as accessible as it possible without sacrificing its versatility and depth. This much is clear: they have succeeded. When we sat down with Killian, he immediately began explaining SFIV’s new focus attacks. A variation on Street Fighter III’s parry system that does away with delicate memorization and timing in favor of ease and readability, focus attacks are slow-activating moves unique to each character that allow a brief moment of invincibility before landing a strong and flashy attack. They offer the same opportunity to change a round’s offense/defense dynamic (and come with the same risks) as parries, but can be executed by anyone with hands. Just wait for your opening and press both medium attack buttons, and you’re good to go. Even if the language “medium attack” means nothing to you, all you have to know is to press the two in the middle.
As far as the way the game handles, it’s a little bit different than you might expect. The characters are all significantly larger than they’ve been in the past, and they feel just a touch heavier, but they’re by no means slow. When trying out luchador El Fuerte, one of IV’s new fighters, Killian took the prototype arcade stick to demonstrate Fuerte’s signature moves, the majority of them based around running and wall-jumping. It looked intimidatingly complex and fast as the wrestler bolted about the screen, rushing up to Sakura and placing her in a fluid flying headlock or body slam. But, when I was back in control, the series’ renewed accessibility was on full display; all of the moves demoed were easy to execute but never felt automatic, a perfect balance of effortlessness and skill. That balance is essential to IV’s success, as sacrificing the reward that comes from mastery would ruin the game. Even each strike in the flashy Ultra combos, Killian told us, have hit-specific properties.
Then there’s HD Remix, which is exactly what you think it is: Super Street Fighter II Turbo, but blindingly gorgeous. The extra time spent on making new sprites and backgrounds as beautiful as they are has definitely justified the game’s multiple delays. Most impressive, though, is the simplified controls. Sirlin’s initiative to ease the timing on special move inputs has yielded incredibly positive results. (I wasn’t struggling to pull off dragon punches here.) More than anything else, the game is more adept at interpreting your intent now. Some moves, like Cammy’s hooligan throw, have been completely remapped, making them valid components of strategy rather than a mid-fight accident. I did wonder why they chose to make her breasts noticeably bigger, but I’m also not complaining.
HD Remix is all but done, and should be out in November, followed closely by the Xbox 360 and PS3 edition of IV in early ’09. I’m happy to tell you, they have been worth waiting for.
Related links:
Street Fighter IV’s Fighting Spirit, In Painstaking Detail
The Street Fighter IV Boxart: A Warning of Things to Come
61FPS Q&A: David Lloyd and Larry Oji of OC ReMix on the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Soundtrack
Street Fighter HD Makes Me Freak Out
Street Fighter IV in NYC and We've Got Proof This Time
Bringing Sexy Back: Street Fighter Dress-Up Party!