Author Information
Menu
Navigation
Scribol
|
by Zach Starr on 03.15.10  Street Fighter IV has been a huge success and Capcom has undoubtedly been looking for ways to capitalize on this hit franchise. The first entry into the portable arena for SFIV is on the iPhone/iTouch. It’s surprising that Capcom went this route when there are portable systems available that are much better equipped to handle a game of this scope; the Nintendo DS and PSP, but maybe this shouldn’t be such a surprise since there so many iPhone owners. So, did Capcom make a mistake and upset there core fans by trying to appeal to the masses? There’s only one way to find out, let’s take a look at this touch screen fighter. Gameplay The first thing we’ve got to talk about is the control scheme. Street Fighter IV has a virtual joystick and four buttons. The buttons are a bit different from what one might expect, but after playing for a while I can see why Capcom went this direction. There is a Punch, Kick, Super Combo, and Focus Attack. For certain characters holding various directions on the joystick and pressing punch or kick will enable a different attack. For instance, while using Ryu, holding straight down and pressing kick will perform a low Forward(medium kick). Holding down-toward and pressing kick will execute the a low Roundhouse(hard kick). This may be a bit confusing for anyone new to the series, but for veterans it is fairly intuitive. The SC Button is for performing EX moves and Ultra Combos. Essentially this button works as a double or triple button press. Initiating an EX Sonic Boom would be done by charging back 2 seconds then pressing toward and SC. A Shinku Hadouken would be two quarter circles forward and SC. The Focus Attack works exactly as it does in the console versions, there are three levels based on how long the button is held down, there are Focus Cancels, and Dash Cancels. I can see why Capcom decided to go with this particular four button scheme; it’s because it really makes it feel like your playing Street Fighter IV and not just any other iteration of the game. Attempting to do multiple button presses would have only lead to frustration.   The only games I have ever believed to have truly successful movement controls emulating a pad or joystick on this platform are the Wolfenstein and Doom series. Most games seem to lag a bit or are just simply not responsive, particularly button presses. Happily, Street Fighter IV can be added to the short list of games with excellent controls. The joystick and buttons respond better than any other touch screen game I have played. It’s obvious that a lot of time and effort was put in to getting this right. Of course, there is no comparison to playing with a real joystick or pad, but this is actually a lot of fun. I’ve spent quite a bit of time playing and I do still have some problems with quarter circle motions, particularly when executing Ultras, but it never feels like it’s due to a laggy interface. Amazingly, I’ve been able to execute Guile’s Double Somersault with relative ease. A cool feature that really does help is the ability to select a number of different button configurations and being able to position the buttons and joystick anywhere you want on screen. You can even adjust the transparency of the display, good stuff Capcom. There is also an option to simplify the special moves by just holding a direction and pressing the SC button, but what fun is that? There are lots of different play modes in here; Tournament, Versus, Dojo, Training, etc… The Dojo teaches you everything from the basics of blocking to combos using Focus Attacks. It’s a great a addition, and thankfully the combos aren’t too difficult, but can still provide a challenge. The Versus mode can only be played through blue tooth, so you’ll need to be in close proximity to your opponent. A feature was also included to save your replays, this is a cool addition and something I would not have expected in this portable incarnation.   The buttons available aren’t the only thing that’s been whittled down substantially. The character roster has dropped to only eight of the original sixteen from the arcade release. The choices made were wise ones, Abel, Blanka, Chun-Li, Ryu, M. Bison, Dhalsim, Guile, and Ken. I really wish Zangief was available, but he may not have worked so well with the touch screen. Graphics This game is pretty brilliantly made. Essentially, snapshots were taken of all the individual characters and their moves. Everything from hit animations to winning poses. This way the SFIV was basically converted to a 2D game. Of course, not all the frames of animation are present, but good choices were made and the animation looks nice and fluid. In fact, sometimes you’d almost swear this conversion was 3D. When Ultras are performed the game seamlessly cuts to a FMV clip zooming in on the performing character, further adding to the illusion. The backgrounds are 2D as well and do look a little washed out at times, but I love the fact that the scaling is present, if you move away from your opponent the camera pans out, when your fighting up close it zooms in. From the in game graphics to the menu screens, everything looks great, this is a bit of a graphical marvel for such a limited platform.  Music/Sound It’s all straight from the real deal. The music of Street Fighter IV is superb, it’s got a heavy techno vibe with a touch of rock, it’s great for a fighter. All of the character voices are the American voice actors, I find this disappointing. I’d say the Japanese voices are better for more than 90% of the characters, it would be nice to have a choice like the console versions, but this is a fairly small complaint. The English voices aren’t all that bad. The sound effects are dead on as well, it seems like a lot was done right on this port. Bottom Line This is an amazing conversion of a great game. You’re not going to play at the same level you would on the consoles, but it’s a lot of fun, and it goes everywhere you go. Capcom, you’ve been successful with this one, now please make an even better version for the DS and PSP. For everything you get, $9.99 is a fair price, buy it and kill some time until next month when Super Street Fighter IV is released.
|
||
Add to N4G
