Street Fighter 4

You wanna fight? Fight me!

Street Fighter games have become legendary over the years ever since Street Fighter 2 hit the arcades back in the day. Who amongst us can say that they have never thought about fuzzy tingle times with Chun Li, or dragon punching the electrifying faeces out of Bison? Now we get to live the glory days all aver again in the stunningly crafted Street Fighter 4.

All of the old characters are back again and they’re just as infinitely playable as they ever were. Only now they’ve got the might of Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 graphics to render them in beautiful 2D 3D. Even if you’ve never played VI before, but remember all of the moves from II, you should be as lethal as you ever were.

However, on top of all the old moves there’s also a blistering series of combo moves to master, including the soon to be infamous Ultra, which are all the more satisfying if you can pull them off on the Street Fighter 4 arcade joystick that Capcom has released to coincide with the launch of the game.

In addition to new moves, there is also a whole host of new characters to get to grips with, making the game a challenge even for more seasoned arcade veterans. El Feurte, the leaping luchador, is brilliant for button mashing madness, and he’s great for pulling off jammy combo moves, which look stunning.

Possibly the best addition to the game is its online capabilities. There’s a whole raft of online game options. The coolest of them all is a winner stays on style battle, where you literally play till someone somewhere manages to pummel your cheeks into the dirt.

Street Fighter 4 is a brilliant update to a legend, bringing back the characters of my youth with even more punch than before. I can’t see it getting much better than this, but with the possibilities that the Kinect provides, maybe the next time we see Dalsim’s yoga flame it’ll be at the flick of your wrist.

Street Fighter 4 review: 4.5/5