Getting to play Street Fighter on a hand held Nintendo console should have been one of the big advances in gaming technology, but with Super Street Fighter 4 3D Edition on the 3DS Capcom has just about managed to miss out on creating the ultimate fighting game on the move. While it isn’t too far away from what you would have expected, it struggles to impress all of the time as you fail to get the full Street Fighter experience out of the game.
The biggest flaw doesn’t rest with Capcom in all fairness, it’s just a reality of the controls on the Nintendo 3DS. Trying to pull off some of the moves with the analogue pad isn’t necessarily impossible, but it is a bit more frustrating than it should be. While you can us the standard D pad to make things a bit more accurate, it’s low position on the face of the hand held device means that it isn’t very well optimised for comfort, speed of motion or pulling off some of the other moves.
If either of these control issues didn’t exist, Street Fighter 4 would have been improved significantly as the rest of the gameplay is the same beat em up fun as other games in the series. It’s not that all fighting games have the same issues on the Nintendo 3DS, Dead or Alive: Dimensions plays pretty well, but with the fast round motions needed for moves like shoryuken and yoga fire it becomes annoying when these only occur some of the time.
The graphics in Street Fighter 4 3DS are pretty impressive for a hand held console, and the addition of the 3D effect while you’re playing gives the visuals a new level of depth. The video intro looks very slick and impressive, the actual in-game animation is fast paces and the majority of the close up cut-scenes work well.
There are also positives in size of the roster of playable characters, which is pretty massive on the 3D Edition with 35 options to choose from. It features all of the standard players, including Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Eddie Honda, Cammy, M. Bison etc., along with an abundance of less well known additions like Cody, Abel, Crimson Viper, Dudley, Ibuki, Makoto and Rufus.
On top of the size of the character list, Street Fighter 4 3DS also has the added benefit of online multiplayer battles, letting you take your hand held fight skills worldwide. Although the issues with the game controls does take the edge off this a little.
Super Street Fighter 4 3D Edition may not be all bad, but it’s a long way from being the epic beat ’em up that it could have been, which is a shame. The reality is that some of the moves just don’t suit the device and there’s no getting around that, despite Capcom’s touch screen control additions.
Street Fighter 4 3D Edition review: 3.5/5
Street Fighter 4 3D Edition trailer:
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