“Ultra Street Fighter IV”

Another Revision to Street Fighter IV, Does It Hold Up?

By Eric Curtis on June 21, 2014 at 8:24pm

"Street Fighter IV" started back in 2009 and revived the fighting game genre. Five years later, we are still seeing new characters and new versions of the game, the latest of these versions being "Ultra Street Fighter IV."

Presentation

"Ultra Street Fighter IV" (USF4) is beautiful. Of course, it hasn't changed much since the start, but it didn't really need one either. The new characters look just as clean as the original cast, and the animations are smoother than ever. Even menus are nice and fun to navigate, New artwork was developed on each of the menu screens, as well.

Gameplay

Classic 2D fighting at its absolute best! "Street Fighter IV" has perfected the art of the fighting game. You are always in control and never feel as if something didn't work. If you lose, you know you lost it due to your own mistakes. The cast is so huge, there are many characters to pick from with all kinds of play styles to choose from as well. What I think is best about the gameplay in "USF4" are the new things to do during battle.

"Street Fighter IV" offers many awesome features: "Delayed Wake Up" offers you the ability to stand slower than you normally would, throwing off your opponent's timing to take advantage. "Red Focus" allows you to do more than attack once and fire back; you can take any number of attacks and fire back at the cost of two or three meters. "Red Focus" is a risk vs reward situation every time, and you'll either win big or go home a sore loser.

Of course, along with new things to do, there are few glitches hiding here and there. There have been some odd issues found that are just funny, such as Vega's mask being turned a completely different way in certain situations. Then there have been some more obvious ones such as certain characters not losing meter to "Red Focus" in certain situations. I personally haven't ran into any of these, but they are definitely there.

The balance is all over the place, and honestly, it feels like the best balance the game has ever had. Some characters got much needed buffs (Ken, Vega, Dan, Rose), and some characters received a much needed nerf (Bison, Cammy, Seth). The single player isn't anything new; you just pick a character and get a brief scene of story then fight a bunch of people; standard fare all around.

Online Matches

The netcode has improved, but only slightly. When "USF4" has a good connection to your opponent, it works really, really well. When there is a bad connection, it's super laggy and really hard to play (but not impossible). Options for "Online Training" are here, allowing you to train with a friend online or setup where people can challenge you to matches as you train. I was also really happy to see that all the "Ranked Match" numbers had been reset to zero, so it seems to put everyone back on an even playing field.

Conclusion

This new version of "Street Fighter IV" is easily the best they've made yet. The main thing about this one is it seems to be for established fans of the series only. The window for new players is small, so small it's almost not there. A new player introduced into the game with this version will likely be overwhelmed with the series' largest roster yet.

"USF4" is a love letter to the established base. If you've been here since 2009, you have to get this upgrade. Its not without its faults, but its an amazing add-on to an already amazing fighting game.

Review Score: 8/10

Pros

Huge Roster of Characters
Most Balanced Version
New Combat Mecahnics
Tightest Controls of Any Fighting Game

Cons

Harder Entry for New Players
A few Glitches