The Street Fighter series has been all but stagnant for the better part of 15 years and finally after countless iterations and 3D attempts Street Fighter II’s true successor has hit the streets. For some reason Capcom always had trouble marrying the fast and furious nature of the series and the flexibility of the camera of their 3D forays. Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha and Star Gladiator, while fun, always felt a bit floaty. It wasn’t until they made Viewtiful Joe soon after the advent of cell-shaded graphics did I see the potential of someday experiencing swooping camera animations during 3D specials.

Today is that day.

Street Fighter IV is everything a fan has dreamed of from the series. Tight control, balanced gameplay, flashy finishers, gorgeous character models, stages and online play. HD Remix gave us a taste of what could be in a current online Street Fighter and it’s all here. In fact it’s just about more than anyone could ask for.

They even incorporated anime intros and endings and in-game mini-cutscene character interactions. Died. In Heaven. I understand most these types of games are all about the fight but those kinds of things are what encourage a player to try out different characters and rewards them for beating it with everyone.

I do wish they hadn’t made grapples’ input commands as simultaneous light kick/punch. I assign those to shoulder buttons and that’s just weird. You can assign throw to R1 or R2 but those might be bettter suited for 3x punches/kicks. Ah the conundrum. Oh well I can forgive them. I can also forgive them for putting some crazy Justin Timberlake sounding pop song peppered throughout the game but whatev. This game is the supreme dopeness regardless.

Go buy it. Play it. See me online and let me flash kick you into oblivion and love it.

Score: 10/10