It's like it's raining quarters from heaven. Or 50-cent pieces, depending on whether your arcades were heavy on the fun tax. Street Fighter IV isn't the first big-name fighting game to go online, but it's certainly the one that's gotten the people around us the most excited. Every social network we inhabit these days is filled with status-update references to how people are "Hadouken-ing" this or "Shoryuken-ing" that. And, mind you, these aren't people who normally write game stuff in their Facebooks.
When you grew up around a certain time, the hint of a Street Fighter resurgence is plenty to make you excited. Most of us at GameSpy fall into this demographic. The jury is still out as to whether or not this is the "fighting renaissance" many are predicting, but one thing is certain: We're going to have fun playing in the meantime.
Miguel: I haven't played this many consecutive matches of Street Fighter since I lived near an arcade. And it's great, great fun, except when it isn't. I suspect I'm like a lot of players, but my temperament runs the gamut when I'm playing against real people, from exhilaration when I'm on a winning streak to utter dejection when I lose a match I feel I should have won.
Sterling: I've had more than my share of rounds where I thought fortune would smile upon me but instead Lady Luck splashed her icy drink on my lap and slapped me in the face. But that's what I love about Street Fighter IV. It's highly competitive, and unlike the numerous shooters on Xbox Live, when you get dusted, you know the reason why, and you don't need a kill-cam to point it out. On the flip side, I'm really happy to see people relapse into their hadoukens again.Miguel: I actually think that too many people are doing just that -- relapsing into hadoukens. It's just playing Street Fighter Alpha 3 back in the arcade, when every second person you'd fight would be a Ken or Ryu. I'd like to chalk this up to people simply "going with what they know," since the game just came out, and has evidently sold a shitload of copies. But my experience tells me otherwise, which sucks for many reasons, a big one being the fact that whenever I fight a non-"shoto" online, it's easier to get my ass beat for lack of practice.Sterling: That's what I refer to as "crutch fighters." Playing as any of the original characters is like riding a bike, and it's better to remember how to pedal than to try to plow your way into the peleton. I'll be interested to see how the game plays in a year. Will all of this noob-friendly support online keep people playing? Will they evolve past shoto characters and regain the sort of versatility many players had in the '90s? I sure hope so. I'm enjoying the new wave of fighting games, and I hope that they manage to maintain the same sort of long-term appeal that the likes of Super Smash Bros have cultivated over time.Miguel: Part of what bums me out about fighting games is how they evolved along a parallel yet stunted track compared to other sorts of competitive games. FPS and RTS games benefit from their PC roots; just look at the sophisticated matching technology built into them that players take for granted. MMOs see periodic updates that tweak game mechanics and update content. Fighting games, meanwhile, are still mired in the arcade days. Capcom has displayed something of a forward-thinking approach when it comes to this; hopefully it can go all the way. This, in my opinion, is what will define tomorrow's fighting game.Sterling: I think that periodic updates set a dangerous precedent. If they're going to update the character balance, it had better happen no more often than annually, if that. I think that a big part of SF4's charm lies in how it plays and feels. In general, I believe tomorrow's fighting game will be better served with support like SF4's video upload feature and a system designed for less-experienced players to hold their own tournaments outside the shark tank of tourney vets. For now, I'll be working on my ultra combos and trying to master C. Viper.
