• Street Fighter IV is a lot of fun, and feels like a perfect evolution from Street Fighter II, which is perfect for me since I never got into the Alpha games or SF III.
  • While online matches are lag free more often than not, the rest of the online mode is broken.  The lobby system is just painful, there’s no way to have more than two people in a game/lobby at once, the lack of blind character selects can lead to balance problems (I wish I could count the number of Zangiefs and Guiles chosen after I choose Chun-Li), and the ranking system is weak. This needs to be fixed, period.
  • The 360 d-pad really is atrocious.  But somehow, the thumbstick actually works.  Charge moves can be a pain, though.
  • The art style requires a bit of adjustment, but it really works once you’re used to it.  It’s not exactly cel-shaded, but it does feel like the sprite design from the SFII series was popped out and made 3-D.  The sumi-e ink effects are pretty cool, and it’s too bad there aren’t more of them.
Japan's view of the US: the best we have to offer includes a wealthy industry heir who spends his time goofing around in martial-arts tournaments, and an obnoxious fat guy.

Japan's view of the US: the best we have to offer includes a wealthy industry heir who spends his time goofing around in martial-arts tournaments, and an obnoxious fat guy.

  • I have a Stockholm Syndrome sort of relationship with the title music.  At first it was cheesy but tolerable, then I really, really hated it (and you’re stuck listening to it while you go through the painful process of finding a match).  Then, I couldn’t stop hearing it, to the point that I was laying awake in bed thinking about it.  Finally, I’ve sort of accepted it, and occasionally find myself mouthing along to the lyrics.
  • I like how within the story and cutsenes, Dan, Blanka, and Sakura are kind of the nerds of the Street Fighter universe and all hang out together.  It’s kind of funny.
  • Fry’s had an X-arcade stick display set up, which is probably the closest thing I’ll get to properly playing SFIV (that is, in an arcade) around here.  I played a kid who was born in 1996.  I’ve literally been playing Street Fighter for longer than he’s been alive.
  • Why does Ken’s hair look green under certian lighting?