Super Street Fighter IV review

Last year I wasn’t able to review Street Fighter IV as the postman nicked my review copy…twice! So I was rather pleased when without asking, Super Street Fighter IV pops through my door for the PS3. I put it in my machine and instantly got down with arcade mode to give it a whirl.

The first thing you’ll notice is the massive roster of 35 characters available right from the start. The classic characters we all know are there including the new ones from Street Fighter IV and some brand new ones including a martial artist called Makoto, a Muay-Thai kickboxer called Adon and even Guy and Cody from the Final Fight arcade classic. Of course you may just want to play as the characters you know but even playing as these new characters it’s a simple matter of pulling up the command list to see if their moves are the charge variety or the type that give your thumbs blisters if using a joypad.

When selecting characters you can also choose what their winning speech will be and choose from one of two ultra combos which give either a close or ranged attack. The game’s also been balanced a bit more with some moves being powered down and some beefed up in terms of how much HP they take off your opponent.

Other offline modes include versus where you can battle friends at home, a training mode and a challenge mode and you can even play the bonus rounds which involve kicking the crap out of a car or smashing barrels once you’ve unlocked them in arcade mode.

When it comes to online mode you can turn on the ability to play real people in arcade mode if someone requests to play. You can also play a ranked match, in team battle and in endless battle mode where winner stays on and everyone in a group of 8 can watch and hurl support or abuse at each other. It’s all quite a fun online party!

The game looks just as nice as it did last year and there are now new animations that reveal the somewhat crazy stories of each character. Also be prepared to laugh at some of the new characters and marvel at some of the new locations including a really cool African waterhole surrounded by large hippos!

If you like your fighting action to be pure and arcade-like then you can’t go wrong with this updated version of last year’s game. It’s better in every way so it gets 9 out of 10.

Related: Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix review, Super Street Fighter IV release date , Super Street Fighter IV review on Youtube