Metareview: Street Fighter IV (PS3, Xbox 360)

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Everything old is new again, as Street Fighter IV attempts to reinvigorate the fighter genre. The title may not be friendly to newcomers, but do the Street Fighter faithful really care? Just give them a worthy adversary, a dark room, a proper controller, a quarter and they'll be as contented as Chun Li's Thighmaster.

Giant Bomb (100/100): "My only real complaint about Street Fighter IV is that the trial mode represents a missed opportunity to help brand-new players get into the game, and perhaps the genre, as well. I only know what I know about Street Fighter because I've been playing and watching it since the early 1990s. Will it take 20 years for new players to acquire the same bits of knowledge that I have? The good news is that Street Fighter IV is a game so great that playing it for that long doesn't immediately sound out of the question." IGN UK (95/100): "Regardless, Street Fighter IV is no less than the new standard for beat-'em-ups. It's a triumphant return for the series after an eight year hiatus and is a seamless blend of the old and new, at once accessible to lapsed pugilists while being nuanced enough for the dedicated core to wallow in its depths. What's more, Street Fighter IV takes an aging template and makes it fresh once more, offering a revival in every sense of the word." Game Informer (93/100): "A distillation of everything the genre does right. It delivers the intensity of competition and the thrill of victory, all through elegant techniques that are easy to learn and difficult to master. Street Fighter IV is more than mere nostalgia - it's the best thing to happen to fighting games in years." [Mar 2009, p.82] GameTrailers (92/100): "Fighting games have long been out of the spotlight, and Street Fighter IV basically carries the future of the entire genre. It refuses to make itself accessible, doling out tough love in place of true tutorials or simplified control schemes, but by proving to be deep and fundamentally enjoyable, the series has once again proven itself worthy of attention." Onion AV Club (80/100) "Once fans have relived their virtual-martial-arts glory days; once they've defeated Seth, the poorly named final boss; once the patina of nostalgia has worn off, most will wonder whether they needed to spend $60 on a game they already own ... except for Street Fighter completionists, Street Fighter IV merits, at best, an afternoon rental.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/17/me...-ps3-xbox-360/