It was commonly thought that “Street Fighter III” would be the last one in the series as the declining sales and popularity of the Street Fighter series along with arcades being less popular during the early 2000’s.
It wasn’t until 2008 where the series made a comeback with “Street Fighter IV.” Now with all the versions available, let’s see how this sequel compares to not only the first three but every iteration of SFIV.
Starting with the plot, SFIV takes place several months after “Street Fighter II” but years after “Street Fighter III.” Each version of the game adds characters that have their specific endings, some canon and some not.
The main antagonist of SFIV is Seth, a genetically engineered body created for M.Bison and the CEO of Shadallos weapons division called S.I.N.
After Seth’s escape with the help of the returning Shadallo led by the resurrected M.Bison, S.I.N hosts another world martial arts tournament. The sole purpose of this tournament is to gather out the strongest of fighters and extract their DNA and combat techniques to complete the BLECE Project.
However, the real reason is to lure Ryu into the tournament to study the Satsui no Hado, thinking that technology is the last thing S.I.N needs to complete their project.
As usual in Street Fighter titles, the ending is different for each character but ultimately it ends with Seth and S.I.N being defeated and Shadallo going into hiding again with all the other characters going their separate ways to fight or meet again soon.
The story is a step up from the previous games as it does have a backstory for both Seth and how “Street Fighter IV” starts.
The gameplay is more similar to SFII so the parry mechanic from SFIII is gone. Instead, the new mechanics are both the Focus Attack and the Ultra moves.
While holding two attack buttons you can unleash an attack that lets you super armor one hit. If landed the player can stun the opponent to let them get a combo off of it, while ultra moves are stronger supers with cinematic camera angles.
Now while each version may be the same game, there are some differences. For instance, Volt and Champion Edition are mobile ports, 3D Edition is a 3DS version of the game with a new 3D mode. Regular, Super, Arcade Edition, and Ultra Street Fighter IV are the same game with balanced patches, more costumes and new characters from older titles, and final fight and new characters like Decapre and Oni.
With how the game plays compared to the newer “Street Fighter V” theirs no real reason to go back to play it now with the online being almost dead(not to mention the horrible lag that it has).
But it’s still a fun game despite its major flaws, but even with that, it’s still not a thing to go back to when you have better Street Fighter games like II or III and even SFV.
“Street Fighter IV gets a ★★★. It’s not great but it’s a good time waster whenever people don’t feel like playing the new one.
This here is the Infographic/timeline of every version of SFIV from 2008 all the way to 2017.
