A concentrated flurry of blows, an intimidating opponent, a mind game away from victory. Super Street Fighter IV is the first fighting game I’ve played purely for the rush of playing, because playing the game and gaming the system is extraordinarily satisfying. There is a certain pedagogy to the structure, starting with simply being able to quickly grasp all of a character’s basic precepts via quick menus, and breaking that down into effective strategies which place characters in certain situations on a consistent basis.
As a person who plays Juri, the air cross-up and mind games are essential to effective play. Being proficient is not so much about what inherent advantages any one player has over another, as such is a reality of all fighting games. When reaching the level of being able to consistently deceive the opponent, combos fade into the background and the paramour of play relates to the tick, to the framing within which the game has architecture. In a sense, the mathematical squares clashing against one another in the background fade, as they are acquired intuitively.
Super Street Fighter IV seems so lovingly crafted because of the unique deception the game seems to weave throughout each fight. Seemingly hopeless matches are grasped from bitter defeat, to the cheers of other competitors if the arena is public, and perhaps to a different constant of consideration if the match is private. Unlike many other fighters, the game is not so much balanced as having a certain sense of proprioceptive rhythm. There is something about falling into the rhythm that has a beautifully natural feel.
Far too often, what feels best can be superseded by the chronological imperative in games. There is a drive, real or artificial, to expand the potential for a community in games, and that centering often takes place around certain groups, or perhaps more realistically, certain games. Just as Demon’s Souls has a dedicated niche, so too does Super Street Fighter IV. But within each of these niches, there is an expectation of chronology relating to the genre, one that states that as time moves forward, newer and better games will be made to recapitulate, in more concise terms, the same experience. Though the times change, the feeling is what’s important to get right.
To some extent, such a re-exploration is healthy, even necessary to our ability to retain a certain memory. In that manner, Super Street Fighter IV is a revival, a re-exploration of the space of Street Fighter, and one that I believe has revived, to some degree, a community which was always extant, but less discussed. Whether or not the entertainment aspect of such tournaments is valuable is up to the corporations to decide, but the experience explores a movement within games to continually re-explore themselves, and in this case, I would reckon for the better.
Recommended: Yes