Perhaps Street Fighter’s biggest achievement, though, is in taking the classic 2D fighting template and making it relevant and exciting for gamers used to gorging themselves on next-gen stunners. SF4 is wonderful to behold in motion. The animations feel weighty, punches and kicks have real impact, and every fighter has been tweaked to inject a little more personality into each. Blanka is more aggressive and less cartoony for example, while Chun-Li is more fluid and graceful than ever before.

Changes in your favorite characters are more than skin deep too. Blanka, always one of the weaker characters, is now a much more worthy opponent. Heavyweight Zangief and E Honda (whose 360 rotational moves made them tough to get to grips with for novices) have also been beefed up, and are well worth revisiting. Capcom have done a great job rebalancing the characters and although there are still some discrepancies (Blanka’s annoyingly good actually, and Sagat’s just an absolute monster!) you can pretty much pick anyone from the character roster and be confident you’re not going to get an absolute pasting from worthless, Ken-abusing scum.

So we like it then and it’s by no means an exaggeration to suggest that this is up there with the greatest fighters ever made. It’s not in the slightest button-mashy like Soul Calibur, it doesn’t require the colossal 20 button commands from the likes of Dead or Alive and instead focuses on what’s important – simplicity, strategy and fun. Exactly what you need before you begin to master its hidden intricacies…

You'll Love

+ The interesting new characters

+ That it’s easy for everyone to learn

+ The satisfyingly meaty feel to the action

You'll Hate

- That the final boss Seth is a bit irritating

- The long wait for the console versions

- That we don’t have room in our houses for an arcade cabinet

Arcade Score: 9

Nov 19, 2008