I'm an avid Street Fighter player these days. If you're a friend of mine on Facebook, I think 20% of my status updates are about my times taking on worldwide competition in online battle on my Playstation 3 with Street Fighter IV. (PSN ID: paqmand3d, add me)
While most of the time I'm gloating about waxin' cats, the vast majority of my updates are me ranting about the character balance issues. In fact, I knocked off several points from the overall score I gave it in my review this past summer due to unfair tactics. Capcom has taken heed and is looking to rectify the situation and other nitpicks the fans had with the aptly titled Super Street Fighter IV.
It will be a "value priced" game, probably shipping at $39.99, and will not be a DLC update to the original as first suspected. Capcom claims they are making "substancial changes" to the game's code and it would otherwise be "too big" for a downloadable add-on. Are you kidding me? Microsoft lets you download full-ass games on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live -- which have to weigh in at around 9GB sometimes, and you mean to tell me I can't download a few extra stages, new characters, music, and patches?
I thought this was 2009, not 2004!
While it's true it'd probably be more of a headache with some people playing not using the add-on and some people using it, I don't like the fact I spent $59.99 on the original and I'm more or less forced to upgrade for an addition $40. There better be some kind of trade-in program for this shit because it's left me a bit salty, lol.
Bonus stages like the classic car smashing one are returning along with a new Korean fighter named Juri as well as old favorites like Dee Jay, T. Hawk, Guy (!), Adon, and Cody will be in the new version. With all the yummy goodness, I do want some things fixed. Here they are in no particular order:
1. Make Seth less cheap
I'm praying I read the interview wrong with one person on the development team about making Seth even more dastardly than before. Now seriously, what would that accomplish other than making me want to fly to Japan to stab everyone at Capcom offices with a spoon? I'm not saying dumb him down, but that spinning pile driver move he has gets annoying. Quick. Especially if I'm Zangief lol.
2. Better defense against cheese
I'm sure everyone who's made it to the last round of online championship mode has run into a Zangief spammer. I use Zangy quite often, but I by no means spam with the fool like these people do. Basically they cheese you to death with a spinning lariat. If timed correctly, you have no time to block as you're getting up. You lose, they win all the championship points. I would also appreciate if every character had some kind of air defense. I may be wrong but it seems like only the female fighters can throw in the air. That'd cut down on players who jump all the damn time.
And maybe you can do it already and I just suck, but an air block would be handy.
Seth, the final boss of the game, is a cheap piece of shit. Yeah, I said it.
3. Hidden character select
I'm aware they are making several overhauls to the online experience, like adding spectator mode like in Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, but I would also like to see my character selection being hidden. Too many times my opponent is just sitting there waiting for me to pick first, and who I pick decides who they get. Lame. Players should be confident in their characters. I don't want to be playing chicken with the person on the other end as the clock counts down.
4. Instant rematch
Tekken 6 doesn't have it on it's online code, but one thing I did like about it is in it's 2 player mode. If you want a rematch you can just select it and not have to go through the loading screens again -- the match just starts again immediately. A lot of the time in SFIV, I had to sit around and wait just to pick the same character (my opponent as well) over. I would also like a "request rematch" feature in ranked matches, even it's unranked. It can get kinda intense in ranked battles, sometimes with you online losing by a fraction -- then you never see that person again. It's kind of frustrating lol.
It'd save me time from creating a new message to send them.
5. No B.S. DLC!
Street Fighter IV had extra costumes you could get, but they cost like $20 for all of them. Bull. I don't want to see that crap again, Capcom. If you're gonna make DLC, I want classic stages or something. As cool as Ken looked rocking some shell toe sneaks, the price does not justify it lol. Unless Chun-Li's wearing a thong, that is.
