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[Shadow_Lord]

Street Fighter IV was released in Japanese arcades on July 18th, 2008. The Street Fighter series, and fighting games in general. was considered dead by then, with the lackluster reception of Street Fighter III: Third Strike. SFIV was met with a great deal of hype, and continued to be updated continuously until 2014, ending with Ultra Street Fighter IV.

The first version of the game, often called Vanilla, was very well recepted as the resurrector of fighting games, and it released on consoles, in 2009, with this roster:

The game was updated and rebranded nearly every single year (Except for 2012, which only had a balance update). with each year bringing in new characters to the game, mainly from classic fighters in the past Street Fighter entries, culminating in this giant roster of characters:

The evolution of SF4 was as follows:

2009:

2010:

2011:

2013:

The effect this game had on the FGC was immense, as it inspired other creators to create good fighting games again, and gave us this recent resurgence. It also helped up the production value of fighting games every year, ending with the sequel, Street Fighter V, having its top 8 finals of Evolution, the biggest fighting game tournament of the year, being broadcasted on ESPN, the first of any fighting game.

In the end, even though it was criticized on some of its design choices, SFIV was overall extremely loved, which led to it still being played today, 8 years after release, and love it or hate it, you can't deny the gigantic influence it had on the fighting game community.

Discuss what you thought overall about SF4, personal stories that you remember, and top matches of all time.

Some Great Matches:
Uncle Valle Vs. Bonchan (Evo 2015)
Infiltration vs Gamerbee (Evo 2015 Loser's Finals)
Infiltration Vs. PR Balrog (Evo 2013 Top 8)
Momochi Vs. Daigo (Stunfest 2015 Grand Finals)
Infiltration Vs. Daigo (Evo 2012 Top 8)
Infiltration Vs. Daigo (Capcom Cup Semis)
The Beast Vs. The Machine (Evo 2011 Top 8)

And of course, the GOAT opening song: IN-DES-TRUCTIBLE

 

[HotHamBoy]

And now SFV is destroying everything SFIV achieved.

EDIT: i don't mean gameplay, I mean content/DLC/Fight Money, etc.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

And now SFV is destroying everything SFIV achieved.

And rebuilding something waaaaay better

 

[7DollarHagane]

And now SFV is destroying everything SFIV achieved.

Get the fuck out of here with that negative bullshit.

Super was my favorite version. I didn't really care for how high level play evolved into who can use the safest option selects and most ambiguous vortexes.

I love that throws are scary again in sf5 and people can get baited and there's more mind games and less setups.

 

[Gunslinger]

And now SFV is destroying everything SFIV achieved.

How?

 

[Shadow_Lord]

Guys, let's not derail the thread with that negative crap please.

 

[Alucrid]

Remember when Gamestop held a tournament?

 

[Douche McBaggins The 3rd]

And rebuilding something waaaaay better

Haha no. It fucked up everything bad. I would say that sfv destroyed a ton of good will, and shoved casuals out. Except for an acceptable if that fighting system, five was a disaster that set the fgc reach to casuals back years. Four did a lot more good than five can ever hope to do.

 

[Renekton]

And now SFV is destroying everything SFIV achieved.

Derailing shitpost

 

[Forkball]

Excuse me, Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out months before SFIV and outsold it.

Be sure to thank Sakurai for EVO.

 

[Ivan 3414]

I'll never understand the credit SFIV for revitalizing fighting games. There were quite a few fighting games being released between SFIII and IV, like Tekken and DOA, that sold very well

 

[Moaradin]

SF4 was a great game. It's the one that got me back into Street Fighter and fighting games in general. EVO 2015 was one of the greatest video game tournaments of all time. Definitely a great way for SF4 to go out.

 

[BoosterDuck]

And now SFV is destroying everything SFIV achieved.

SF4 didn't achieve shit except Capcom realizing they can make fighting games again

easily the second worst street fighter behind 1

 

[Douche McBaggins The 3rd]

I'll never understand the credit SFIV for revitalizing fighting games. There were quite a few fighting games being released between SFIII and IV, like Tekken and DOA, that sold very well

And soul calibur and guilty gear and kof. Along with mortal kombat. But street fighter is seen as the king so to say. So when that fell, the visability of fighting also fell

 

[FadedRevolution]

Excuse me, Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out months before SFIV and outsold it.

Be sure to thank Sakurai for EVO.

Evo existed long before Brawl.

 

[pizzacat]

I wish there was a physical grave for this game so I can use it as a personal toilet

 

[WetWaffle]

Derailing shitpost

To be fair though, SFV isnt appealing to the casual fanbase that SF 4 did expertly, and part of that is because of the design decisions that Capcom chose, that much is fact. Saying that SfV singlehandedly destroyed what SF4 achieved is nonsense though

 

[SolidSnakex]

I'll never understand the credit SFIV for revitalizing fighting games. There were quite a few fighting games being released between SFIII and IV, like Tekken and DOA, that sold very well

SF4 definitely was the game that got 2D fighters back into the mainstream. If you notice MK immediately switched back to 2D after SF4's release. Now 2D fighters are king again while for quite some time they were fairly niche while the fighter space was largely dominated by Tekken and Virtua Fighter (for Japan at least).

 

[raven777]

what a first post lol..


Anyways I played SF4 at arcade few times and bought the vanilla version at launch. I really enjoyed the game even though I couldn't play much of it. The game seemed to go back to basics, focus attack seemed cool mechanic (at least at the time) and the game looked very cool with Ultra animations.

 

[Rice-Eater]

I remember not paying too much attention to SF4 because it used 3D graphics. I didn't like the SFEX series and I thought it would be just like that. Then the game came out and I started playing it online a lot and got addicted. I remember watching the Daigo parry video back in 2004. That was my introduction to the FGC so I knew some kind of tournament scene existed even though I never tried to be apart of it. So what I did do was go to Youtube and typed up "Daigo SF4" to see what I could find. This was one of the earliest SF4 matches that I saw on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGS5b6SK4FM

I was a complete newbie at the time and didn't understand most of what I was watching. But like in the Justin vs Daigo parry video, something clicked inside me. I knew I was watching something amazing. I just started binging on these SF4 matches that I saw on youtube and through that alone my understanding of the game started improving more and more and it translated into my actual play. I still suck but I felt proud when I saw players do something and understood why they did it. All this lead me to buy several sticks, attending many events(including EVO), and making some very good friends in the community.

SF4 in a way will always be my first even though I fell in love with World Warrior back in 1992. I'm very excited about the future possibilities of the franchise as long as we can keep the positive momentum going despite the horrid start to SFV.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

SF4 definitely was the game that got 2D fighters back into the mainstream. If you notice MK immediately switched back to 2D after SF4's release. Now 2D fighters are king again while for quite some time they were fairly niche while the fighter space was largely dominated by Tekken and Virtua Fighter (for Japan at least).

Yeah. Street Fighter IV absolutely resurrected traditional 2D fighting games but it didn't resurrect fighting games as a whole.

 

[notworksafe]

You have a listing for Some Great Matches, but you forgot the Greatest SF4 Set Of All Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7_b1aMJHDA

 

[Gunslinger]

SF4 didn't achieve shit except Capcom realizing they can make fighting games again

easily the second worst street fighter behind 1

I don't think without SFIV FGC would have never reached the level it is now. Forget about ESPN we would not even have popularity on twitch. Smash was around before SFIV but it didn't do anything for FGC.

 

[HotHamBoy]

I actually like the gameplay of SFV much more than SFIV, but give me the old model of yearly updates over the insane DLC and FM prices, bullshit color unlocks and lack of modes in SFV.

Fight Money should be way more obtainable through multiplayer, it's a multiplayer-focused game. We are also still missing Daily Challenges six months after release with no word on when they are coming.

I didn't mind paying $15 for four characters in SFIV.

 

[Zaki2407]

Ifeelold.thread
Bought the game back in 2009. Love it ^_^

 

[Escalario]

LOL. SFIV didn't done shit. Fighting games were doing just fine. SFIV wasn't even the biggest fighting game released that year.

 

[Anth0ny]

The first Evo Grand Finals for Street Fighter IV

fucking hell what an exciting time it was

 

[Renekton]

Edit: nevermind

LOL. SFIV didn't done shit. Fighting games were doing just fine. SFIV wasn't even the biggest fighting game released that year.

I remember Tekken was way way bigger than SF4. Not sure why it didn't have a larger presence in EVO back in that 2008-2010 era.

 

[Shadoken]

You all might love it or hate it , but IMHO this is the most important Fighting game for the FGC for the last two decades.

Ever since EVO 2009 , I have seen nothing but growth. And every time I think its going to stop or we have hit our potential. It just keeps on reaching a new level every year.

Yeah. Street Fighter IV absolutely resurrected traditional 2D fighting games but it didn't resurrect fighting games as a whole.

It made the entire genre switch from 3D back to 2D (2.5D). None of the 3D fighters compared with previous installments. And Where are all the big 3D fighters now? Only Tekken carrying the torch. And DOA is living on costumes.

Meanwhile SF,KOF,GG are all as big as ever and even MK made the switch back to 2D.

SF4 didn't achieve shit except Capcom realizing they can make fighting games again

easily the second worst street fighter behind 1

Being the worst Street Fighter behind 1 is actually hardly even a negative in a franchise like SF. since 2,3,Alpha and V are such amazing titles.

 

[Gusto]

And now SFV is destroying everything SFIV achieved.

This guy lol you better git gud and quit spewing this garbage.

 

[Lumination]

You have a listing for Some Great Matches, but you forgot the Greatest SF4 Set Of All Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7_b1aMJHDA

This is the one.

 

[Gren]

Real talk, I largely overlooked IV at launch in favor of classic mode HD Remix (I liked how it played & didn't gel w/ IV's new chars/features; figured why not rock it while there was an online pop).

Still, it was great seeing SF back in the public limelight again, and those nights of playing drunken SFIV with many different groups of casual friends (i.e. the types that hadn't touched an SF since 2) won't soon be forgotten.

 

[Yokai]

Ifeelold.thread
Bought the game back in 2009. Love it ^_^

Yeah me too.

I remember listening to the Gootecks podcast where he was introducing Mike Ross for the first time, talking about whether or not Gouken would be banned from (I believe it was) God's Garden (the big leagues of the time, frankly.)

I love SF4 as much as I love every other SF game. I don't know why there has to be so much hatred toward 4 besides the "it's cool to hate on sf4" mindset that the SF5 honeymoon has brought. It's like people forget about how SF3 had terrible balance, or how SF2 had Balrog grab loops. Every time a new street fighter game comes out, the audience makes it out to be a great escape from the horrible attributes of the game before it. In reality, there's always things to love and hate about every SF game in the series.

Even SF1 deserves some credit for being a very early fighting game, despite not really hitting gold.

 

[Gusto]

Seth Killian revived street fighter.

 

[lucebuce12]

Ono revived street fighter.

 

[spazchicken]

I was and am super proud of SFIV and what it has done for the Fighting Game Community but I was done after Arcade Edition.

No local community that I knew of, a rush of near full priced updates with no known end in sight (at the time), underwater online (which I could never get used to) and the inability to find a character that I could settle on and call my own, slowly pushed me out.

Most of that has been corrected with SFV and I'm addicted. Just as excited for it five months later as I was five months before it released.

 

[GotchaForce]

Played fighters since SF2 arcade but it wasn't until SF4 that online, locals and streaming all came together for me. Someone who has bought and played not just SF but all the fighting games big and small my whole life, SF4 was this quantum step. Put me in the SF4 revitalized the fighting games camp.

 

[DR2K]

Edit: nevermind


I remember Tekken was way way bigger than SF4. Not sure why it didn't have a larger presence in EVO back in that 2008-2010 era.

Because Namco butchered the Tekken competitive scene in the west with how they stagger the release from arcade to console. They continue to do so.

Imagine coming into SFV a year after it's been played. That's basically day 1 for the majority of local Tekken FGC in the west.

 

[Renekton]

I don't know why there has to be so much hatred toward 4 besides the "it's cool to hate on sf4" mindset that the SF5 honeymoon has brought. It's like people forget about how SF3 had terrible balance, or how SF2 had Balrog grab loops.

The 3S guys were in our ears for years with DotaVLoL arguments like skill ceilings lol.

I thought SF4's FA was a more balanced tool than SF3 parry.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Real talk, I largely overlooked IV at launch in favor of classic mode HD Remix (I liked how it played & didn't gel w/ IV's new chars/features; figured why not rock it while there was an online pop).

Still, it was great seeing SF back in the public limelight again, and those nights of playing drunken SFIV with many different groups of casual friends (i.e. the types that hadn't touched an SF since 2) won't soon be forgotten.

I just fired up HD Remix last night.

It's so gross looking.

 

[Finaika]

It did not resurrect the fighting game genre, it only resurrected the Street Fighter franchise.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Legendary game for me. Played it for so many years.

 

[Soltype]

The 3S guys were in our ears for years with DotaVLoL arguments like skill ceilings lol.

I thought SF4's FA was a more balanced tool than SF3 parry.

Well to be fair parrying wasn't broken, just the roster.

 

[JayEH]

Great revival of the franchise unfortunately I sucked at it lol. It was a very complex game when you break it down and the gameplay was very risk averse. Still it introduced a lot of people to 2d fighters and helped bring on another fighting game boom.

 

[cj_iwakura]

To be fair though, SFV isnt appealing to the casual fanbase that SF 4 did expertly, and part of that is because of the design decisions that Capcom chose, that much is fact. Saying that SfV singlehandedly destroyed what SF4 achieved is nonsense though

This is how I feel. The idea behind SFIV, and what made it a success, was appealing to fans old and new.
I respect V, but it's definitely a step back.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

Bought the game 4 times, loved Street Fighter so much. Favorite fighter all last gen despie how much I sucked.

Got the collector's edition for PS3 day one, then PS3 Super, Super for PC, and finally Ultra for PC. Was even tempted to get Ultra for PS4, but the release back then was a mess. Still have yet to buy SFV in comparison, they wanted that FGC crowd with that barebones release and lost me for a while. I'll get SFV one of these days, I guess.

 

[SephLuis]

I love SF4 as much as I love every other SF game. I don't know why there has to be so much hatred toward 4 besides the "it's cool to hate on sf4" mindset that the SF5 honeymoon has brought. It's like people forget about how SF3 had terrible balance, or how SF2 had Balrog grab loops. Every time a new street fighter game comes out, the audience makes it out to be a great escape from the horrible attributes of the game before it. In reality, there's always things to love and hate about every SF game in the series. .

I still like SF IV, but as time went on I ended up playing less and less of it.
I guess I was most active during the SSFIV days, but when AE came out, I already lost bigger part of interest in it.

What really bothered me in SF IV were the OSs and the Ultra mechanic. I really liked Ultra mechanic when the game came out, but after you see how easy some characters combo and turn the game with it, made me too salty on it.

The OSs were a bigger part why the game lost it's appeal to me. Too many and too powerful. I can deal with OSs on GG and even SF V has some of those, but I never felt they were as powerful as in SF IV

For now, I prefer SFIII and SF V over it. I am still playing SF V actively and it's soon to tell if I am going to like it as much in 8 years.

 

[Gren]

I just fired up HD Remix last night.

It's so gross looking.

Yeah, it's got a *lot* of rough edges (i.e. the disproportionate background NPCs compared to the foreground fighters), but the one thing I liked was that all the "sprites" were more consistent. No more CPS1 vs CPS2 sprites/animations, which always stood out like a sore thumb to me.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

I remember the home console ports of this and Tekken 6 being what tipped me over into getting a PS3. I was totally obsessed with the game until then, going over every single video, trailer, etc. I could find... Good times. I think all the mods that came out around the PC version's release was my first exposure to that kind of scene... Has it really been 7 years? God damn.

Over time it kind of became the Dream Match version of Street Fighter, which was interesting. I dunno if it's my personal favourite Street Fighter but it's a really good one.

 

[Tizoc]

I have my pet peeves about the system but there is no denying how it helped revive the fg scene