-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
8 Years Ago Today, SF4 was released, and Fighting Games Reborn
- Thread starter Shadow_Lord
- Start date
dancingphlower
Member
V has better mechanics, but I can't deny the impact IV had on the FGC. It was pretty much the reason I even knew about the fighting game community.
Crab Milk Mickey
Member
Art direction, soundtrack and mechanics were awful. Going from Third Strike to IV after all these years was such a bummer.
I applaud Ono and whoever else was a key driving force for giving the fighting game scene a much needed jolt however, and Snake Eyez vs Xian (one of my favourite back-and-forth matches of all-time) wouldn't have happened without it.
I applaud Ono and whoever else was a key driving force for giving the fighting game scene a much needed jolt however, and Snake Eyez vs Xian (one of my favourite back-and-forth matches of all-time) wouldn't have happened without it.
sixteen-bit
Member
Nothing's gonna stop me now!
Happy anniversary SF4.
Happy anniversary SF4.
CountBlack
Member
When Sako first showed the world what E Ryu was capable of..
When Smug showed the world what Dudley was capable of..
When Luffy showed everywhere outside of Europe what Rose was capable of..
When Infiltration came out the hyperbrolic time chamber and owned everyone for like a year or two..
When Xian showed everyone what Gen was capable of.. (sorry Seb or something
)
When Pepedai showed the world how retarded El Fuerte was in Ultra..
When Kitasenju DJ made Deejay look like he wasn't the absolute worst character in the game..
When Daigo switched to Ryu against Momochi's Ken at Stunfest and Momochi went to Cody might be my favourite SF4 set ever jesus christo
When Momochi ran through the US at Season Beatings with Cody..
When Kazunoko had to apologize for putting on a massacre with AE Yun..
When Justin Wong called Adon low tier and then Gamerbee became a legend..
Whenever Snake Eyez had a comeback with Zangief..
Misse's run with Makoto at Capcom Cup..
Bonchan vs Tokido @ The Redbull Kumite
Infiltration's Hakan counter pick..
so many more moments wow
SF4 best game
When Smug showed the world what Dudley was capable of..
When Luffy showed everywhere outside of Europe what Rose was capable of..
When Infiltration came out the hyperbrolic time chamber and owned everyone for like a year or two..
When Xian showed everyone what Gen was capable of.. (sorry Seb or something
)When Pepedai showed the world how retarded El Fuerte was in Ultra..
When Kitasenju DJ made Deejay look like he wasn't the absolute worst character in the game..
When Daigo switched to Ryu against Momochi's Ken at Stunfest and Momochi went to Cody might be my favourite SF4 set ever jesus christo
When Momochi ran through the US at Season Beatings with Cody..
When Kazunoko had to apologize for putting on a massacre with AE Yun..
When Justin Wong called Adon low tier and then Gamerbee became a legend..
Whenever Snake Eyez had a comeback with Zangief..
Misse's run with Makoto at Capcom Cup..
Bonchan vs Tokido @ The Redbull Kumite
Infiltration's Hakan counter pick..
so many more moments wow
SF4 best game
I think it is fair to say that none of those back then managed to bring fighting games back into the mainstream conversation as they mostly catered to an audience of people that stuck with them already. SFIV on the other hand made it feel like everyone (else) instantly remembered their love for 2D fighting games, partly because of brand familiarity and nostalgia focused marketing of course. So no, fighting games were not dead when SFIV came out, but they were more niche perhaps and after SFIV came out, It seems that series that never left, like MK, found a bigger audience again as well.
That said, SFIV never managed to click with me as much as I wanted it to (and as much as V is at the moment), despite it being a game I obsessed over for years when it came to absorbing any tidbit of news and despite it rekindling my love for playing and watching high level play of fighting games overall. And while I never played it as much as I should have, I did like it that they kept updating and refreshing the game with affordable physical releases and I can't help but wonder how they will manage such larger scale updates with SFV where things like the UI gets refined for instance or where bigger gameplay additions like selectable V-skills/critical arts can be implemented.
Looking back, SFIII's lacklustre reception that lead to SFIV needing to revive the brand in the first place is still something that baffles me to this day to be honest as I was blown away by that game the instant I saw it for the first time (which, granted, was on Dreamcast), especially because of how fresh and different it felt in terms of roster and tone. For me that is what sequels need to do/be: achieving a balance between being unique and different and being familiar. People really need(ed) to be a bit less conservative and less focused on what they know when it comes to such things I feel, and maybe need(ed) to trust that if a game is called Street Fighter and is made by a (back then at least) trusted development team, it will be worth checking out even if at first glance it looks quite different. But oh well, for SF it's all water under the bridge now and at least SFV seems to acknowledge SFIII in a more significant way again (even if we'll never get a new game with so many new characters ever again...).
Final sidenote: while SFIV did in some way revive (people's interest) 2(.5)D fighting games, I can't help but feel saddened by the fact that we never saw the same ripples as SFII caused in the day. Apart from KOF, Marvel, MK and KI (none of which were really up my alley unfortunately, back in the 90's or nowadays), we did not see many other 2(.5)D games come back for instance or many new games being made at all (outside of indies like Skullgirls) that could have had their sequels by now. I especially would have liked to have seen how a new World Heroes would have looked, or a new Garou/Fatal Fury, or Samurai Shodown. Or how about even more obscure ones like Waku Waku 7, Breakers or Karnov's Revenge? A shame we never saw a few of these manage to come back to bask in SFIV's light. (I had high hopes for Rising Thunder for that reason alone by the way, since it was both familiar and brave enough to challenge conventions and as such I am still bummed out that it's cancelled in favor of something I fear will be less unique if it borrows Riot's, to me, uninteresting character designs.)
Capcom could have done more as well on that front I feel, apart from the VS series. Why still no new Darkstalkers? Why no new fighting IP at all? Can the fighting game genre really keep surviving and growing on the same big IP's (and Japan-focused anime fighters) being churned out console gen after console gen or do we need more fresh takes as well that dare to take 2(.5) fighting to new levels? I honestly don't know but I'll make damned sure I'll be along for the ride for as long as it lasts this time.
When Sako first showed the world what E Ryu was capable of..
When Smug showed the world what Dudley was capable of..
When Luffy showed everywhere outside of Europe what Rose was capable of..
When Infiltration came out the hyperbrolic time chamber and owned everyone for like a year or two..
When Xian showed everyone what Gen was capable of.. (sorry Seb or something
When Pepedai showed the world how retarded El Fuerte was in Ultra..
When Kitasenju DJ made Deejay look like he wasn't the absolute worst character in the game..
When Daigo switched to Ryu against Momochi's Ken at Stunfest and Momochi went to Cody might be my favourite SF4 set ever jesus christo
When Momochi ran through the US at Season Beatings with Cody..
When Kazunoko had to apologize for putting on a massacre with AE Yun..
When Justin Wong called Adon low tier and then Gamerbee became a legend..
Whenever Snake Eyez had a comeback with Zangief..
Misse's run with Makoto at Capcom Cup..
Bonchan vs Tokido @ The Redbull Kumite
Infiltration's Hakan counter pick..
so many more moments wow
SF4 best game
anyone got a video of when Momochi did fake step overhead straight into an ultra that hit? It was at season's beatings but can't remember what year and against who
Secret Character
Member
Ah Street Fighter IV, how I loathe thee.
SFIV has probably the worst art direction of the entire series. The character models are ugly, the promotional art is terrible, and the music is a huge bummer. The gameplay is too reliant on links and gave too many characters incredible reversals with windows so large, you could drive a bus through them. The Focus system was only really beneficial to motion characters and the balance was way out of whack.
Initially, watching videos of the game when it came out in arcades was sort of a let down. The game was sort of pretty, for the time, but matches were slow and nobody used any of the new characters. That slowly changed when SRK FADC Ultra became more widely known and then it was nonstop shotos. Seeing Akuma and then Gouken show up was neat, but it would still be a long time before we would even see SFIV over here.
I remember the console launch day pretty well. It was busy, they had stations up to play the game, and both my stick and CE were delayed because of shipping issues. When I did eventually get the game, it didn't ever click with me, but I continued playing. The local scene got larger and people were excited for fighting games in a way that hadn't happened in many years. Eventually, I started having community nights at the family fun center I was managing and it brought a lot of people in.
Super was HUGE. I'd say it was more exciting for people than the initial release of IV. I loved Super because Dictator was a monster and the other new characters brought a lot of fresh air to the mostly recycled cast of Vanilla. Life happened for me and the family fun center gig came to an end, ultimately ending the community nights for a little while. I stopped caring about IV shortly after. I played casually during the rest of the game's life. Ultra made Hawk fun, so I'll give it that.
I'm so glad SFV is a much better game. I still play Super Turbo, too. I don't know if I'll ever go back to IV.
SFIV has probably the worst art direction of the entire series. The character models are ugly, the promotional art is terrible, and the music is a huge bummer. The gameplay is too reliant on links and gave too many characters incredible reversals with windows so large, you could drive a bus through them. The Focus system was only really beneficial to motion characters and the balance was way out of whack.
Initially, watching videos of the game when it came out in arcades was sort of a let down. The game was sort of pretty, for the time, but matches were slow and nobody used any of the new characters. That slowly changed when SRK FADC Ultra became more widely known and then it was nonstop shotos. Seeing Akuma and then Gouken show up was neat, but it would still be a long time before we would even see SFIV over here.
I remember the console launch day pretty well. It was busy, they had stations up to play the game, and both my stick and CE were delayed because of shipping issues. When I did eventually get the game, it didn't ever click with me, but I continued playing. The local scene got larger and people were excited for fighting games in a way that hadn't happened in many years. Eventually, I started having community nights at the family fun center I was managing and it brought a lot of people in.
Super was HUGE. I'd say it was more exciting for people than the initial release of IV. I loved Super because Dictator was a monster and the other new characters brought a lot of fresh air to the mostly recycled cast of Vanilla. Life happened for me and the family fun center gig came to an end, ultimately ending the community nights for a little while. I stopped caring about IV shortly after. I played casually during the rest of the game's life. Ultra made Hawk fun, so I'll give it that.
I'm so glad SFV is a much better game. I still play Super Turbo, too. I don't know if I'll ever go back to IV.
markwaters
Neo Member
I had a lot of fun with SF4/Super, but looking back in hindsight makes me realize how incredibly flawed it was in a lot of fundamental ways. Now that SFV is out, I'll probably never play it again unless alcohol and money are involved.
depths20XX
Member
People are delusional thinking games like KoF and GG were holding things down during those years. I played those games too but hardly anyone gave a shit about them. SFIV put fighting games back on the map in the mainstream and reignited the competitive scene.
Holy Order Sol
Member
that could be an argument for it being the worst
Basically. Fuck calling it dark ages. People were playing.
Shadow_Lord
Member
I was just going through some old matches, and found this gem. Daigo doing Daigo things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySz7GUty2rs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySz7GUty2rs