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[Gunslinger]

Allright guys with EVO dropping SFIV, I think it's official to say the time has finally come to close the curtain on this magnificent saga that was SFIV. I know there was a thread here a month or so ago that was about who was your favorite SFIV pro but i am curious about your personal experience simply because this game defined last gen for me.

For me what a ride it was, back in 2007 when I first started seeing SFIV dev interviews I was so hyped is beyond belief. Remember at the time FG was kind of dead, Smash ruled the FG world, MK was going through some rough transition with the 3d games, arcades in NYC mostly have all but shut down and SF was in it's dark ages. Never in my life I thought I would see another SF game. Ryu gave up his gloves and My man Guile went home to become a family man. Then comes SFIV. Blows away every single expectation I had. Singlehandedly revived the genre again. I would say brought sense back in Midway AKA NRS now and probably influenced the back to 2d design of MK. FGs becoming popular again. Thousands of people would enter tournaments. Basically a revival of the Golden ages from Arcade days.

The game played amazing, it was fluid, the transition to 2.5D was breathtaking, brought back some our heroes like Daigo from obscurity again. The moment I saw the daigo vs iyo match at the Gamestop tourney and how daigo did the full screen shoryuken to super punish I knew this game would be special. And who can forget the first SFIV megahit combo video of Gilley showcasing what guile can do...wow.

Anyway I would like to hear how it was for you guys. Would like to hear your final opinion on the game one last time before we pack up and move onto hopefully bigger and better things (SFV).

PS. last one out turn off the light on this amazing show that was SFIV. Thank your for reading. Heres to SFV hopefully becoming something even bigger than what SFIV was. I love FGs and I hope they continue to get bigger.

 

[RedAssedApe]

indestructible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdKB-6ueD4o

 

[Subhuman Filth]

Not as good as 3rd Strike.

 

[FZZ]

It did some good

But Daigo must move on now

 

[Already Torn]

indestructible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdKB-6ueD4o

Aww yeahhh

Make the song DLC happen Capcom. I don't know how much the license costs but you'll make it back immediately.

 

[Gunslinger]

indestructible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdKB-6ueD4o

Hahaha man despite some of the hate it got, You can't deny how catchy that tune was. How many times your started singing that tune while waiting for a match? Good old times. They should have kept it.

 

[Aeris130]

An aggressively frustrating game to play at an intermediate level. Indestructible playing from scratch every time you go back to the online matchmaking menu killed whatever love I had for that song.

 

[Jonneh3003]

I didn't get into it much competitively but I loved every moment I spent with SF4. I have every revision and my favourite is actually SSF4 3D edition which is a tremendous portable and pick up and play title

 

[Psyren]

Fuck that combo system... But other than that I really enjoyed my time with it over the years. Here's to SF5 when it releases.

 

[MavFan619]

I'm in training mode right now and it's been my consistent late night game since vanilla. That said I am more than ready to move on to SFV.

 

[『Inaba Resident』]

I've enjoyed the game for years. There have been so many hype moments and its introduced so many people to fighting games. The community overall has grown so much bigger and this game is definitely one of the major reasons why.
However, I'm ready to put it down for good. A new generation of SF is about to begin and I'm so excited to see where it goes.

 

[Gunslinger]

I didn't get into it much competitively but I loved every moment I spent with SF4. I have every revision and my favourite is actually SSF4 3D edition which is a tremendous portable and pick up and play title

I agree. Although I dont own the 3ds SSFIV i played it on my cousins 3ds and it was really well made.

 

[Freshmaker]

One frame links can die in a fire. Will not miss them.

 

[ShogunDarius]

I didn't get into it much competitively but I loved every moment I spent with SF4. I have every revision and my favourite is actually SSF4 3D edition which is a tremendous portable and pick up and play title

THIS amazing version I kinda want SFV to get a handheld version just because of how good that was

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Never put so many hours into a fighting game. The fact that it came during a time when fighting games were dying made it doubly amazing.

 

[Boogalogist]

indestructible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdKB-6ueD4o

Excellent first post. I love this theme....no matter how cheesy it is.

 

[Mizerman]

*Scratches chin*

Hmm...let's see.

Well, I respect it for what it did at the time. Bringing back SF into the fold, that is. While I had some fun with it over the years, I'm ready to move on at last.

With SFV on the horizon, I'm read to do just that.

 

[BasilZero]

I started playing for the first time few months ago thanks to the Humble bundle Capcom bundle.

Liking it so far...will get to SFV sometime in the future XD

 

[smashballTaz]

I've just finally bought this on Steam thanks to me getting a sweet Steam controller and it being just $4 on Amazon. Me and a mate are enjoying it a lot! Super hyped for V.

 

[Star Falcon]

Great game, sort of got there in the end with balance but with so many characters it was always going to be tough. Most characters at least had some time in the spotlight. Always liked the art style, music etc.

Game itself was a nightmare struggle at first to get decent at online. First 50 or so games I was hopeless - practicing in the training mode just isn't effective as all that goes out the window when you got someone wailing on you who knows what they are doing. Still wish they'd add a more meaningful single player option - 'Arcade' is just lazy.

 

[Rajang]

Least favorite SF, I loved watching high level play though.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

I'm not ready to move on yet. I was obsessed with the coverage for Vanilla. I remember watching arcade match videos on YouTube for hours. SFIV was one of the main reasons I purchased a PlayStation 3.

Had a lot of great times with Super Street Fighter IV. We used to set it up in the dorm lobby and play for hours straight. Lots of late night SSFIV and then eventually Marvel vs Capcom 3, but we always came back to Street Fighter.

Looking back, it is probably my most played Street Fighter game. I tried really hard to get into Third Strike, love that game too...but I definitely put more time into IV. Easily one of my favorite fighting games ever.

Spoiler

I also kinda liked Indestructible. It grew on me.

 

[Arc Christelle]

Fuck that game, I'm glad it's gonna dead. (Added for effect, I know it ain't dead yet.)
-spits on SFIV/SSFIV/AE/AE2012/Ultra/Omega-

 

[Gunslinger]

Fuck that game, I'm glad it's gonna dead. (Added for effect, I know it ain't dead yet.)
-spits on SFIV/SSFIV/AE/AE2012/Ultra/Omega-

Why do you hold such a negative feeling toward SFIV? what made you so disappointed?

 

[TurtleSnatcher]

Vanilla SF4 still had the best character select theme ever...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o340hTz0Ef8

 

[Hag]

Played a lot of vanilla. I miss the announcer and indestructible too much haha

Thanks for the memories SFIV

 

[54-46!]

I tried to get in to it multiple times from vanilla to Ultra but I never stuck around, I really wanted to like it.

I found the gameplay to be stilted, it just didn't flow well for me. I didn't care for the visuals, audio or most of the new characters either.

Ultimately I enjoy getting my ass handed to me in 3S more than winning in IV.

 

[Gunslinger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lato8FmMoIQ

I think this was one of the earliest combo videos that came out, and probably the most popular SFIV combo vid. I know it's outdated now but still to this day i love this video. Gilley did a great job on it.

 

[Melubas]

It's been a good ride. Played it from release to now, from when Vega was shit-tier to mid-tier. I liked the emphasis on links and just generally the flow of the game. Been competing a fair bit and the community is awesome. 3d strike is still the better game but all in all I liked SFIV. Here's hoping that SFV is as good.

 

[Cucurbitacée]

I had a lot of fun for years playing it in small tournament form with friends, beer and pizza. Fantastic memories.

 

[JediLink]

Well I bought it earlier this year and have played it for 244 hours since then, so...

EDIT: Holy shit I mean last year lmao my B

 

[Sandfox]

I liked SFIV and I'll miss the roster, but I'm happy that Capcom is moving away from the mechanics introduced in that game.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Vanilla SF4 still had the best character select theme ever...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o340hTz0Ef8

 

[ZeroTheShadow]

It was a Street Fighter game. Always struggling with poor balancing through it's life like every Street Fighter. The games became significantly less fun as time went on. I will personally remember it as the game that killed the arcade scene in America and created the 09er a player whose only interest is in Capcom Fighters and treats every other fighting game like second rate trash.

 

[Hostile_18]

Well mine arnt as good but I'm only a casual fighting game fan. I was disappointed in the lack of single player content, a lot of the moves felt hard to do compared to other games and I wasn't the biggest fan of the pastel art style.

However it has had amazing support and a ton of characters added which I can really appreciate. The multiple version's never bothered me either. The fact it became so popular speaks for it's quality regardless of my own personal impressions. Roll on Street Fighter 5, I'll give it a go!

 

[Psyren]

Vanilla SF4 still had the best character select theme ever...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o340hTz0Ef8

I actually liked the overall presentation of Vanilla as well, and the opening theme, as cheesy as it was, added a certain kind of charm to the game

Spoiler

and it was annoyingly catchy :/

 

[BudokaiMR2]

I hated how they handled the updated versions. I dropped it after Super because there was really nothing to justify standalone releases in my mind. The only reason I even bought Super was because they added Ibuki.

The game itself was fun though, and was a blast to watch at high level play.

 

[『Inaba Resident』]

I hated how they handled the updated versions. I dropped it after Super because there was really nothing to justify standalone releases in my mind. The only reason I even bought Super was because they added Ibuki.

The game itself was fun though, and was a blast to watch at high level play.

If you had super, you could have just updated for $15 each no time. No new disc if you dont want to.

 

[SpiceMelange]

Incredible game that stayed relevant for almost a decade and get unfairly shit on. A true classic in the making IMO.

 

[Gunslinger]

I actually liked the presentation of Vanilla overall as well, and the opening theme, as cheesy as it was, added a certain kind of charm to the game

Spoiler

and it was annoyingly catchy :/

That it was. I have yet to meet a single person who didn't hum that tune while playing the game or heck sometimes even during daily activities. Ofcourse they played SFIV a lot but yeah it's catchy as hell.

 

[RedAssedApe]

It was a Street Fighter game. Always struggling with poor balancing through it's life like every Street Fighter. The games became significantly less fun as time went on. I will personally remember it as the game that killed the arcade scene in America and created the 09er a player whose only interest is in Capcom Fighters and treats every other fighting game like second rate trash.

you mean revitalized the fcg as arcades were already well on their way to dying out. powerful home consoles and online killed the arcade scene.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

If you had super, you could have just updated for $15 each no time. No new disc if you dont want to.

Yeah, it was mostly just that I didn't care for any of the extra characters added so didn't want to spend the cash just for stuff like double ultras or whatever other small stuff was added.

 

[super]

Best fighting game in history so far.
The way it captured the fighting game community and how global competitive made me realize how everyone around the world loved this game.
<3 SF4 saga

 

[Psyren]

That it was. I have yet to meet a single person who didn't hum that tune while playing the game or heck sometimes even during daily activities. Ofcourse they played SFIV a lot but yeah it's catchy as hell.

I wonder how many J-Pop fans were birthed because of that stupid song haha...

 

[Gunslinger]

you mean revitalized the fcg as arcades were already well on their way to dying out. powerful home consoles and online killed the arcade scene.

Yeah i remember back in early 2000s here in NYC you could have still find an arcade scene no matter where you go. Sometimes in a laundromat that had a cabinet for MvC2 or some legit arcades like Chinatown Fair. But By 2006-2007 most of them were gone. Laundromats or video stores took those cabinets out because in some places they would attract wrong kind of crowd. Sometimes due to salt fight would break out. For other customers safety they took out those cabinets. As for legit arcades people just stopped coming into them. Why pay when you can play against other online for Free. These also killed those Counter Strike internet Cafes too here in NYC.

 

[MikeBreezy92]

It did what it came to do and had/has an extensive and well storied life. Not gonna miss it much tbh because I didn't play it until ultra but I've definitely kept up with the game since Vanilla. Looking forward to post revival SF like I did with MK.

 

[Arc Christelle]

Why do you hold such a negative feeling toward SFIV? what made you so disappointed?

Growing up with the Street Fighter franchise I've always held it and Capcom in high regard in terms of game design with fighting games, I've always felt that each title was progressive and pushed fighting to the next level. The highest echelon of 2D Fighting games for me (pre-Vanguard Princess) was 3rd Strike and MOTW. Otherwise they made great games with insane gameplay depth and skill ceiling from the Alpha Series, CVS2, MVC2, etc.

I was remember being so excited to play SFIV that I even traded Battle Fantasia (360) for it which was a much more progressive fighting game in terms of design and mechanics. I finally got to play it, and my enthusiasm dropped within the first week. It didn't feel as good as playing 3rd Strike, hell it didn't even feel like a proper SF entry outside of base mechanics (Kinda like Dimps, something always feels watered down or not right, ex. Sonic 1-3 -> Sonic 4 or hell even Sonic Advance.) It was like a watered down SFII with pseudo designs to make it seem like there's actual depth, and a mechanic that... ugh. Focus Attack defined Street Fighter IV, that I respect, but I still think it's a trash mechanic. There have been good examples of use, but the bad taste remains.

As time went by I never respected the series because I always saw it as a lesser game, and even worse saw games that were far better in gameplay fall into irrelevance while SFIV sold on damn near brand alone.

It eventually grew into it's own thing, that I eventually learned to accept and play, but even with that acceptance, I knew I didn't really like playing that game, and it was never the step into the next level I wanted.

SFV is much better, still have signs of Dimps design and their handling of charge characters and juggle properties is atrocious, but I guess some progress is better than no progress.

Till then Vanguard Princess remains the best 2D fighting game.

I would also go on a rant about how SFIV was the dawn of Capcom outsourcing to Dimps and Eighting who watered down their games tasteless, but that's a whole nother discussion.

 

[ArjanN]

It was a Street Fighter game. Always struggling with poor balancing through it's life like every Street Fighter. The games became significantly less fun as time went on. I will personally remember it as the game that killed the arcade scene in America and created the 09er a player whose only interest is in Capcom Fighters and treats every other fighting game like second rate trash.

lol, that's some revisionist history. The arcade scene was already dead and SFIV pretty much revived the genre in general.

 

[SpiceMelange]

Growing up with the Street Fighter franchise I've always held it and Capcom in high regard in terms of game design with fighting games, I've always felt that each title was progressive and pushed fighting to the next level. The highest echelon of 2D Fighting games for me (pre-Vanguard Princess) was 3rd Strike and MOTW. Otherwise they made great games with insane gameplay depth and skill ceiling from the Alpha Series, CVS2, MVC2, etc.

I was remember being so excited to play SFIV that I even traded Battle Fantasia (360) for it which was a much more progressive fighting game in terms of design and mechanics. I finally got to play it, and my enthusiasm dropped within the first week. It didn't feel as good as playing 3rd Strike, hell it didn't even feel like a proper SF entry outside of base mechanics (Kinda like Dimps, something always feels watered down or not right, ex. Sonic 1-3 -> Sonic 4 or hell even Sonic Advance.) It was like a watered down SFII with pseudo designs to make it seem like there's actual depth, and a mechanic that... ugh. Focus Attack defined Street Fighter IV, that I respect, but I still think it's a trash mechanic. There have been good examples of use, but the bad taste remains.

As time went by I never respected the series because I always saw it as a lesser game, and even worse saw games that were far better in gameplay fall into irrelevance while SFIV sold on damn near brand alone.

It eventually grew into it's own thing, that I eventually learned to accept and play, but even with that acceptance, I knew I didn't really like playing that game, and it was never the step into the next level I wanted.

SFV is much better, still have signs of Dimps design and their handling of charge characters and juggle properties is atrocious, but I guess some progress is better than no progress.

Till then Vanguard Princess remains the best 2D fighting game.

I would also go on a rant about how SFIV was the dawn of Capcom outsourcing to Dimps and Eighting who watered down their games tasteless, but that's a whole nother discussion.

Why does SFIV feels like a watered down SF2 to you but SF5 is much better?

 

[Powerpuff]

One frame links can die in a fire. Will not miss them.

I may be too casual today to really enjoy that tight system but yes I agree.


Street Fighter IV and its sequels were great, first by themselves as fighting games, but also by their impact and how they revitalized the genre and make it popular to a new audience.

I prefer SFIV more for its presentation than its core gameplay. It succeeded in offering a true 2D fighting experience with a modern 3D presentation. However with a new generation to come I don't think I will play SFIV again so much while I often replay Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, which are the best SF titles to me and much more enjoyable (alongside their cousin Darkstlakers 3/Vampire Savior).