Monday, 18 February 2008
When I first watched the trippy FMV teaser trailer for Street Fighter 4, I was far from impressed. My appetite for a return to the Street of old was certainly not wet and quite frankly I had disregarded it a few minutes later.
After all, time had moved on. Tekken, Soul Caliber and Dead or Alive had moved a much loved genre into a 3D environment; the pinnacle of the series, Street Fighter 2, had been outdated and felt long in the tooth, it only brought high levels of nostalgia instead of visceral combat. And after all when Mortal Combat 2 (also the series pinnacle) went 3D, it almost killed the IP. So long live Soul Caliber 4! I get Vader with my PS3 copy!
Time changes all though.
It was on Gamespot that it all changed. A week or so later I was visiting the now slightly lackluster site in a hope of a Patapon preview (check out Patapon on the PSP - released 22nd Feb), low and behold they had a Street Fighter 4 preview and a billion new "in-game" screenshots. I had forgotten about it already, lost to the sands of time, but now with some hard copy and pictures it drew me back. All my favourite characters were there and apart from the initially off-putting graphics (which grew on me pic after pic) it started to look like it could be a genuine contender for the genre crown.
So long live Street Fighter 4! Even though I don't get Vader with my PS3 copy!