UPDATE: March 9th, 2010
Street Fighter 4 is now available on the App Store for $9.99, in a surprise announcement made at GDC. Enjoy your classic 2D fighting, and we'll have our review available for you soon.
Street Fighter 4 coming to the iPhone is one of the biggest news stories since, well, the last big brand announced a port. Whether it’s GTA: Chinatown Wars, Plants vs Zombies, or any other major series stepping onto Apple’s iPhone, there’s nothing that gets gamers’ blood up like a classic game on their cutting-edge handheld. We played SF4 against Takeshi Tezuka, who worked on the original SF2 and is the current General Manager of Mobile Development for Capcom Japan, and we think hardcore and casual fighters alike won’t be disappointed by this handheld version.
Street Fighter 4 will feature eight classic characters: Ryu, Ken, Guile, Dhalsim, Chun-Li, Blanka, M. Bison, and Abel. The game will not feature separate storylines, but does offer a Tournament mode with a series of fights escalating in difficulty, and the familiar taunts when you win or lose.
But the first thing Tezuka-san wanted to show us was Dojo mode, which was described as “Street Fighter boot camp”. In this mode, you’ll receive a series of one-off challenges (which reminded us of the challenges from Pac-Man Championship Edition) that introduce strategies familiar to any longtime SF player. In one stage, normal attacks don’t do any damage, and you must only use special attacks to win.
Players are ranked either S, A, B, or C in these challenges, and we were assured that even the most dedicated players will have a difficult time reaching S on everything. When you finish a stage with a C or higher, you unlock the next round. Some of the higher-level challenges include Combo Training and the mysterious-sounding Fighting Secrets. We were even told that mastering these challenges will help you be a better SF4 player on the consoles or in the arcades.
To help you best these challenges, or the obligatory tournament and versus modes, you can rearrange the onscreen controls in a variety of ways. You can shrink the button size, individually drag them to where they’re the most comfortable, or increase their transparency.
The eight-direction joystick seemed to work very well for us, and the four buttons�" punch, kick, special, and focus�" didn’t seem to sacrifice too much of the familiar fighting controls. Truly dedicated SF4 masters from the arcade and console worlds will be the final judge of that.
The Tournament mode and computer versus may not be where most players get their full $9.99 worth with this game. The Dojo mode and two-player Bluetooth multiplayer (no Wi-Fi) are the real draws for longevity.
Like Pac-Man CE, we see this as being a satisfactory translation with a number of tactical challenges that may be even more enjoyable than the main game. One thing is certain though: Capcom is paying attention to the iPhone in a big way, saying it’s the top-selling phone in Japan, and that means we can expect to see a lot more big series of theirs coming this year.
STREET FIGHTER IV
13 Comments
How's the loading? I saw a different video preview of this and they seemed to cut out part of the video between the VS screen, after choosing your character and stage, and the start of the match.
Not bad, I'd say maybe 15-20 seconds on a 3GS and iPod Touch?
What can be said for the controls? It
looked like the person playing in the video got pretty frustrated with them. Did I see input lag there or was it just due to the video quality?
The first video is of Bluetooth multiplayer, so that might have caused some lag. I was the one playing-- I wasn't frustrated at all with the controls, just took my hands off for a few moments to jot notes or something.
Are there any information about the system requirements - will it run on 1st gen iPod touch and older iPhone models?
It runs perfectly on iPod touch. Though I tried downloading it from my ipod's app store it didn't work so u need 2 download it on the computer and put it on ur iPod
Does someone know the release date for stf4
Any news about the release date?
it's out now guys
Woohoo, I just purchased SFIV and can't wait to start playing it this morning! Now, if only I didn't have a 12 page essay to write for school tomorrow.... oh well, another well-written preview guys.
This game is excellent! The controls work wonderfully which was what I was afraid was going to be a flaw. But the flaws are flawless.
The game is so freaking amazing. I love Beat em' up's, and I was very dissappointed about the other BEU for our loveley phone.
SFIV is nearly perfect.
Nice graphics and the controls are very good.
it's like playing on the xbox.
Who expected that?
SO NICE! have to continue with the training.
You like BE'U's ? BUY IT!
You like Street FIghter? BUY IT!
I have to agree. This is one awesome port for the iPhone!
Graphics are very nice, sound's cool and the controls aren't too bad, they work very well even! Dare I say it's easier to throw out those combo's and special moves then it is on the console counterpart?
K, it's a bit on the pricey part (7.99), but it's well worth it imo. And hopefully an update will bring us more (free) characters!
(also: no bluetooth mp on iphone 2g 8gb?)
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