Prior to the release of Street Fighter IV, I was moderately uninterested in it's release. While various gaming sites gushed about it prior to it's release, to me, it was still what I despised - a fighting game.
I'd read snippets here and reasons why the game was awesome, but the one that sticks in my head is, "For anyone that's ever thrown a fireball, Street Fighter IV is for you!" That's the problem though, I never threw a fireball. As a kid I loved Street Fighter II. I'd watch in awe while my cousin would work me and anyone else over with Guile. I never had the patience to learn moves, spamming Honda's hand slap was enough for me. As I grew older and became more of a video game enthusiast, I found my niche of shooters and sports games and became average at shooters and good at sports games. However from afar, I always admired people who were good at fighters. Something about good players separating themselves from button mashers and great players playing on their own level. I'd almost view it as an art form.
I dabbled around with fighting games over the years and get completely destroyed. Dead or Alive, Mortal Kombat, SF IV & HD Remix, it didn't matter as the end result was the same, me getting owned. I never won a match online in DOA and have since stayed away from trying to play fighting games. I had no intention of buying Street Fighter IV. Why spend money to get frustrated? After watching some of the IGN videos on Marketplace, hearing about some of the strategy and terminology pushed me even further away.
I picked up SF IV on an impulse, really. I was picking up Killzone 2 when on my way out of the store, decided to pick up SF IV while I was out.
I have no regrets.
I played in arcade mode on the easiest setting and was struggling. I thought I'd only get better if I took my lumps and took my game online and, as expected, got worked over. I got worked over to the point of really being embarrassed. I knew I was bad when I played my co-worker who I own at every other game we play and lost 9 of 10 matches.
After about 10 to 15 hours, Abel and El Fuerte weren't doing it for me. So I made the switch to Blanka and haven't looked back since. Suddenly, everything clicked. I won't get into why, but finding a character that could fight how I wanted to fight was huge. I took the next step and bought a fightpad and was pulling off ultras and supers with ease. The first match I won online felt like a huge monkey was off my back. I'm at the point now where I can't stop playing Street Fighter IV. I tell myself I want to play other games however always end up back at Street Fighter. I find my chain of thought being "just one more fight" to "I'll fight until I lose" to "I can't go to bed on a losing note" until I look at the clock to see it's 4AM.
40 hours later, I've got about 50 ranked wins and 170 total. It's been quite the evolution in the matter of weeks. While I'm not proud of the time I've spent with this game, I am proud I stuck with it and feel more then equipped to hold my own. Kudos to Capcom for making such an awesome game - now I just need Mad Catz to make their Tournament Edition Fight Sticks more readily available.
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