Hey everyone, I'm John.  Long time "Giant Bomber", first time blogger.  On this site anyways...

So I recently picked up Street Fighter IV for the XBOX 360.  I know, I'm behind in the times.  It was kind of weird at first, because I had
been used to playing HD Remix, and found that the pacing, timing and character collision detection was slightly different.  Maybe it was just
me, I don't know.  But it didn't take me long to adjust and now I'm pretty addicted to the game.

One particular mode has raised my addiction, and that mode is the Challenge Mode.

What I found addicting about the mode was that the Challenge Mode almost has a "puzzle game-like" feel to it.  Now, I'm not that great at Street Fighter by any means (my title is actually set to "Late Bloomer") but it's been a great learning tool for me.  I just recently found out how to make Ryu go from a crouching Fierce Punch into a Dragon Punch with ease! And it's this learning experience that's made this mode so enjoyable.  As Jeff said in a podcast, it won't train you on when you should use certain moves in certain situations.  But I feel it will at least give rookies a fighting chance in a match, as well as a few combos to take with them into those matches.

I was also surprised to find that some of the most difficult combos to pull off were ones that involved only single button presses.  You'd think that pressing Short Punch, Medium Punch, Short Kick (or something like that), would just be simply pressing those buttons in order, but in fact, you have to have precision timing, otherwise those button presses don't chain together.  The timing for certain combos has definitely been difficult, but also extermely satisfying once achieved.

In conclusion, Street Fighter IV definitely lives up to its name.  Kudos to all you Street Fighter pros out there!  And even though I'm not at that level, I'm still having a blast playing the game.  I even went out and purchased the Mad Catz Fightpad.  Awesome controller!!

Thanks, and keep on street fighting!......In the game that is, not in real life......'cause that'd be bad.......