Super Street Fighter IV

If some of you read my somewhat terribad review of Marvel VS Capcom 3, then you might remember I mentioned that I hadn’t picked up Super Street Fighter 4 when it came around. I’ll just cut the story short and get to the point: I ended up getting SSF4 on my 3DS yo.
 
And then I noticed it was one of the better games in the 3DS’ mediocre launch line-up. The foremost reason I’m saying is because the game takes advantage of every new feature in the 3DS – I’ve actually had better matches online then some over Xbox live, and it was surprisingly nice and responsive. As you play the game you will get Figure Points used to spin a wheel of fortune giving you special figurines, out of which you can make a 5man team. If you were to take your 3DS with SSF4 in it out into the streets with you, anyone you pass by who is doing the same will result in a passive battle between your two figurine teams, and when you get home you can see who you fought and what the outcome was. 
 
A concern that comes to mind on a handheld for games like this is the controls. The controls work fine, but I wasn’t immediately used to the fact that the heavy punch and kick was mapped to the shoulder buttons. You can also map 4 moves to the touch screen below to ease yourself into Street Fighter and a character’s moveset, which undoubtedly streamlined it for me. Although as some people pointed out it changes the balance of some characters as you can put in the Charge Moves for characters like Guile, but in the online you can just search for “pro” games which disable this feature and instead give you a regular SSF4 experience.
 
Of course if the online is not your cup of tea, there is also the arcade mode with a little story for each character which is fun to at least go through once per character. The stage backgrounds are not animated like the console versions of the game, but the only stage I really noticed it was the South-Africa stage where that hippo is now in a permanent yawning state. But for everything else, arcade mode is the same as you’re used to: bonus stages, a fight against your character’s rival, AI gets slightly harder each stage and the final boss Seth is still a giant douchebag.
 
As for the titular feature, the 3D works great. I think the art style lends itself to a nice 3D pop-out effect which was surprising that it worked for me, since I have a lazy right eye which could’ve prevented me from enjoying the 3D on this thing. In the beginning I had to get used to the effect which was quite straining on the eyes, but as time went on I sort of grew used to it.

 
Out of the launch line-up for the 3DS, I’d say Super Street Fighter 4 is one of the better games, I’m sure there have to be other good ones in there but I’m happy with SSF4. It makes good use of the system, is surprisingly easy to control for a handheld and has a solid online experience, even though I can't imagine the scene being as big as it is consoles. In short: A recommendation