Ultra Street Fighter IV

If you have ever played any title within the Street Fighter series, you know by now that an eventual revision would be released later, adding new characters and possibly some mechanics changes to keep the interest in the game going. The Street Fighter IV series is no stranger to this, as it already has seen 3 updates since its release in 2009. Capcom felt it was fit to give the series one last revision in the form of Ultra Street Fighter IV. But this isn't simply a roster update. USFIV makes some changes to the gameplay and adds several features to make the last release to be a worthwhile one for the fan of the series.

As you would expect, USFIV does in fact add more characters to the roster. 5 characters make their way into the game to expand the total roster to 44. 4 of the characters (Rolento, Elena, Hugo, and Poison) have been taken from Street Fighter X Tekken, while Decapre makes her debut in the Street Fighter series. It is a bit disappointing however, seeing that 4 of the characters have already been made and just tweaked for USFIV, and Decapre is almost a clone of Cammy. Her moves are different in some ways, but she feels a bit too much of a mix of Cammy, Vega, and even a bit of Juni to feel like a unique and interesting 5th character. I also have a problem with just how many characters are in the game at this point. So many characters stem from so many franchises and playstyles that in the end no one really sticks out than previous Street Fighter games with smaller rosters. It's great fan service to give so many people their character, but it comes at the cost of too many match ups to learn and no real standouts in the end.

For the characters that have been in the game previously, they all have been given different balance tweaks which, depending on who you play, will change some of the ways that they play and how well they fare in certain match ups. But if there was a previous version of a character you did like more, Capcom has added Edition Select, allowing you to play whichever version of the character that you want. So yeah, be prepared to face vanilla Sagat or AE Yun all over again! Speaking of changes, a few different mechanics have also been added to the core experience of the game. Red focus allows you to absorb an infinite number of hits until the attack comes out, unlike the regular focus attack that only aborbs one hit. Of course, it does cost you some of your super meter. Delayed wakeup gives you the chance to stall your character from rising from a knockdown just a small amount, which can make a difference in certain situations. Lastly, there is the Ultra Combo Double. This gives you access to both of the character's ultra combos rather than just choosing one, but the damage is reduced by either 60% or 75% depending on the character.

In addition to all of the changes in the mechanics, a few other features outside of that have also been implemented. You can now upload your replays to Youtube if you wish. USFIV brings in an online training mode, allowing you to train with friends online. A 3v3 team battle mode allows people to play in a tournament-style team setting online. You can also use arcade request while in the training room, giving you time to practice in between rounds. All of these changes certainly are welcome and help the game to catch up to others that have expanded upon the fighting game experience in recent years. But the one change that is needed and not present is an update to the netcode. The game can still be quite unstable and you can still join a lobby only to be told that you were unable to join. Color bars in place of ping can be unreliable and input delay is still present. With newer games such as Killer Instinct and Iron Galaxy's effort in porting 3rd Strike, for instance, the bar for online fighting has been raised and there are no efforts for USFIV to meet those standards on the console side. It's probably the one change lots of players wanted most, but won't get.

If you're a fan of the series, there certainly is a good amount to like. The additional modes are smart and help to flesh out the overall package to make it a more complete game. The characters are a bit disappointing, taking a quicker way out to get more characters into the game than perhaps spending more quality time on fewer characters. Plus the netcode staying the same also is a bit of a bummer. It certainly is a case of diminishing returns, but at least Ultra Street Fighter IV makes a pretty good last effort to send off the series.