I would be remiss in my writing to simply lash out against the Street Fighter IV series if I didn't write up my thoughts on the game that I feel is the best in the Street Fighter franchise to give people a perspective on what I think makes a great fighting game. And it should be kinda obvious which game that is just by the title. Yes, I am one of "those guys" who believes that when it comes to Street Fighter, it doesn't get any better than 3rd Strike. But rather than just say repeatedly that it's the best game, I figure I give a more in-depth perspective on what I really like about the game, and just talk about how the game works on a higher level in general.

The one thing that sticks out in everyone's mind when it comes to 3rd Strike is the parry mechanic. Likely most people have seen Evo moment #37 at this point and see that you could parry your way out of an entire super and take no damage at all. You gotta admit it's pretty cool to do that, but the parry is more than that. The parry represents an idea that 3rd Strike revolves around, and that is being able to take away any and all of your opponent's options at any given time. This is what truly differentiates this game from the rest of the franchise. All fighting games do embrace this idea to an extent, but not every game goes as far as giving you a way to deal with every single thing in the game. That's simply because the mechanics of the game will either allow you to or not. With parrying, you have a backup option to use at any given moment if your character doesn't have another way to counter an attack.

3rd Strike forces you to never fall into a pattern because at the very least you could get parried for it. You could be Ryu, for instance, and try to poke your opponent using a crouching medium kick cancelled into fireball. It's a pretty good tool to use at range to keep your opponent at bay. However, if you do it enough and your opponent is good they will red parry the fireball, leaving you open for a big punish. This cements the idea that nothing is ever truly safe in the game, and that you really need to be aware of your own actions at all times. 3rd Strike requires more creativity in that sense, and it goes rather deep. Not many fighting games will ever allow something as trivial as a jab be a potential opening for disaster, but this game does. The game has garnered scrutiny by some because of this, but I think it's a rather thrilling feeling to always be on your toes in the middle of a fight.

The game also mixes in a really strong high/low/throw mixup into the fold, as every character has at least one overhead in the form of the universal overhead. Granted these don't do much damage and may not leave you with much advantage, it still is something that needs to be respected and forces your opponent to make a decision on wakeup. Some characters can also utilize it at the right distance to link to a super. Once you add in baits for reversals and parries along with meaty attacks, you can see that there are a lot of options to choose from. A good offense requires you to make the right choices, forcing your opponent to make the choices you want them to. But as I stated earlier, everything carries an inherent risk. You could easily eat a reversal, get parried, or buffer a parry at the wrong time and give your opponent a chance to retaliate as a result of the small gap in your offense.

I could go on and on to really dive deep into the game, but I think that for the most part I've gotten the main ideas across that I wanted to. Perhaps something more in-depth and specific could come later on as a blog series. But what I hoped I demonstrated is how open-ended fights in this game can be because of the fact that there are a good number of options at any given time for both players. In some ways, 3rd Strike plays a bit more like a 3D fighter, mostly Tekken. This is because opening someone up and maintaining offense is a rather risky thing. But when it all comes together and you pull off a really good round, it surely does make you feel like you're on top of the world. I do like other games as well, but 3rd Strike will always have a special place with me.

With the release of Ultra Street Fighter IV, I think it's about time that I finally give my opinion on the series that has become quite popular among those who play fighting games today. If you do play fighting games, you will most likely encounter people who absolutely love the game and will tell you how great it is. But is it really worth all of the hype in the end? Actually, it isn't. To be completely honest, I feel that the Street Fighter IV series is total crap for anyone who loves fighting games and that you are much better off never touching the game at all. I have a bunch of reasons for this.

The game is so damn slow. Characters move at a snail's pace on the stage, and combos take an eternity to end. The combos aren't even that long in terms of moves either. It's just that all moves come out so slowly so by default combos are also rather slow. In almost all fighting games before it, an element of speed was present, forcing you to make your decisions quickly and requiring quick reflexes. In SFIV, you don't need any of that. You can see things coming a mile away, go grab a drink, and then come back and still react in time.

The roster of the game is way too big. It's great fan service to have so many characters spanning so many games into an all-star mix of 44, but in the end it doesn't do the game much good. Every Street Fighter series had different mechanics and the characters from those games were built specifically to take advantage of those. Taking them away from that and shoving them into SFIV in a good number of cases has ruined the character, or just made them feel like an empty shell of what they once were.

By far my biggest gripe with the game is just how offense works in it. Or rather, there is a lack of actual offense and more of just pointless jabbing at each other in hopes of getting a counter hit. So the way that the game goes is quite simple. You use jabs to set up a few different things, all of which are low risk/low or medium reward. You either use a slower move in order to score a counter hit off of frame advantage, you use their tendency to block against them by throwing them, or you just let them throw out a reversal and punish. There isn't really much more to that. The worst part about it all is that on offense, you don't have much risk to take in any of this at all. A lot of it is safe in the fact that jabs and other light attacks are really safe on block, giving you enough frame advantage to do just about whatever after, and the only real way to get out on defense is to throw out a reversal. With a real lack of options on both ends, matches get really stale quickly and truly creative moments are extremely rare.

Getting in on your opponent is also quite boring as well. Basically all it comes down to is both opponents throw out moves left and right, and when one of them hits, you're in. But there isn't much complexity to it. What it mainly comes down to is some timing and prediction. If you can't get in with a normal attack, then you just use a special move to do the work for you. Or perhaps you jump just at the right time. This aspect of the game feels more of an act of attrition than a good, solid fight to see who scores the first hit because the only thing you have to counter this is either hit them or block. I have fallen in love with 3rd Strike, and one great thing about that game is how any attack is a potential opening for you to parry it and score a combo. That isn't to say it isn't the case with SFIV, but rather it's a much more limited case of whiff punishing with the occasional special to beat it out. In 3rd Strike, everyone has the option to parry, so you need to be really careful about pressing buttons no matter who you are fighting. The same gripes I have with the neutral game also apply to what you do on an opponent's knockdown, because again it is a matter of having very few options that ultimately are stacked against the one who is on defense. All you really have are throws, moves to beat crouch techs, avoid reversal, or punish backdash. It is a small amount of options that doesn't allow for smart, creative offense in comparison to other fighters out there.

When it comes to combos and dealing out damage, SFIV really lacks in that department. Basic combos consist of linking normals and finishing with a special. If you have some meter, you FADC for additional damage on the follow up. If you have to dish out lots of damage, then you need to wait until you have an ultra available to you. Most of the meter is saved for EX specials in some situations or for FADC, not to mention the amount of meter you have is rather small. It's a real shame because the moments that you do open up an opponent, it's for relatively smaller damage. Then again, because offense is rather simple in this game, you could just whittle away an opponent's health rather than take 2 or 3 good reads and win the round in a matter of seconds. That could happen in SFIV, but it is far more less likely and usually entails having plenty of meter to burn from the previous round. A lot of damage may also just come from pokes hitting their mark, with both people just taking swing after swing at each other, not really going anywhere but getting small life leads in the process.

I just feel like SFIV is far from as great as what most people say it is. Oversimplified offense that comes at a slow pace and doesn't bear much consequence due to little damage does not make a great fighting game. Having a comeback mechanic in ultras only punishes the one in the lead for all of the hard work they put in by giving the opponent the opportunity to mount a quick comeback in one combo, which is something that is not available if you're on the offensive and winning. The neutral game relies too heavily on either a normal attack hitting as a whiff punish or counter hit, or using specials to get in. In the end I find that the Street Fighter IV series has just been a total disappointment and in some ways have lowered the standards of fighting games. It was designed to be a simpler game that would appeal to the masses and it surely succeeded in doing so. The problem is, as a competitive game it leaves little to be truly desired and for better or worse will shape the future fighting games for the next several years.