Now Playing: Super Street Fighter IV AE

I’ve not played a Street Fighter game since Street Fighter 2 on the Mega Drive. I sunk countless hours into that title, but I never played another dedicated SF game again until I picked this up in the recent Steam sale.

I’ve never been a massive fighting game fan. SF2 was the first I really got hooked on. I later quite enjoyed Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn, Marvel vs Capcom 2 on the Dreamcast (probably my personal favourite), and Soulcalibur 2 on the GameCube. There were others, but those are the few that stand out in my mind.

So what about SSFIV:AE? Well, it’s actually pretty darn good. It looks fantastic. It’s vibrant and sharp, and a real joy to play. Despite not touching a Street Fighter title for years, it’s amazing how familiar it feels to play.

I’ve only sunk a few hours into it so far, but I can see this as a title I’ll be playing regularly for the foreseeable future. I’m pretty rubbish at it right now, I admit. It took me a while to find a comfortable pad configuration (and I’m still not 100% happy with it) but I’m learning. I’m going to focus on one or two characters at a time and slowly work my way up through the difficulty settings.

It’s tougher than I thought it would be, even on the lower levels. It’s a game that requires a little patience and dedication to improve at. I’m looking forward to sinking more hours in and seeing just how far I can go.

8/10