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Our intern says that "Street Fighter IV" complainers need to toughen up.
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By Sal Basile
It's been two weeks since "Street Fighter" fans received their holy grail of fighting games. Even with my batch of new, unfinished games, I find myself hopping back onto "Street Fighter IV" to get my daily dose of hadouken. But for every veteran claiming that this is what they've been waiting for from the "Street Fighter" series, there is a series newcomer asking how anyone could ever like this game.
Across a wide variety of message boards, from IGN.com to gameFAQs.com, there is discussion concerning the game's final boss, Seth. Some posts read along the lines of "playing on easiest difficulty and still can't beat Seth" while others claim he's the "easiest boss ever." How can two completely opposite statements be said about the same game?
People need to get used to practicing again, rather than having a magical princess throw them back on land every time they fall off a cliff.
Game designer David Sirlin, who worked on "Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix," enlightens us via his blog. He writes, "When I read about the 100/100 scores, I see again and again how 'simple and elegant' the game is… Even more though, I hear how 'casual-friendly' it is. This is deeply mysterious, and I'm not sure why this so often claimed. Not every game has to be casual-friendly, so it would seem more honest to just explain how casual-unfriendly all these things are." Sirlin goes on to say that online play is just two players doing the same motions waiting for the other to mess up.
I agree with Sirlin. Online play becomes a dance of both characters constantly repeating quarter-circle-forward twice, then waiting for the right moment to add the triple-punch at the end to land an Ultra Combo. However, I can also honestly say I played through the easiest difficulty with one round matches to unlock characters and had no problem beating every opponent by spamming leg sweeps.
I think the problem is that players are getting too used to being forgiven for mistakes. With titles such as "Prince of Persia," where you can't even die -- ever -- and "BioShock," where respawning at a vita-chamber had no negative repercussions whatsoever, gamers are able to enjoy difficult games at their leisure. With "Street Fighter IV," there is no forgiveness. If you keep missing a move, you're going to get hit. If you keep getting hit, you're going to lose.
Sirlin gets technical with "Street Fighter IV," calling it out on how easy combo-linking is and how great players can do combos that take away 50 percent health with little effort. But I don't think this is the problem most of the players on the message boards -- the ones complaining they can't beat the final boss on the easiest difficulty -- are worried about. I play ranked matches often, and I have yet to see this broken Sakura-50-percent-combo.
I also agree with Sirlin when he says there should be a double-blind character selection in ranked play. I am guilty of not moving my joystick until my opponent chooses a character so I can assess the situation. Be aware that this is what serious players do, and I admit to it. With a double-blind character selection, there would be a greater variety in match-ups and it would make the online play a lot more fun.
Sirlin makes good points, and he is qualified to be critical. But I wouldn't say the game is "casual-unfriendly." I thought that "Ninja Gaiden" -- the game that probably resulted in millions of thrown Xbox controllers -- was casual-unfriendly. But just because a game isn't casual-friendly doesn't mean it's unfriendly. Just because you have to retry a level a few times before you nail it doesn't mean it's destined to be a hardcore-only game.
The special move motions of "Street Fighter IV" are the bread and butter of the series, so I would not say demanding a player to perform one of its complicated movements to do a move is wrong. It is what people loved about the first "Street Fighter."
People need to get used to practicing again, rather than having a magical princess throw them back on land every time they fall off a cliff.
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