Customer Reviews

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

[Update: July 30th, 2011- it's just been announced that a balance patch is coming out later this year. I put the link in the customer discussions section toward the bottom of this page. Provided that changes go in the right direction with all characters, not just Yun and Yang, I'll gladly come back and change my score for this game.]

Here we are again- version number 3 of Street Fighter 4. Granted, we all saw this coming, and by this point, the only people interested in the game are either going to be the hardcore players or people new to the game. If you follow the likes of Mike Ross, Justin Wong, Mago and Momochi, you probably already have this game and have been reading about the chances made from Super months ago. For those not in the loop, Super Street Fighter 4 brings a couple of new features to the original SSF4 game:

-Yun, Yang, Oni and Evil Ryu are playable characters (and yet there are 2 more open slots on the character select screen!)
-many different online features were added to make things easier to follow and watch
-an ungodly amount of balance changes

Do a quick search for 'ssf4 ae balance changes' and click on the first thing that shows up, and you'll see a huge list of changes made to character moves, damage, hit boxes and more. Sadly, the balance changes were poorly done, and some characters that were already very good (Fei Long) were made even better. Some characters that barely had a chance (El Fuerte and Gouken) were pretty much made worse or the changes they desperately needed weren't given to them. But even worse, Yun and Yang really are as bad as everyone's saying. Yun was a god in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, and he looks to be the same here. I'd never played him before tonight, but as soon as I activated his Super move, I pulled off a quick 9 hit combo just by randomly pressing a few buttons. Sad. And that palm attack of his? Good god is the hitbox on that thing insane- going through Ultras even after they connect and even working as an anti-air. Yang's really good too, but Oni and Evil Ryu are characters nearly every SF fan could've done without. Not Elena, Hugo or Oro? Not R. Mika or Rolento? We really needed these alternate version characters here? And get this- these 4 new characters don't even have Trials for you to get the hang of their basic combos, so you'll be needing to hit Training Mode a lot if you want to get them down. What gets me is how more characters is supposed to be a good thing in some people's minds. The last installments of SF2 and SF3 didn't have anywhere near as many characters as SSF4:AE, but they're still played by many today, and with many eagerly awaiting Third Strike Online's release in August. The new online features are very nice, and I don't get why it took them so long to get it right, but hey, better late than never I guess.

There's not a lot I can say about AE- you were either looking forward to this or you weren't. If you're the kind of person that's serious about fighting games, you'll pick it up no matter what. If you're new, I recommend going with the regular Super Street Fighter 4, and if you really get into it, just buy the DLC of AE. It's great that this isn't a full price new release game, but it's hard to justify buying it when the balance is so bad and that they didn't add many features. How about a decent story mode?

Edit: I can't believe I forgot to mention this. Arcade Edition might NOT be the last iteration of SF4. Seth Killian, the Community Manager at Capcom, has mentioned in a recent interview that the team behind SF4 is still interested in keeping things going if AE goes well. While it's lame of them to say that so soon, hey- maybe Yun and Yang will be toned down by then.

Well, the only good things I found about this "upgrade" are:

1. 4 New Characters included.
2. You can switch to regular SSF4 anytime.
3. Improved online channels.

Now the bad:

1. Out of the 4 new characters, 2 are shotokans type, more of the same.
2. No new stages, I really think Capcom should have probably include some new nice looking statges in this upgrade for instance.
3. No trial mode for AE version, when you try to do the trials the game says that it will switch temporarily to the regular SSF4 version, so that means that we won't be able to get 100% out of the new characters in the cast while in practice.
4. Battle and player points are not the same for regular SSF4 and SSF4 AE.

Super Street Fighter IV AE is nothing more than Super street fighter 4 (which is already a great game!) with the 4 new characters, some updated online stuff and some 'balancing' at 34 bucks for it.

Its unreasonable to sell it as a different game. For some of us who already own SSFIV there is of course the 15 dollar upgrade but this game feels more like a 5-9 dollar upgrade to me. Ohh btw this does not come with the new characters costume pack or anything like that, you will still need to purchase that apart.

In conclusion it's a great game but again it's not justifiable to sell it as a different one.
Unless let's say that we never had a super street fighter 4. Let's say that we had something like a super street fighter 4 demo or something like that, in that case this would've been a great release of super street fighter 4, with the option to unlock the new characters.

It's definitively not good to have both SSF4 and SSF4AE selling at the same time (it creates confusion).

Typically, updated versions of a game are supposed to have imbalances addressed and/or significant content added to justify shelling out more money. When Super Street Fighter IV was released it was absolutely worth it. The game was more balanced (not completely but got closer) and there was a ton of new content and characters added. Arcade Edition went the exact opposite direction. The characters are completely imbalanced and apparently this was done on purpose even though this was not what the fans were asking for. Also there are only 4 characters added to the mix.

If you like keeping up with the Street Fighter scene then I suppose you need to get this update. I personally think we should skip it all together just to let Capcom know this is unacceptable. If you didn't pick up Super Street Fighter IV last time I'd still recommend to go for that instead and buy the Arcade Edition DLC once they decide to fix the balance issues (if ever).

Capcom has done two things recently that make me want to reconsider before buying any of their products in the future. The first one being Resident Evil 3D Mercenaries where we could only have one save and now we have an update, to Street Fighter, not many were looking forward to.

In life, there are three things that are certain: death, taxes, and Capcom's inability to count up. Arcade Edition (AE) is the third go Capcom has had with Street Fighter 4 and unlike the previous version, Super Street Fighter 4 (Super), AE takes SF4 backwards in game balance and ultimately seems to be a misguided attempt to cash in on SF4's success.

In terms of added characters, AE pales in comparison to Super. When Super was introduced, it added 10 new characters to the SF4 roster while AE only adds 4 new characters to Super's roster. While most of the additions Super brought in character-wise were praised by the community (Ibuki, Guy, Juri) the new characters in AE just left people scratching their head. If you made a list of characters people wanted to be included in AE, I'm fairly sure Yun and Yang wouldn't be anywhere near the top. However, since AE gives you all the characters from the previous version, it still seems like a great deal...until you play against Yun. And you will play against Yun...a lot.

Like all fighting games, SF4 has had minor tweaks to make the characters more balanced. Even though total equality is nigh impossible, you don't want a handful of characters destroying the rest of the cast. Super had some standouts (Rufus, Balrog) but overall, I felt it was a decently balanced game. I expected AE edition to continue the trend and smooth out the playing field. I was wrong. While most of the characters from Super got significant nerfs, Yun and Yang are grossly overpowered. In essence, Capcom watered down most of the previous cast and placed two sharks in the tank. Are Yun and Yang unbeatable? Absolutely not, but if you're not one of the twins, you are going to have a nasty uphill fight. The balancing issues in AE are boggling.

PROS

+ 4 New characters
+ Neat replay modes and search engines
+ Cheap price

CONS

- The 4 new characters are awful. Two more shotokans and Yun and Yang?
- Horrible balance issues
- Another version of SF4

Conclusion: If you love Street Fighter, you're going to buy this. If you've never bought SF4, this is the version you should get. However, I'm disappointed that Capcom was unable to build upon the solid Super Street Fighter 4 version. This doesn't feel like a step forward, it feels like a step to the side and then a step back. Pity.

As a fan of Street Fighter II when I was 14 (in 1993), I was really excited to get this in the mail. I recently came back to console gaming when I bought my PS3 about a month ago, and I'm having a blast getting back into these fighting games.

Whether this is just a minimal upgrade from the last iteration of SSFIV or not is meaningless to me since this is the first time I'm experiencing SFIV at all, so I'm having quite a good time with it, even if I suck (seriously, I can't win an online match for anything).

The graphics are colorful, the music is upbeat and energizing. The online play has worked fairly well for me so far. I like the titles and icons that I've unlocked so far.

The combos, most noticeably the ultra/super combos, are difficult to pull off with a regular controller (not impossible, but just awkward). I only assume they'd be easier with an arcade stick. It's a minor flaw, and I'm only a casual gamer, so I don't really think I'll invest in an arcade stick anyhow.

Point is, I enjoy this game for the exact reason why I enjoyed the new MK. These new games remind me of a time when I absolutely loved playing video games. It's been a great re-introduction to console gaming for me!

Ok so basically this is just the same SSFIV, just with four new characters, Street Fighter III's Twins, Yun & Yang, Evil Ryu, & Oni, including the 10 introduced in the previous SSFIV, boosting the character count to a whopping 39 Characters. Nothing much else has changed from SSFIV at all except these character additions. The arcade edition is available as DLC on PSN for 15$, But I paid 40$ for the physical copy simply so I can take it with me to play with freinds. Overall still the best Arcade style fighting game around, SSFIV Arcade Edition should be added to everyone's collection....or simply downloaded. 5/5.

This latest version has the chars unlocked and does have some updated balance changes. If you like SF series you'll want it. A great game for the new players as well. Not much else to add that others haven't said.

I love this game. Being a street fighter fan from the time of SNES, I always look forward to the next drop. My one issue is that I think Capcom released this version too soon after SSF4 (which was also released not too long after SF4). Anyway...can't wait til March for Street Fighter X Tekken.

Oh and one more thing............ONI is the TRUTH!!!

It's a good street fighter game. Use to love this game when I was a kid bought it for my 8 year old son to introduce him to street fighter