Street Fighter 4: Is It Too Hard For Beginners?

Commentary by Norman Canseco
February 14, 2009

Screenshot from Street Fighter 4 . Courtesy of Capcom.

Street Fighter 4 revives and renews the arcade rivalries of yesteryear .  Redesigned with eight new characters as well as all the old favorites  from the original, SF4 brings the traditional franchise to new heights.  The all new Focus system allows the ability to break up assaults with counter attacks and plan more dangerous combos.

Some comments of the game were based on the new system being too complicated for novices to execute. For many players this is nothing new.  With the many versions of Street Fighter, fans have been introduced to new styles and techniques. Street fighter 2Hyper fighting introduced the super move which was the addition of a longer command sequence to execute a more powerful attack also the Custom combo meter which when activated gave players a small amount of time to string any moves they had together with no delays.

Street Fighter Alpha1-3 introduced a more complex combo system, the choice of super meters(super, custom combo, alpha)as well as the ALPHA counter which players would execute a command at the moment of impact to negate or Counter moves.  Street Fighter 3 introduced the PARRY system and which attacks could be absorbed by tapping forward on the joytick at the moment of impact . The EXmoves were also added to enhance Normal special moves and make them more powerful. Players adapted to and utilized these techniques throughout the years and new players had to learn these techniques to keep up with everyone.

The Focus system is yet another techniques which players have to adapt to.  I believe the real problem novice players are having is the fact that they are being grouped up with the rest of the fighting community and not standing much of a chance.  What they neglect to understand is that this is a franchise that is 20 years old and many players have been playing each version religiously.  It’s almost like entering the Olympics and wondering why the professional athletes are so much better than you.  PRACTICE AND DEDICATION.

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