Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition Review

Capcom’s even found space on the cartridge to include a handful of supplemental content. While the game’s new dynamic view is merely cosmetic- placing the perpetually sidelined camera behind your fighter’s shoulder, it is a marvelous way to show off the 3DS’s graphical potential. More interesting is the game’s StreetPass-powered stat battles, where players can build teams of Street Fighter statues to furtively brawl with a passerby. Both match victories and play coins reward gamers with in-game currency, which is used to spin a wheel, thereby winning additional figurines for the clandestine clashes. Anyone who caught the collecting bug in Super Smash Bros. Brawl will appreciate this diversion, as they capture the game’s combatants in 500 different poses. Ideally, there’s a developer expanding the concept- fostering large-scale, impromptu street fights which erupt as we go about our daily duties.

Utilizing four face buttons and a pair of shoulder triggers, SSF IV 3D‘s control scheme should be familiar to players without a dedicated fighting stick. Although both the analog nub and direction pad allow players to launch sonic booms and hadoukens with intermittent success, neither feels idyllic. I ended up switching between the two, performing circular movements on the analog stick and charges on the d-pad. To remedy the situation, Capcom has divided the touchscreen into four squares, optionally allowing players to assign their favorite advanced strikes to each quadrant. Using this control method (dubbed the ‘lite’ mode) infallibly felt deceitful, as players can bypass the interval required for charge attacks, and throw a ceaseless succession of rapid flash kicks at opponents. Fortunately, Pro mode limits the lower-screen assignments to triple button presses, thereby preserving Super Street Fighter‘s extensively cultivated balance. 
 

Unexpectedly, SSF IV 3D delivers one of the most visually striking demonstrations of 3D gameplay on Nintendo’s hardware. While fighters can appear diminutive on the 3DS’s restricted screen real estate, in action competitors resembles tiny action figures come to life. When coupled with some of the game’s skillfully rendered backdrops, individual pixels become difficult to distinguish, making the game resemble a holograph projected a half inch inside the top display. Sadly, the game’s victory cinema’s haven’t been retrofitted for three dimensional viewing. As such, winning the title’s tournament can be a bit anticlimactic. One of the chronic troubles I had with the PS3 version of Super Street Fighter IV was being able to join a competition; with the 3DS, wi-fi matchmaking was mercifully effortless and speedy.

Often playing a fighter on a handheld system involves making a few sacrifices for portability’s sake. Adeptly, Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition minimizes the number of player concessions, delivering an amazingly accurate version of the popular game that occasionally bests the home console version. Come launch day, this title maybe be as unstoppable as a world-class Edmond Honda player.