Would you believe a 4th IV? (Street Fighter)

[Rex Dart]

What's scary to me is that, just like in the early 90s, Street Fighter ate up the sales of other games and Capcom milked it for all it's worth. Then, as soon as the series was no longer profitable because players were burned out, Capcom abandoned the genre, almost killing it. In the decade Capcom was away, SNKP gave us some good games and Guilty Gear rose up to fill the gap. The fighting game community is so Capcom-centric now that, if history is repeated, we'll see a huge crash.

I think Capcom gets criticized too much for "milking" its franchises. Successful games are always going to get sequels, and companies are always looking to release successful games.

While releasing five versions of SF2 looks like lazy exploitation to some, I'm going to be charitable to Capcom and suggest they did this out of consideration for their fans. Releasing a new "Street Fighter 2" instead of just a new Street Fighter let players know that this was a similar game, with a similar engine, that they would still be able to win at. It encouraged and eased the transition. (And you could you imagine how confusing it would be if they had numbered every new version of SF? SFIV would be SFXII. Yikes.)

Honestly, SNK could have learned something from this back in the 90s. It seemed they'd developed a habit of releasing a great game that develops a big scene around it (Fatal Fury Special, Samurai Shodown 2, KOF 98) and then releasing a follow-up with a radically different system and roster. Inevitably, the players are split and their popularity falls again. Don't get me wrong. I really admire how creative the old SNK was, and how they were willing to take risks with their series. But it did come at a price.

This was a random tangent. Sorry.

[sibarraz]

That's true actually, SNK did something weird, with this method they created some really hardcore and loyal fans, but at the same time maybe alienated some not that loyal to the company.

[nilcam]

@Rex Dart: Sadly, even back in the 90s, I saw the stream of SFII as "milking." As soon as one iteration hit the home consoles, a new arcade title came out. I remember so many people asking when SFIII would be released. It was hard not to notice that because I worked in retail and spent a lot of time in arcades.

I agree with what you say about 90s SNK completely. Creatively they were brilliant; from a business perspective, not so much.

[jinxhand]

The only street fighter that didn't really have as many versions was the EX series, and they screwed up on EX3 imo. EX2 was pretty solid. --Oh wait, they had EX, EX +alpha, EX2, and EX2 +alpha, my bad. The Zero series had SFZ1, 2, Gold, 3, and then Upper and another version of Upper. I believe there's another rendition of SFZ I'm missing somewhere.

Is there any SF (or Capcom) fighting game series that didn't have less than 3 versions to it??? They did the same with Vampire Savior I believe.

I probably wouldn't mind something like this if it were stretched the hell out, as in give it a good timeline, but somehow I think I would end up not buying it though. I feel like the whole Evil Ryu thing was gonna happen eventually. Oni on the other hand, well was unexpected sorta (maybe its just another "Shin Akuma" I guess). They're catering to 3S characters, and barely have any characters from the Zero series except a few.

What kills me though, is that Capcom is reselling their game over and over, albeit a low price each time, but Blazblue is only selling colors and characters for an even lower price, and cats were complaining like crazy. I mean at the end of the day, with SFIV, its at least $60+$40+$15 bucks if you bought each version. That's not even counting those extra outfits.

Capcom changes their minds too much. They're saying "No SFIV Turbo", but then another version is slated for a release. But then again, there is no "turbo" in the title. Even still, the speed seems to be faster, and I know others who felt the same way, so in a sense it is "SFIV Turbo"...

[solidshark]

The only street fighter that didn't really have as many versions was the EX series, and they screwed up on EX3 imo. EX2 was pretty solid. --Oh wait, they had EX, EX +alpha, EX2, and EX2 +alpha, my bad. The Zero series had SFZ1, 2, Gold, 3, and then Upper and another version of Upper. I believe there's another rendition of SFZ I'm missing somewhere.

Don't forget about SFIII: New Generation, 2nd Impact/Giant Attack, and Third Strike.

[MUSOLINI]

can you say:






















MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHH


LOL. at this point if your still buying anything sf4 related than.................., yeah i said it.

with all the things wrong in sf4 i cant believe people still buy this shit, its still the same fucking game, lol. i might actually get a new sf if a new sf came out. fuck this super turtle fighter 4 bitchmade edition bs. capcom can eat a dick for all i care.

nillcam is one of the few that actually sees crapcom for the bicthasses they are. i know its about making money, but giving something back to the people who buy your crap might not be a bad idea. crapcom has turned from my favorite company back in 91/92 to a company i could care less about. i actually cant even fucking stand crappy com nowadays. they even get money from people buying clothes for their sf characters? wtf. people buy the most useless things that should have been free in the first place. nowadays people rather bend over than not. imo.

@rex, it is lazy. instead of actually adding new gameplay elements and making something new and improved, they just tuned the shit.

in snk's case, sometimes the games following the succes up are not as good as the ones before it, but i give respect for them trying something new. if i wanna play sf2, ill playe sf2, no need to play sf2super hd bend over edition.

[Running Wild]

Really? Are people still calling SF4 another SF2?

lololol

[marchefelix]

Really? Are people still calling SF4 another SF2?

lololol

Really? There are people who think that's false?

lololol

[Running Wild]

I think of it more like an Alpha game, containing all of the classic characters from various earlier SF games, plus new comers. SF4 has more in common with SF3 with the two button throws/throw techs, EX moves, target combo's, Super Cancels, while working more SF2's emphasis on defensive play, footsies, pokes, linking, while still maintaining an offensive based gameplay like the Alpha and SF3 games. Especially in AE, which buffed up alot of the more offensive oriented characters like Makoto and such.

[Zabel]

The only street fighter that didn't really have as many versions was the EX series, and they screwed up on EX3 imo.

Off-topic but what do you feel was screwed up on EX3?

[Lygophilia]

I would like to try Tekken vs Street Fighter when it's released, because I expect a refreshing command list from Street Fighter characters. I've thought about revisting Street Fighter, but I've changed my mind. I felt that the series' interest has been been lost for it's game play system. I'm have not much of an interest for Tekken anymore, but I will make an exception for this project.

[sibarraz]

Saying that SF IV is the same than II will be like saying than KOF XIII is the same then 2002 and than Blazblue is the same than Guilty Gear

If people still buy SF IV is because maybe they like the game? If the game is so popular I don't believe that everybody are a bunch of idiots who couldn't appreciate a good fighting game, in the end of the day, is personal preference, I had no problems with IV, and from time I had started to like it more

[MUSOLINI]

I agree with what you say about 90s SNK completely. Creatively they were brilliant; from a business perspective, not so much.

thats pretty much been snk's problem since the start, killing of their best franchises with piece of sdhit games (wtf they did the the SS series is unforgivable, ill never forgive them till they make a 2d hd ss game).

[solidshark]

I think most people think of IV like II because of the "how many of the same game are we going to see?" epidemic. Of course every iteration of II had differences making them discernable, but probably a good number of people are looking more for innovation. I didn't do that so much for the Alpha/Zero or III series, probably because I was happy to see they weren't working on II anymore, at least then, not to mention how much I liked those games. As much as I've railed on 4, it's still a good game in it's own sense; didn't go where I thought the game preceeding SFIII should go, but built up the genre again. Yet beyond Super (10 characters, extra Ultra for everyone), how much more interesting can this game get with a 4th entry?

[jinxhand]

I think most people think of IV like II because of the "how many of the same game are we going to see?" epidemic. Of course every iteration of II had differences making them discernable, but probably a good number of people are looking more for innovation. I didn't do that so much for the Alpha/Zero or III series, probably because I was happy to see they weren't working on II anymore, at least then, not to mention how much I liked those games. As much as I've railed on 4, it's still a good game in it's own sense; didn't go where I thought the game preceeding SFIII should go, but built up the genre again. Yet beyond Super (10 characters, extra Ultra for everyone), how much more interesting can this game get with a 4th entry?

Exactly!!! I'm old school like most of you cats on here, but at the end of the day we gotta realize that we're in the "age of patches/DLC", so technically there shouldn't be a need for Capcom to regurgitate another SFIV for a price tag (although cheaper), when all they're doing is making a few changes here and there. Blazblue practically revamped their game with CS2, and that was free (the 3 new characters [cheap pricetag] + extra colors weren't though, which is kinda understandable when you think of all the stuff they did to the game, but nevertheless still debatable imo)... Capcom milked the dlc costumes for the characters as well. I think of other games like VF5, and Tekken 6 even, where you can customize your character to the fullest extent and in detail without the need for cashing out for more items (VF5 did have 3 dlc packs you could purchase, but they weren't needed at all). On XBL you can even download the Tekken 6 items that were given to those who reserved the game for free even if you didn't reserve the game... Why should we have to fork out a bunch of dough for these things, when imo the quality of the game doesn't even match the price tag???

I'm pretty sure if Capcom made SFIV under a different moniker with everything in the game not relating to SF, it wouldn't have sold like it did, and people wouldn't be playing it as much as they are, simple as that... Prime example, 3S; barely anybody played those games, unless you were a hardcore fighter, and didn't care that Blanka, Guile or your favorite World Warrior were not in the game. It wasn't until B5 -err EVO that 3S really got the buzz, and a bunch of people could actually see how the game should be played, and it "sparked" an interest in the states again... Other than that, NG or 2I didn't get any love, nor did 3S for awhile.

The only street fighter that didn't really have as many versions was the EX series, and they screwed up on EX3 imo.

Off-topic but what do you feel was screwed up on EX3?

EX2 had a great system that allowed for good combos, plus it added to the depth of rushing down, since SF is primarily built on footsies and for some characters tick throwing. You could use Excel Combos to save yourself from certain situations, as well as add fuel to your mixup and rushdown game. In EX3 they took that out. On top of that, they dumbed the system down by making it tag based, which was "the thing" at the time. The only good thing they had going for them in EX3 was the fact that they had some returning characters from EX, except for Allen Snyder and Blair I believe, who were both good characters. They still kept the ability to combo certain specials together (it still required just frame timing as well). I just wished they kept true to EX2's system, while making it at least more indepth without the unecessary tag system. The only thing that made the tag system any fun was the fact that you could attack with your KO'ed partner by using low attacks to push them forward towards the opponent, plus you could use the stored meter that they left behind. You were still limited as to what you could do with your partner in tag mode, and only certain characters truly benefitted from tag mode. Overall, EX3 seemed gutted out, and instead of being filled with something better, it was filled with something way less, like those bag of Doritos that only have 25% broken chips and 75% air.

Capcom needs to let SF go and work on other projects, or at least beef up and release classics on xbla/psn... I'd rather play JJBA, VS2, or even Warzard over SF right now. It would be nice to see Capcom All Stars get finished...