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SFV September update out now

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The SFV September update became available to buy and download around the 22nd September. More than just another character for the game’s roster, this update also included the regular challenges – dubbed as “Missions” – that had been promised for so long. Fans of the game were wondering if they would ever see the challenges, regularly voicing their concern in the comments sections of Capcom Unity* blog updates. With the SFV September update, the game has pretty much all of the content that was originally promised in that original image of the DLC schedule – six extra characters, character trials, better lobbies, the DLC store itself, regular challenges and the cinematic story. If the game had some of this content from the day of release, I’m sure it would have had a better critical reception, but the transformation of SFV since launch is still impressive.

SFV September update – Urien

sfv_urien1

People who download the SFV September update will be able to play as Urien, the final character teased in the initial Season 1 DLC slides. Fans of Capcom fighters might have already played as Urien in Capcom Fighting Jam or the Street Fighter III games, and his tackles, projectiles and supers made him an interesting and fun character. He was playable in part of the cinematic story for SFV but I didn’t want to go into details about him there in case changes were made for the SFV September update. Even so, his specials are as you’d expect if you played SFIII: 3rd Strike. The Chariot Tackle hits an opponent in the front and knocks them down if performed with a fierce attack; the Violence Knee Drop offers divekick-style angled attacks of various trajectories, and the headbutt move is a short forward hop into a hit.

sfv_urien2

The V-System has some moves that are new and some that are familiar. The V-Skill Metallic Aura will put armour on Urien for the next special move that propels him forward. This means that, for example, a Chariot Tackle performed with active Metallic Aura will absorb a fireball and turn the damage into recoverable life. Meanwhile, his V-Reversal seems him block an attack and swing a punch at a foe which will knock them down. It seems like a good thing to use if you’re in the corner and the opponent is applying pressure. Lastly, his V-Trigger is more familiar, as it’s the classic Aegis Reflector, allowing Urien to place barriers that move towards the opponent and damage them if touched, as well as reflecting an opponent’s projectiles.

SFV September update – Missions

sfv_challenges

The SFV September update also introduces Missions; accessed in the Challenges menu, these are activities you can do in-game that will earn you Fight Money (the in-game currency used for unlocking extra content) if completed before the deadlines. For instance, current challenges at the time of writing include playing through story mode (worth 500 FM) and using V-Skill 10 times when playing online (worth 100 FM). It’s a little disappointing that these missions are hidden away in a menu – the dynamic challenges in SFIII: 3rd Strike – Online Edition were a better incentive – but they at least keep things interesting.

Where next for Season 2?

SFV September Update

Whilst Street Fighter V seemed to be hurried to launch with missing features, and still suffers from online issues, the amount of content added through these monthly updates has at least brought it closer to the breadth of features offered by the likes of Super Street Fighter IV. The actual fighting system may still divide opinion, but the content has kept me coming back, and I’d be interested in seeing a second season. Until then, there’s a lot to see in the SFV September update.

SFV Juri now available as DLC

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Nothing says “hype” like a 2.1Gb download for a new Street Fighter V patch. You would think that if SFV Juri was scheduled for a certain date then maybe Capcom would allow the update to happen a day or so in advance, and then on the actual date you would download a 4kb unlock key or something. Not so here. Even after the patch was downloaded in the PS4 notifications screen, starting up SFV led to another download of unspecified size; the only signs of progress coming from notifications of how much % of the update had downloaded.

In any case, SFV Juri was one of the characters I was looking forward to the most. I had even instigated a personal social media blackout until I got the chance to see what SFV Juri was like. The chances are that if you’re looking forward to something being released, there will always be online friends who aren’t working and are busy enjoying themselves and telling you how great it all is. In a way I wasn’t too bothered about spoilers – SFV Juri had already been teased in the cinematic story update – but nevertheless I was keen to see if there had been any tweaks since that early playable iteration.

SFV Juri – special moves

SFV juri

In SFIV, Juri was defined by delayed projectiles, a pinwheel attack, divekicks and a teleport that triggered on hit and either nullified the attack damage (pre-update) or turned it into potential damage (post-update). Such a unique array of moves made her confusing to play at first, but making the most of her skills was very rewarding. SFV Juri isn’t as much of a radical departure as Ibuki was last month, but her old moves still need to be relearned. Those delayed projectiles are stored by performing a fireball motion with kick – depending on the strength of kick you use, you will store a different projectile attack, and then if you do the same motion with the same kick, that attack will come out. Each time you store one of the three attacks you can see a small icon that shows you which attacks are stored, but I wasn’t sure if this was visible to your opponent, so I went looking for casual matches against other Juris and found that I *could* see the opponent’s stored attacks. This means that if you’re playing against a Juri you will benefit from that layer of information, but it’s likely that most players will quickly store all three regularly.

The pinwheel move – here called “Tensenrin” – is changed as well, although it’s probably the one change that’s easiest to get used to. Rather than spinning Juri on the spot in a flail of hands and feet, different strengths of attack will now cause SFV Juri to rise further up into the air. Also, the motion for Tensenrin is a dragon-punch style motion (forward, down, down-forward), which makes sense since it is a rising attack, but it may still take some time to get used to.

SFV Juri also has a new move named “Ryodansatsu” which emulates Chun-Li’s hazanshu move – an arcing attack that ends with her bringing her foot down on an opponent. The trajectory of the attack makes it useful against projectile-using characters, as you can hop over a fireball and deliver a blow of your own. That being said, I tried setting up a Juri mirror match scenario in training mode, and the arc of the attack won’t send Juri over the head of an opponent, so its use as a corner escape seems limited at best.

SFV Juri – V-System

SFV Juri

The teleport from SFIV is back, but it is now her V-Skill, and instead of happening on hit it will move SFV Juri automatically when the medium attack buttons are pressed and released. It still retains some element of invulnerability, but it comes with a large risk factor due to the fact that the buttons can be held to charge the V-Skill. In order to delve deeper I set up a training dummy Ryu who would do nothing but throw fireballs, and then tried variations of the teleport. I found that if you tap the two medium attacks when a fireball is headed towards you, it’s likely that you’ll just slide right into it and eat the damage. However, if you’ve been holding the buttons a little longer (it takes 1.0 seconds for the full charge) your teleport will pass through the fireball. This means that Juri will give her opponent a large “tell” in order for the projectile invulnerability to work.

SFV Juri also has a V-Reversal that is pleasantly familiar to fans of the Ultra 2 seen in SFIV: “Kaisenrenkyaku” sees SFV Juri perform a low kick-style attack, and if this connects she will sail into the air in a flurry of attacks, taking the opponent with her. I believe this is a slight change from the V-Reversal we saw in the cinematic story mode, because I’m pretty sure that previously she would do the rising attack automatically. I prefer this new iteration, because it means that if the first attack is blocked you won’t automatically fly upwards and be open to a devastating counter-attack. The V-Trigger is more familiar but no less useful – it’s her Feng Shui Engine from SFIV, allowing for more attacks to be chained together for a brief period of time. Finally, her critical art is a tall projectile that knocks down the opponent, although there’s no cinematic when the attack connects.

SFV Juri – familiar yet different

SFV Juri

SFV Juri is easily my favourite of the five DLC characters seen so far, although it’s a bit early to say whether or not I will be retiring Rashid just yet. Everything seems familiar enough to avoid confusing old fans, but different enough to keep her feeling new and relevant. Of course, the whole reason I retired my Juri in SFIV was because of certain character changes in the Ultra update – there’s every chance that SFV Juri could end up “worse” in the future due to rebalancing, but for now she’s a welcome addition to the roster.

SFV May-July Update available now

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The SFV May-July update appeared in download queues of PS4 owners around Friday 1st July. It’s not exactly the kind of thing you want to have to write, especially after the release of Guile went so smoothly, but (as you can guess) the SFV May-July update shouldn’t have had to happen anyway. The original plan was for Capcom to release a new playable SFV character – or some gameplay additions or balance tweaks – each month. Alex would arrive in March, Guile would arrive in April, Ibuki would arrive in May, the cinematic story update would arrive in June and Balrog would arrive in July. However, Alex and Guile just squeaked into the end of each month, and the SFV May-July update has emerged after a long wait whilst Capcom tried to finish tweaking the cinematic story mode and returning character Ibuki. Anyone who bought SFV on launch and is familiar with the waiting and polishing won’t have been too surprised, but for a while it was anyone’s guess as to when this content would ever be revealed. Some hope was restored when PS4’s notifications sprung into life and began downloading one 8Gb patch on June 30th – and then another 8Gb patch the next day – and once these updates were completed, the SFV May-July update was ready to enjoy.

SFV May-July update – Ibuki

SFV May-July update

The SFV May-July update was particularly exciting for me because of the release of Ibuki. A kunoichi character who first appeared in the Street Fighter III series, Ibuki was my favourite character to play as in SFIII: Third Strike, and one of my most played characters in the Street Fighter IV games. She had always been a character with lots of mobility, great sliding neckbreaker moves with throw properties, command dashes that could pass through opponents, plenty of kunai projectiles to throw and more besides. In SFV’s May-July update, Ibuki is familiar in some ways and very different in others. Take the teleporting command dash; it’s still a motion (SFIV) rather than a double-tap (SFIII). However, in the last game each dash would move her forward and a dash performed with HK would allow her to dash through an opponent. Here, a dash with LK moves her toward an opponent, a dash with MK moves her through an opponent, and a dash with HK goes up and forwards. Another change from SFIV comes from the magic series target combos; in the previous games you could perform a string of light, medium, then heavy punches or kicks for an easy combo; here, only the punch variant seems as achievable as before.

Even so, some of Ibuki’s other moves are somewhat familiar; the command grab and kazegiri special move both work as before, for example. That said, Ibuki has some brand new toys to play with too – a V-Skill that knocks down opponents in a blast of energy, a V-Reversal that sees her transition from a teleport into a blow that knocks down opponents, and the bombs seen in the trailer. These bombs are Ibuki’s V-Trigger ability, and depending on the direction held when pushing the two heavy attacks, you can change the length of the fuse to provide an immediate hazard or a delayed threat. Ibuki in SFV is much more of a departure than IV’s iteration was, but fans will still have a lot of fun with her.

SFV May-July update – Balrog

SFV May-July update

The SFV May-July update also managed to provide a generous amount of humiliation during training mode – let’s just say that Balrog isn’t quite what I expected. The character also known as “Boxer” (due to the confusion that arises from the various name changes in different versions of Street Fighter) has familiar special moves and unusual V-System abilities that took a little while for me to get used to. First, the familiar: you can still charge punches that either come out straight (charge back, push forward and punch) or low (charge back, push forward and kick), and he still has his traditional turn punch. There’s also an upwards punch that you can perform by charging down and then pushing up and a kick. None of this seems particularly outlandish for anyone familiar with Balrog in previous games, but then his KKB V-Skill introduces a new set of attacks. Pressing and releasing both medium attacks sees Balrog perform a nimble dodge that is projectile invincible, and holding and releasing the attacks results in an attack followed by a dodge. However, you can also press and release both medium attacks during a special move for a variation of that move. For example, if you charge back and push forward and MP Balrog will charge towards the opponent with his fist extended. Then, if you try again but hit both medium attacks before the end of the move (where ripples of air are around his fist), you can change the ender into the KKB move that you would normally get from holding and releasing the medium attacks.

Outside of this, the V-Reversal is a strangely familiar rising headbutt, and the Critical Art is based around quarter-circle motions, which is quite a departure for Balrog. In SFIV his super and ultra combos demanded everything from Guile inputs (charge back, push forward, back, forward and attack) to 720 motions (pre-patch Dirty Bull) and half-circle motions (post-patch Dirty Bull.) Here, the critical art is as simple as a Denjin Hadoken; two quarter circles forward and any punch putton sees Balrog deliver a devastating single blow that sends the opponent flying.

SFV May-July update – Cinematic Story Mode

SFV May-July update

Aside from the new characters, the SFV May-July update introduces a new story mode that uses in-engine cinematics to tell story in-between battles, rather than the illustrated stills of the original story mode. Unlike a traditional arcade mode, the character you play as is determined by the direction of the story, and there are a lot more in-engine scenes in-between battles, so in a way it seems somewhat more ambitious than a typical arcade mode story. Sure, you may wonder who buys a Street Fighter game for the story, but I appreciate the effort that’s gone into the cutscenes and chatter – it all helps to make the game feel much more “complete” than it was on launch.

Despite the delays and lack of communication, I’m still happy with the content we’ve been getting from these continued updates to Street Fighter V, and future characters Juri and Urien have already been teased in trailers, so there’s a lot more to look forward to. Until then, I’ve got to decide whether or not I want to retire my Rashid in favour of Ibuki’s new moveset…

Save on Street Fighter T.N.C 04 Guile Figurine

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Hopefully you’ve already shared our joy at the arrival of Guile as a DLC character for Streetfighter V. If you’re a fan of the US Air Force Major who appeared as one of the original 8 characters in Streetfighter II, then you’ll be happy to know you can save on the upcoming release of the BigBoysToys Street Fighter T.N.C 04 Guile figure.

Street Fighter T.N.C. 04 Guile

Not only has Guile appeared in almost every Street Fighter game (he was hidden in the initial PlayStation release of Street Fighter Alpha), but he was also the main character of the live action Street Fighter film, played by Jean Claude Van Damme.

The pre-painted PVC and ABS figuring and base measures 230mm wide, 170mm high and 130 mm deep, including Guile’s famous flat top hairstyle, which Capcom claim has to be styled with special-order army hair spray.

Street Fighter T.N.C. 04 Guile 3

The officially-licensed figure comes in a fixed pose with no assembly required, but like the other figures in the series, it has an LED light and sound effect to demonstrate Guile’s famous Sonic Boom special move.

Street Fighter T.N.C. 04 Guile 2

As with the rest of the BigBoysToys Street Fighter Series, Guile will cost $89.99 (£61.28), and will be in stock on June 30th, 2016 at Play Asia. If you want to save $8, then use the code “BIGBOYSTOYSHK” as you checkout to get the figure for less..

The first character in the series, Ryu, is currently out of stock. But you can still get your hands on Ken and Chun-Li.

Can you still call yourself a Street Fighter fan if you’re not at least a little tempted to have something like this on your desk? The series will have 8 characters in all, so if your favourite from the original Street Fighter 2 hasn’t appeared yet, don’t panic.

Guile for SFV now available as DLC

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Guile for SFV became available in late April, and on the 29th I got the chance to take a look at his moves. I was never a great fan of the character in earlier games; I always liked to be doing things rather than sitting in the corner charging special moves, and this didn’t bode well when I was faced with opponents who used Guile. Even so, I was hopeful that Guile for SFV would have interesting tweaks and additions to his moveset – courtesy of the game’s V-System – and so once I had applied the necessary updates I tested him out in training mode.

Guile for SFV – versus Nash

Guile for SFV

One of the first things I was interested to find out was how Guile compared to Nash, as they both share similar moves and haven’t been in the same game since the Alpha series. Predictably, Guile for SFV has a Sonic Boom that looks like it behaves just like Nash’s, although as you’d expect it’s a charge input (requiring the player to hold back before pushing forward & the attack button simultaneously) whereas Nash’s is a motion input (a quarter-circle rotation). All three strengths of Sonic Boom push the opponent back a little, just like Nash’s projectile.

Guile for SFV also has his classic Flash Kick, and in matches it requires him to move forward a little when landing rather than staying in a stationery position. In a way it’s a lot like a reverse version of Nash’s Moonsault Kick – I tried recording Nash performing repeated Moonsault Kicks whilst I did Flash Kicks and the hitboxes and slight forward movement on both is interesting to compare. I imagine the fact that Guile for SFV performs his Flash Kick instantly will be useful when players want to quickly punish jump-ins, whereas Nash’s Moonsault Kick is more deceptive in that it doesn’t come out until he’s in the air, and you can dash under it if you’re close enough.

Guile for SFV – critical art and V-system

Guile for SFV

Additionally, Guile’s Critical Art – “Sonic Hurricane” – is fairly similar to the SFIV version, and is the first SFV Critical Art to require the classic super motion of charge characters – hold back, then quickly move forward, back and forward again before hitting the attack to execute the super. It’s a stationery obstacle with a wide hitbox and looks like it will be useful for catching players falling to earth or trying to close the distance.

However, Guile for SFV stands out from Nash and older iterations of Guile when his V-System abilities are put to use. The “Sonic Blade” V-Skill creates a stationery ball of energy, and if Guile throws a Sonic Boom through this ball of energy, the Sonic Boom transforms from the thin oval we’re all familiar with to a much taller projectile – a “Sonic Cross” – that does 2 hits, knocks the opponent down and is probably harder to jump over when under pressure. Since Sonic Booms are charged, however, this means that you ideally want to charge a Sonic Boom before throwing out the Sonic Blade.

If that didn’t sound novel enough, the V-Trigger “Sonic Break” transforms the projectiles available to Guile for SFV. Rather than holding back to charge Sonic Booms, Guile for SFV can activate his V-Trigger and then press both heavy attacks again to throw out a projectile instantly. Depending on whether Guile is moving forward, back or standing still when throwing the projectile, it will vary in speed, and each time a projectile is thrown, part of the already-depleting V-Gauge will lose a chunk of meter.

Guile for SFV – combo trials and summary

Guile for SFV

Before finishing these notes I had a quick look at his combo trials – they start with jumping normals into crouching normals and Flash Kicks (so you have to charge the Flash Kick immediately after jumping) and later ask you to land a crush counter hit and then charge and release a Sonic Boom whilst the opponent is still recovering, or begin a combo from a jump that ends with a Sonic Boom into the Critical Art.

I’m confident that a lot of Guile fans will be happy with this newer version of the character – his special moves and critical art are things that are comforting in their familiarity, and the V-System offers a bunch of new toys that make Guile for SFV a formidable opponent. In addition, it’s reassuring to note that the DLC is keeping to its monthly schedule, with Guile arriving in the last week of April after Alex had arrived in the last week of March. Hopefully this release schedule, combined with the quality of characters seen so far, will make Street Fighter V a game worth coming back to again and again.

Guile for SFV

Guile for SFV is available to download this month. Why not get an introduction to Guile for SFV by visiting his official character page or watching the character trailer on YouTube.

Alex for SFV now available as DLC

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Alex for SFV was someone that I was pretty keen to try out, and on March 30th I finally got a chance to try him without running into server problems or other issues. At the time of writing Street Fighter V still needs some extra work done to it before the in-game shop can open for business, but Capcom was generous enough to unlock Alex for all players for a limited time. Once the shop is available this free trial will be over and players will have to use Fight Money, Zenny, or the Season Pass to obtain characters and content, but for now I was keen to have a look at Street Fighter V’s first DLC character. To begin with I went into the training mode just to see his moves. I had played a bit of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike in the past but didn’t really use Alex that much, and the moves for the iteration of Alex for SFV are familiar enough to be appreciated by SFIII fans, but the generous input interpretation of SFV means that people who haven’t used Alex for SFIII are able to get a feel for the moveset of Alex for SFV without worrying too much about execution.

Alex for SFV – special moves

The first special move that’s introduced in the command list is the classic Flash Chop, where Alex delivers a devastating backhand blow. You can combo into it from several standing normal attacks and the opponent doesn’t get pushed back too much from it, but finding normal attacks that could maintain a combo from a Flash Chop wasn’t easy. He also has the Slash Elbow, a charge move that knocks the opponent back and – when medium or heavy kicks are used – picks them up off the ground. In addition to this, Alex has an air-grab move that starts on the ground; the Air Knee Smash sees him bring his knee up into the opponents chest before bringing them down to earth.

Alex for SFV

Alex for SFV – more moves and V-System

Alex for SFV has other moves that are also quite familiar to those who have played SFIII – the Power Bomb is a standard command grab, the Power Drop is a suplex-style throw that you can combo into from certain moves, and the Air Stampede and Head Crush are both moves where Alex jumps forward and catches an opponent with a stomp (Air Stampede) or grab (Head Crush). Meanwhile, he has a V-Skill that allows for a free Hard Hit state on his next attack (essentially applying counter-hit properties to that attack.) He also has a V-Trigger that is another “powered-up” state – it opens up other opporunities and unique moves such as his devastating Sledgehammer attack, which can either be charged for a regular attack or – if Alex is hit during the charge phase – will deliver a counter-attack.

Alex for SFV

Alex for SFV – trials

Alex for SFV is best learned in the challenge mode for the moment, and later on I went into his trials, which start with some straightforward three-hit combos but quickly goes on to showcase various juggles and combos that can be done from counter hits. Even though I didn’t play a lot of Alex in SFIII I can already tell that Alex for SFV is going to be popular with fans of the original character… and it’s easy to forget that there are plenty of people who missed the SFIII series completely, so the character may gain some new fans as well.

Alex for SFV

Alex for SFV – in summary

The concerns over the troubled release of the first content update for Street Fighter V were valid, and Capcom’s lack of communication had been somewhat worrying, but they have at last been able to deliver what was promised for March. They’ll still need to maintain this momentum in order to keep fans happy, and it’s unlikely that we’ve seen the last of the connection errors and server downtime, but for now there’s a lot more Street Fighter V for everyone to enjoy.

To see Alex for SFV in action why not visit the offical Street Fighter Youtube channel or read information on Capcom Unity

Street Fighter V March update released

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SFV_marchupdate1

On Monday I found out late in the evening that the Street Fighter V March update was available for players to download. The original plan for Street Fighter V’s DLC was that content would be released on a monthly basis and the first piece of new content would be available in “March”. If you recall our review of the base game, you’ll know that Street Fighter V launched as a solid fighting game that was missing some of the features and modes that fans of the genre have come to expect both from Street Fighter and from fighting games generally. Combo challenges and multiplayer lobbies were some of the more obvious omissions – present in Super Street Fighter IV, SFIII: Third Strike Online Edition and even Street Fighter X Tekken, but not here. Even though they aren’t essential features necessary to enjoy the core experience, the shallow offering of extra modes left Street Fighter V players thinking that the game had been rushed out to coincide with the big competitive gaming events happening around launch. Worse still, when people discovered that this content would be coming in “March” they were hoping that it might arrive at the beginning of the month, but discovering that the Street Fighter V March update wasn’t available until the last week of the month might affect the confidence fans have in Capcom’s ability to deliver content regularly and smoothly, especially after those fans had already experienced errors and issues during the betas and the first week or so of the full game being available.

Street Fighter V March update

Street Fighter V March update – Challenges

Happily, the online experience of Street Fighter V is much better today than it was originally, and the first new content in the Street Fighter V March update is definitely a step in the right direction. Not everything planned for the update is available right now – returning character Alex is visible on the character select screen but not yet playable until later, and the ingame shop is not active at the moment – but there are new features in the Challenge menu and it looks like the Battle Lounge mode has been updated as well. The Challenge menu has a Trials mode which should be familiar to SFIV fans, and also a Demonstration mode that has rolling gameplay demos of various concepts crucial to improving at SFV. As I’ve been playing Rashid more than any other character I went through his challenges first. Unlike SFIV where you are taught special move inputs, then unique attacks and finally combos, Rashid’s challenge list is nothing but combos, but the generous motion detection and my familiarity with the character made it an enjoyable experience. Another welcome change is the ability to show commands for moves in the challenge display, rather than names of moves. If you’re like me and you forget what to press in order to get EX Eagle Spike->Flap Spin->EX Spinning Mixer, you can flip this option and see the commands in the form of those traditional symbols we’re all familiar with. The Demonstrations are also worth a mention; whilst I originally criticised the game’s tutorial for omitting certain crucial gameplay concepts, the demonstrations in the Street Fighter V March update are more in-depth, covering everything from counters and chip to cross-ups and anti-airs.

SFV_marchupdate2

Street Fighter V March update – Lounges

I didn’t get a lot of time to play with the updated Battle Lounge, but it looks as though it’s the same as the old Battle Lounge but with seven more player slots. However, this is fine – it’s all anyone really wanted from the game in the first place. You might have a bunch of people playing Street Fighter V on your friends list, but trying to organise group battles before would have been a mess, with players having to enter a party and continually drop in and out of two-player lounges or whatever. If the netcode holds up well in these eight-player lobbies, it could lead to a lot of fun late night SFV sessions over weekends. Anyway, that’s all there is to say about the current state of Street Fighter V right now – it had a lot of issues to begin with and there might still be dropped connection errors or other things to grumble about in the future, but the Street Fighter V March update is definitely a move in the right direction.

Street Fighter V review

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Street Fighter typifies a certain kind of mindset when it comes to immediacy in games. You hear it from the console gaming crowds (although SFV is available for both PC and PS4) – why spend time fiddling with INI files and downloading drivers and patches when you can put in the disc, press the button and go? It’s just like the arcades, they say – you put your coins in, pick your characters and within seconds you and your friend are enjoying a few rounds of Street Fighter with minimal amount of fuss. Such a strong legacy and association with immediacy has to bode well for Street Fighter V, surely?

Struggle Fighter

Street Fighter V

On day one, Street Fighter V greeted its players with missing features, occasional disconnects and long wait times where you don’t know if the game is actually doing anything or if you need to close the application and start over. Those who are able to get into one of the game’s available modes and start playing will find SFV to be very enjoyable… however, my first impressions when drafting this review led me to believe that I had bought an entertaining and refreshing fighter experience shackled to a wonky infrastructure that was struggling to hold everything together. Being able to play in the training or story modes whilst the game searches for online opponents is a great feature that worked well in the later SFIV games, but when this leads to connection errors terminating your play session in a single-player game mode, it can be frustrating.

V is for Very fun

Street Fighter V

And it’s a shame that I have to start the review in this way, because when you aren’t getting tied up in technical issues SFV is great fun. Matches are fast-paced, normal moves are more damaging than before (and more satisfying as a result), the animations and effects are excellent, and the roster has something for everyone. Whilst there are a few new faces, the classic characters are still given a slight twist with the V-System abilities. Have you ever wanted to play a Zangief with armour abilities or an R.Mika that powers up her throws by delivering peppy monologues to the viewer? SFV lets you do these things and more. The V-System takes the playfulness of USFIV’s Omega Mode and turns it into a standard mechanic, making every match satisfying in its own way.

It’s a gameplay feature that adds a lot to the game, but even without it Street Fighter V has one of the most well-rounded casts in a Street Fighter game for a while, where none of the initial 16 fighters feels like a wasted character slot. Coming from Street Fighter IV – which in its latest Ultra iteration features eight “shotokan” characters (loosely built from the Ryu template of “fireball, dragon punch and hurricane kick”) – the amount of variety here is welcome, and whilst charge and grapple characters exist in the game, you won’t be asked to perform triangle-input supers; Zangief’s 720 is about as intimidating as the motions get. Combined with the forgiving motion interpretation of SFV, this means that you’ll rarely suffer from input anxiety when playing random select sessions with a friend. Admittedly, this could all change when new characters get introduced as DLC, but for the moment it’s a great cast.

The faces and places of Street Fighter V

Street Fighter V

However, not everyone wants a Street Fighter V review that’s all movesets and gameplay systems, and happily the presentation of the characters and the environments is excellent. Even though SFIV’s fighters already had a charming cartoony quality with their bright colours and lively animation, each fighter in SFV’s roster immediately has a lot more personality, whether that’s from the way they behave in their idle stance, the facial expressions during more spectacular moments in fights, or just extra lighting and texture detail offered by new-gen technology. Elsewhere, the stages often impress – a lot of fuss may have been made over the dynamic, changing environments before release, but the backdrops have plenty of detail and colour irrespective of the stage interactions that may be triggered during matches. Whether the presentation and style of SFV will be as memorable as that of its predecessor remains to be seen, but generally matches are as enjoyable when spectating as they are when playing.

Fighter fun

Street Fighter V

What all of this means is that in-between a rushed front-end and some flaky activity behind the scenes, there’s a really fun fighting game, and the gameplay modes that are present on release can make idle evenings disappear in a flash. The single-player challenges offer incentives with in-game rewards, the battle lounge presents a simple but pleasing environment for two players to enjoy casual matches, and CFN works well at creating a unified player base amongst PC and PS4 owners. One mode that’s less impressive is the tutorial: much like the one seen in later betas, it covers movement, jumping, attacks, throws, guards and the V-System – however, it doesn’t mention stun, EX moves, Critical Arts (the equivalent of super combos), crush counters (unique attacks that send opponents reeling and leave them as open as they might be after a focus crumple in SFIV) or other advanced techniques, and with no manual in the retail PS4 game, that can be a problem. There’s still a lot in the game to keep players occupied though… and despite concerns about online play, I see fewer connection errors every day so I’m hoping that things will only improve. If you’re looking for something with the quality and robustness of Ultra Street Fighter IV, it might be worth waiting until the missing features get patched in, but if you just want to enjoy a new and fun Street Fighter game and accept that a few rough edges need smoothing out in time, it’s still worth a look.

Street Fighter V is out now for PC and PS4. More information can be found at StreetFighter.com and Capcom Unity

Street Fighter V Beta 4: round-up

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Street Fighter V Beta 4 went live for beta participants on PS4 and PC at the end of January. This is the final beta to be released before the game’s release in mid-February, and with the previous beta unlocking all but one of the (pre-DLC) characters for people to play, there was a lot of speculation regarding the kind of content that would be present in Street Fighter V Beta 4. As it turns out, if you played the third beta during the final phase of the test you would have had a good idea of what to expect here – all but one of the characters (Fang) is unlocked to play, you can practice against a training dummy, and you can let the game find online opponents whilst you train. Consequently, the following isn’t really going to reveal any new character or feature information, but instead offer some opinions on a few of the matches that occurred over the weekend and extra details on move and character properties.

Street Fighter V Beta 4 Day 1 – Headbutts!

SF5b4_4b

Before you can even get to the main menu of Street Fighter V Beta 4 you’re faced with a series of slides explaining the new beta features – most notably, an improved Fight Request setting that lets you specify certain conditions for match requests when the game is searching for opponents (e.g. if you only want to play opponents in player matches and not ranked matches, or if you want to filter out people with bad connections.) With no sign of Fang and no extra modes to try out, I set up my fight requests and waited for my first match. It was my Rashid taking on an opponent’s Ryu, and they started the match strongly; blocking my obvious setups and capitalising on my move recovery to take the first round. Even so, with some nice manoeuvring and pressure I won a round back. I couldn’t tell you how the match ended as I received a “connection lost” error after the 2nd round KO – but we’ll never know if that was Street Fighter V Beta 4 being flaky or the opponent quitting early.

In between matches I picked up a few things during training. For one thing, I haven’t been using Rashid’s command roll (press both medium attacks whilst crouched) nearly as much as I should – it passes through projectiles and could be useful for closing distance without jumping forward into a dragon punch, for instance. Another technique I picked up involves Zangief. I never really mentioned the Head Butt unique attack before (move forward and use the heavy punch – or “fierce” – attack) but it stops projectiles almost like a parry. The interesting thing about this move is that you can execute it fairly soon and still stop an attack, because the hitbox stays active for longer than you might think. Meanwhile, if you try and do the move just before a projectile hits, the startup of the attack’s animation is just long enough for you to take a hit, so it’s less about activating the move at the last moment and more about activating the move at the right moment. That said, the Iron Muscle V.Skill (a temporary stance that absorbs one hit) is a much “safer” option for stopping attacks than the Head Butt, so you could just use that instead.

The majority of the first evening was just spent testing my Rashid against other players online; with no new characters or gameplay modes available there wasn’t a whole lot of extra content to explore, but the matches were still quite fun.

Street Fighter V Beta 4 Day 2 – Bogeys!

Street Fighter V Beta 4

One interesting thing about picking up a new fighting game is that it can be like opening up a toybox – each character does different things and these affect opponents in different ways depending on different conditions. On day two of Street Fighter V Beta 4 I was able to try out two or three things I had been thinking about. For instance, Rashid’s V-Trigger sends a pillar of wind towards the player, damaging them if they touch it without blocking. However, Rashid is also very manoeuvrable and can backflip over an opponent’s head and land on the other side. Since characters in Street Fighter automatically turn to face one another, this allows for an interesting pressure game where you can place the pillar in front of an opponent and backflip to land behind them. I believe that players are safe to an extent if they continually block, but I still won a round with the setup, so who knows.

Another test was less technical. Playing as Birdie, you can leave him in his idle pose and he’ll eventually pick his nose and flick a bogey at the opposing character. However, this bogey counts as a hit and deals 12 points of damage. It can be blocked, but why do that when Ryu’s V-Skill allows him to parry attacks and stop some projectiles? A new challenge was created and I aimed to complete this challenge before Street Fighter V Beta 4 was over.

Unless the bogey is a pixel, it’s impossible to see onscreen – the only clue about its location comes from the time it takes before it hits an opponent. A few failed attempts were eventually followed by a successful parry from Ryu, so if a Birdie player is ever trying to finish you off in humiliating fashion, you can still parry it away. Yes.

Street Fighter V Beta 4 Day 3 – Milestones!

Street Fighter V Beta 4

Despite being somewhat shy about playing against the online masses on day 2, I still had some fun back and forths where my Rashid play saw me cross the 1000 LP (league points) threshold. It’ll be interesting to see how the economy of fight money (earned in fights to buy in-game content), EXP (reflecting your experience with a particular character) and league points (general experience for the player) works in the final game – right now league points are the only thing that can be deducted from online losses from the very start, so they feel like the main measure of skill.

During day three of Street Fighter V Beta 4 I had more online match fun – including one game with a Cammy player who had tons of patience and would punish each of my mistakes without fail. Cammy has such good range with the Spiral Arrow and decent manoeuvrability with Cannon Spikes that it’s hard to find a good angle to approach her from. Meanwhile, a more patient game against a Zangief player went in my favour, and was closed out with a V-Trigger pillar of wind that Zangief walked right into with a running grab move that can’t be cancelled once it’s activated.

If one big positive can be taken from Street Fighter V Beta 4, it’s that the fight request mode gets results early and often. Admittedly, the current beta didn’t let me disable fight requests on the previous day (presumably as they were keen to get data on the online matches) but I rarely had to wait long to find an opponent. In comparison, some participants of the first beta found it near-impossible to initiate a match with another human opponent online, and so players were left messing around in training without ever having any real opposition to test themselves against.

It’s impossible to say whether SFV will have as much of a long-term impact on fighting games as SFIV did, but the past few days of Street Fighter V Beta 4 have been very promising. There are still features missing or disabled in the beta that I hope to eventually see in the full game (particularly online lobbies) – however, with the game launching in mid-February, we won’t have to wait long to find out.

Street Fighter V Beta 3: new character round-up

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Earlier in December 2015 Street Fighter V Beta 3 went live for beta test participants. It contained a number of familiar faces from the original beta, but as the beta continued three more characters made their SFV debut…

Street Fighter V Beta 3 Phase 1 – Laura debuts

Street Fighter V Beta 3

A few minutes with Brazilian fighter Laura will quickly show you that this is a character who has a bunch of abilities focused on making sure that her opponent isn’t able to pile on the pressure and give her no room to breathe. The most useful special moves and V-gauge abilities are all focused on keeping the other player out of Laura’s personal space.

The Split River move, for example, is a snappy shoulder barge that pushes opponents back slightly and leaves them reeling momentarily, potentially disrupting players who want to pile on the attacks.

Laura also has a slightly limited – but still effective – projectile attack. The Thunder Clap special move sends a wave of electricity across the screen towards the opponent. If the Thunder Clap is used with a light attack button, the wave will move slowly and disappear after travelling a few feet. That move duration can be changed with the use of stronger special move attacks that result in the waves staying on-screen for longer.

All of this is great if you want players to stay away from you, but for the opponent that have closed the distance, Laura has a command grab – Sunset Wheel. This move sees Laura grab her foe, jump in the air and bring herself down on them. The command grab has to be performed at quite a close distance for it to work, making it another risky move; however, it could be useful for catching out players who aren’t expecting to get grabbed.

With all of this in mind, Laura might sound like a character who always fights at close range. Thankfully, the V.System also offers some fancy dashes and back-dashes, as well as a unique move akin to Abel’s Wheel Kick that covers good distance. Anyway, if you’re afraid of people playing pressure games and want to stop them from being all up in your business, Laura is worth a look.

Street Fighter V Beta 3 Phase 2 – Zangief and Dhalsim debut

Street Fighter V Beta 3

The second phase of Street Fighter V Beta 3 brings with it an unusual sense of comfort and familiarity. Street Fighter IV was a game that was keen to show off the original World Warriors in a brand new 2009 fighter and Street Fighter V has begun by throwing in classic characters alongside the new arrivals.

Of those veteran fighters, Phase 2 of the beta introduced SFII favourites Zangief and Dhalsim. I was particularly fond of playing the Russian wrestler in SFIV so I was pleased to find that he became the first of the Phase 2 characters to be unlocked. Lariat moves, spinning piledrivers and those frightening running grabs are all present and correct, and whilst the spinning piledriver asks for a 360 motion in the command list (demanding that a player push forward and quickly rotate the stick or d-pad around in a clockwise motion before pressing a punch attack), those motions are just as lenient as they were in SFIV. Rather than make the full rotation, you can push forward and rotate around 225 degrees (to the up/back direction) and it will still count as a spinning piledriver when you push the attack button.

The V-System also offers some interesting options for Zangief – the V-Skill allows him to absorb one hit whilst the buttons are held and results in an attack when released. However, if this V-Skill is used during V-Trigger, Zangief will keep absorbing hits for a short duration. As useful as this can be from a defensive point of view, it’s still pretty risky because you aren’t able to do a whole lot else whilst you’re sitting there soaking up hits.

One thing that fans of the Street Fighter IV series will notice is that Zangief’s Banishing Flat (also known simply as ‘Green Hand’ due to Zangief’s appearance during the move) is absent in Street Fighter V. This was an incredibly useful move for Zangief players that wanted to pressure their opponents and it will be missed, but I think that the new V-System moves make up for its absence.

Street Fighter V Beta 3

Dhalsim was unlocked for Street Fighter V Beta 3 players a few hours later on the same day and whilst I didn’t play him that much in Street Fighter IV, he still feels somewhat familiar.

Each Yoga Fire projectile is belched out in a mischievous arc, Yoga Flame attacks knock the player down and can be used in mid-air, and Yoga Teleports see Dhalsim vanish and reappear – either in the same spot or on the other side of the opponent.

The moves are familiar enough to avoid alienating fans of the older games, but the new animations and effects make everything feel fresh and new again. The stationary Yoga Teleport could have its uses when avoiding fast projectiles and a teleport that moves Dhalsim could be useful for escaping corner pressure.

Even without the special moves, Dhalsim still has great long-range normal attacks thanks to his stretchy arms, and the use of normal and special moves together can create some interesting traps. For instance, throwing out a Yoga Fire projectile that travels in a high arc might make an opponent block the high attack but Dhalsim’s arms are so long – and the projectile moves so slowly – that you could sneak in a low normal attack whilst the opponent is distracted by the fireball.

Dhalsim’s V-System abilities seem like some of the most gimmicky abilities we’ve seen so far in these beta tests. Despite this, they suit his character in Street Fighter V Beta 3 and may have some interesting applications in matches.

The Yoga Float V-Skill is almost exactly what it sounds like: Dhalsim floats in the air momentarily and during this time he can be moved freely left or right by the player. This means that if Dhalsim is floating towards a Rashid player looking to set up a dive-kick, Dhalsim can float out of the attack range to safety. Finally, the V-Trigger move Yoga Burner makes Dhalsim set the ground in front of him on fire, and anyone stood in the flames will see their health slowly drain (and converted to potential damage) until they escape the flames or the flames disappear. Since it’s potential damage, a good player could get that health back as long as they don’t take a hit, but this would be risky.

Street Fighter V Beta 3 Phase 3 – all previous Street Fighter V beta characters return!

Street Fighter V Beta 3

There isn’t much to say about the final day of Street Fighter V Beta 3, but it was still a welcome surprise. Rather than giving players a new stage, feature or character, there was an update that unlocked all characters that have been available in the current and previous betas.

The update allowed players to select any character from the first beta (Ryu, Charlie, Chun-Li, Birdie, M. Bison, Cammy), second beta (Ken, Necalli, Vega, R.Mika, Rashid, Karin) and December’s beta (Laura, Zangief, Dhalsim). The only character who remained unavailable was Fang, who we have seen in trailers but haven’t had a chance to play in any beta release.

When Street Fighter V Beta 3 has all of these characters available at once, it reinforces the feeling that the game’s cast is diverse enough to keep everyone happy – maybe I don’t find Charlie too appealing, but it doesn’t matter because I can just play Rashid or Laura instead. Fans will have their favourites and these favourites will change over time as new strategies are discovered and balance patches are rolled out. In the meantime, Street Fighter V looks like it will be a solid addition to the series.

For more information on Street Fighter V, click the links below:

StreetFighter.com

Capcom Unity

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