So I’ve never been that big of a Street Fighter fan. Frame-perfect combo input demands as well as the inability to block in the air really throw me off, seieng as how I’ve been playing fighting games that are a lot more lenient on one or both of those long before I could say Street Fighter was officially on my list of fighting game series I regularly carry (a list spanning over 15 series). In fact, Street Fighter IV was the first Street Fighter game I could actually say I purchased for myself. But enough backstory.

I got Super Street Fighter IV on both consoles because people on both systems wanted to challenge me. 80 bucks on a game I probably wasn’t going to enjoy all that much. None of the original 25 characters really appealed to me sans Zangief, Rose, and El Fuerte, so what could 10 additional characters do for me? Sure, Makoto and Dudley were my two favorites from Street Fighter III, and I’ve been eager to play Juri for quite some time, and I’ve been anticipating an oil wrestler for some time (hey, it’s really not that crazy. We can have a guy with Mr. Fantastic limbs and the ability to spit fire wholly out of his Yoga practice, yet a Turkish oil wrestler is just the most far fetched idea ever, right?), so that’s 7 out of 35 characters, 4 of them being new. I put the game in with little expectation. Kind of figures I was mistaken, doesn’t it?

From the opening cinematic to just the menu screens and music, before I even entered my first match, I was already hooked. Not too psyched that Makoto has so little going for her, but that’s probably the only thing I can honestly say about this game that I don’t like, aside from the two points I made in the first paragraph about the series. One of the biggest additions (besides a 2/5 increase in roster) is the fact that all characters now have two Ultra Combo specials. These are chosen from when you’re choosing a character, costume, taunt, etc. Tired of Ryu’s Metsu Hadouken? What about a Shin Shoryuken, similar to Gouken’s existing Ultra (who, incidentally, got a Denjin Hadouken for his second Ultra) and Ryu’s Level 3 from Tatsunoko vs Capcom? Some characters gained new moves, some characters’ existing moves were altered for balance (though many will tell you Capcom screwed up bad on most of their choices to nerf or buff) and the new characters all bring a completely new style of play to the table, with no real Shoto clone (Fireball/Uppercut/Spinny Kick moveset) in the ten.

The AI is a bit smarter this time around, too, though not by too much. Enough to be noticeable though, for sure. More versed Street Fighter veterans may remember bonus stages in Arcade mode, absent in Street Fighter IV. Two bonus games appear in Super Street Fighter IV’s Arcade mode. One has you breaking barrels being dropped from the ceiling, and the other has you crushing a car. New Trials have you learning special moves and combos for all 35 characters, with each character having 24 specially designed trials to master. Of course, if you’re not a fan of those strict timing windows for combos, this probably isn’t going to thrill you as much.

Online play for me so far has been…well, as I expected. A bunch of Flowchart Kens, a bunch of ragequitters (probably for that 10-in-a-row Achievement/Trophy…leave it to Capcom to encourage that for the first few weeks), and, since many are already used to it, a bunch of people with a play-to-win mentality, even outside of Ranked. Don’t expect to have too much fun with random players, but hey, if you’ve got friends with it (and if you have any friends who are into fighting games, trust me, that’s very likely), the online is handled quite well on both systems.

Verdict: If you liked Street Fighter IV, you’ll like Super Street Fighter IV. This is a definite for any fighting game fan, and since it’s already only at $40, it’s a bargain in itself.