The Street Fighter franchise has had its ups and downs over the years. Ever since the series acted as the birth of the early 90s fighting game craze, Capcom has been milking the fireballs out of their costumed combatants. Saturday morning cartoons, action figures, a movie, and even lunchboxes were emblazoned with the Street Fighter name, as Capcom also ported the arcade brawler to nearly every platform known to man. By the time that Street Fighter III came out, many of the core fans of the series had moved on, leaving the game to become popular within a small niche audience that was a fraction of the size that Street Fighter II had.

Considering all of this, I had some apprehension before playing Street Fighter IV for the first time at the recent Street Fighter Fight Club event in Brooklyn, NY. Sure, it looked good, but could this game really reignite a series that has been stagnant for years? After going hands-on with both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions of the game, I can safely say that yes, this game will bring back the fighting spirit in all who play it, and if you have somehow never played a Street Fighter game before, this will be the one to try.

Street Fighter IV, for those uninitiated, once again centers around a gaggle of warriors from all corners of the earth who are battling on a worldwide scale as they ascend the ranks of the Street Fighter tournament. The first thing you notice when you see the game in person is that it looks amazing. The game isn’t quite cel-shaded, nor does it look like a traditional 3D fighter. The best way that I can describe Street Fighter IV in motion is that it looks almost like a watercolor painting come-to-life, as the animation is remarkably fluid and the colors are hyper-vibrant and lively. The game is also ridiculously fast, to the point where it puts the old Hyper Ultra Championship Turbo Editions to shame. It makes the jump to 3D almost jarring, because you normally don’t see 3D fighters moving this quickly. The character animation and expressiveness has also been taken to the next level. You see eyes bulge, hair flutter in the wind, and particle bits fly after a fireball is blocked--the game is full of small yet meaningful visual touches that show how much care was put into it. No matter what I say about the visuals, nothing will prepare you for the first time you see it in motion. It’s beautiful, electric, and true to the style of the original games.

Of course, all of this wouldn’t matter if the game didn’t control as wonderfully as it looked. I got to try the game with 2 different control method--an arcade stick and the Xbox 360/PS3 controllers. The line to play the game via controller was a lot shorter, which speaks volumes. If you plan to get into Street Fighter IV seriously, you will probably need to buy an arcade stick. While the controller does work just fine, and I was able to pull off a few simple moves and combos using the standard controller, the control that you feel over the character and the assurance that you will be able to execute the moves you want, when you want is greatly improved when using an arcade controller. The problems with both the Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers are that neither offers 6 face buttons, which is what Street Fighter has always needed, and that the analog stick/D-pad are nowhere near as accurate or as fun as using as the joystick on an arcade controller. Using the shoulder buttons on both controllers for Fierce attacks was uncomfortable, yet functional. If you have no intention of upgrading to an arcade stick, the game does play fine, and you should be able to adapt to it and pull off the characters’ moves, but the comfort level and the ease of play is ramped up considerably when using an arcade controller.