Incoming from Comic Con: Hands-On with Street Fighter 4


Alex here. My experience with SFIV was pretty limited, as you only get one match before you have to swap out. Here’s the breakdown of my experience.


I ran up against Blanka, who was, as always, an annoying ass. I picked Ryu, and started pummeling. Ryu plays a little bit slower this time around, not super-noticeably slower, but a small chunk slower. Twice during the match I managed to pull off Ryu’s signature super move, the Shinkuu Hadoken. For all of the best attacks, SFIV makes use of the 3D engine to cut into a cinematic on the attack, making you feel about 50,000% more badass for pulling it off. All of Ryu’s classic special attacks are in place, of course, and EX moves make a triumphant return from SFIII. There’s also some kind of parry/counter system in place, but things were a little too hectic for me to study them intently. Another new mechanic SFIV incorporates is an “Ultra” meter, which fills as you take damage and lets you unleash your character’s ultimate attack. I have a slight beef with this, which was perfectly summarized by watching the Street Fighter professional player Capcom hired to hang around the SFIV booth to hammer the common folk. Move after move this guy perfectly executed, smashing his opponents into the ground, getting a perfect or near perfect every round, barely taking any damage. Yep, and with him barely taking any damage his ultra meter barely filled, almost punishing him for being so good. The better you are at SFIV, the less likely you are to get to pull off your coolest move. But, on the flip side, the meter does fill pretty generously so this would only really be a problem for the perfect paragons in the game. And if you’re that good, I’m sure you can screw around and take enough damage to get what you want. Long story short, SFIV looks absolutely stunning, everything flows beautifully, the characters just feel ‘right’, and everything feels both classic and brand new at the same time, bringing forth in my mind an ambivalent wistfulness for the old and excitement for the new.

-Alex L.

 

Nick here. I had some hands-on time with Crimson Viper. It was only for one fight, but that was all I needed. I managed to pull off all of her moves, including her super and ultra moves. This character has captivated me so much that I called "dibs" on her since she was first introduced as one of the new characters for SF4 months back. She reminds me a lot of the character designs from Viewtiful Joe.

Crimson Viper felt like an amalgam between Rock Howard from SNK and Sol Badguy from Guilty Gear. She's got a lightning punch, a leaping fire kick, and a ground slam. Her super move is an uber-lightning punch and her ultra move is a combination that starts with a beefed-up ground slam to knock your opponent into the air where she unleashes a rapid fire kick. It felt good playing her.

The game has been simplified as compared to Street Fighter 3: Third Impact, which was very deep, complex, and very polished. Street Fighter 4 has removed the parry system but retains EX moves. SF4 is still just as balanced as SF3. Everyone can keep their own with Ken and Ryu. It looks like all of the Street Fighter 4 characters have just 3 special moves a piece, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Bringing the series back to its Street Fighter 2 cast was a genius move and making it a little simpler is to keep it as appealing to a broad audience as possible.

What I don't agree with is the system in which you fill your Ultra meter. By taking damage it fills up, thus rewarding those who get schooled during a fight with a big special attack that can completely change the tide of the fight. I don't know if there are other methods to filling up the meter, but I don't know of any yet. Successfully pulling off a "Revenge" move (a counter-attack) may fill it up, but I just didn't get to spend that kind of time with it.

The new art direction is really fantastic. I would compare it more to a comic-book than I would a manga or anime.

This game will do phenomenally, as it deserves.

-Nick L.

 

© 2008 Rocket Llama World Headquarters, LLC. 

The Ongoing Adventures of Rocket Llama[1] is a webcomic starring "a high-flying llama, a sword-swinging cat, and a rocket as loyal as a cowboy hero's horse."[2] Created by Alex Langley while he was a student at Henderson State University, the comic first appeared in a comic book titled The Workday Comic. For the Workday comics anthology, a spin-off of Scott McCloud's 24-Hour Comics, comics creators each wrote and drew their own eight-page stories in eight hours in April, 2007, on Friday the 13th[3], which turned into an ongoing publication.[4]  Co-presenting with comics author and scholar Danny Fingeroth (Dazzler, Spider-Man, Superman on the Couch), the creators described the webcomic's evolution as members of a Comics Arts Conference panel at 2008's Comic-Con International in San Diego, California.[5][6][7]  Contents [hide] 1 Debut  2 Webcomic  3 References  4 External links      [edit] Debut The full title of Rocket Llama's debut story in The Workday Comic #1 (spring, 2007) was "The Ongoing Adventures of Rocket Llama #112: 'Trouble in Paradise'".[8] The story introduced the taciturn hero Rocket Llama and his talkative sidekick, an anthropomorphic cat named Bartholomew Meowsenhausen, who find themselves stranded on an island after a battle with an enemy called Jetpack Dog. Spherical islanders capture them and then challenge them to combat. A villain named Böwser vön Überdog arrives with Jetpack Dog and, in a sudden Star Wars parody, summons a giant robot known as the Super Robot Dog Walker which blasts a volcano to bits. Before it can fire a second blast, Rocket Llama destroys it by getting it to swallow a pot of water and backfire. The story ends with Böwser tied up and the heroes using the giant robot dog head as a boat to get themselves home, with the promise of the next story to be titled, "Yuck! Yukon!"[9][10]  Whether despite the original story's childlike art or because of it, the Rocket Llama story proved to be the most popular in the 2007 anthology collection of the eight-hour comics.[11] After comic artist Stephen R. Bissette, an instructor at the Center for Cartoon Studies and comic book artist best known for his work on Swamp Thing with Alan Moore, read all of the stories in the first volume of The Workday Comic, he remarked, "That llama's gonna stick with me."[12]   [edit] Webcomic Nick Langley redrew the story with a less childlike drawing style in webcomic form for online publication[13] as the flagship title for the website rocketllama.com which grew into an affiliation of websites featuring webcomics, art, entertainment reviews, and scholarly studies of comics.[14] The online story featured a new cover[15] and omitted a one-page gag, a preview for an unrelated Stealth Potato comic, which had appeared as an intermission in the middle of the original story.[16] The original story also appeared online as the comic's "ashcan copy."[17]  The authors present the Rocket Llama stories metafictionally as the world's oldest comic book, established in 1916, which they allegedly rediscovered and are adapting into webcomics. "Deep underground, in an archaic vault we searched until we found the fabled tales. As both the current production team behind The Ongoing Adventures of Rocket Llama and appreciators of such groundbreaking literature, we have taken it upon ourselves to restore these classic issues to a glory more befitting a modern, digital age."[18]  Although every "issue" is presented with panels and screens in the correct order for each story, the issues are presented out of order as if readers were discovering old issues of a classic comic book in a seemingly haphazard order, however they come to find them. After the redrawn number 112's online publication came the serialized time travel story #136-137, "Time Flies When You're on the Run," appearing one page at a time throughout each week.[19][20] Special Rocket Llama Says bonus features appear only in "ashcan" form drawn by the original creator.[21]   [edit] References ^ Rocket Llama World Headquarters  ^ You are here.  ^ Waddles, Joshua. (2007, April 2). Comic book club puts in a full day's work. The Oracle vol. 99 (25), p. 3.  ^ Beard, Sarah. (2008, August 25). Comic Arts Club offers excitment. The Oracle, vol. 101 (1), p. 5.  ^ T. Langley & R. Duncan, panel moderators, with respondent Danny Fingeroth. (2008, July). "Capes and Tights, Caps and Gowns." Panel presented at the Comics Arts Conference, Comic-Con International. San Diego, California.  ^ Recent and Upcoming Research Presentations  ^ Pannell, E. (2008, July 27). Comic communication part of professors' classes. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, T-1, T-4.  ^ Page 1.  ^ The Workday Comic #1. Spring, 2007.[1]  ^ The Workday Comic - online edition.  ^ Sorrell, M. (2008, April 14).Club produces second annual workday comic. The Oracle, vol. 100.  ^ Quoted in "The Workday Comic: Not Just One Third of a 24-Hour Comic." Comics Arts Conference, Comic-Con International. San Diego, California. July 27, 2008.  ^ The Ongoing Adventures of Rocket Llama #112: "Trouble in Paradise." Script: Alex Langley. Art: Nick Langley.  ^ You are here.  ^ #137-Cover.  ^ Sneak Peak at Stealth Potato #75.  ^ Rocket Llama Ashcan Copy.  ^ Who Is Rocket Llama?  ^ "Time Flies When You're on the Run, Part 1." Script: Alex Langley. Art: Nick Langley.  ^ "Time Flies When You're on the Run, Part 2." Script: Alex Langley. Art: Nick Langley.  ^ e.g., "Tanks a Lot." Rocket Llama Says #8. Script and art: Alex Langley.