Street Fighter 4 – Home Version Update Update

First and foremost among these additional tidbits is the discovery that I could perform a game install. Unlike most PS3 games which force this option down your throat pretty early on in the process, SF4 hides it about four (in my case Japanese) menus away from the title screen. But find it I did and instantly reduced frustrating pauses between matches to a few seconds. Absolute joy as it corrected my biggest gripe about the game.

The other key statement I made in the last post that I wanted to revisit was the games character balance. While improved from the arcade it remains imperfect. I don’t know if it’s just my play style but it feels like fast/weak characters struggle to land enough hits to redress the damage they receive from a single contact from a ‘heavy’. Sagat and Zangief are two of the chief ‘heavy’ offenders. Both are lethal at close range, especially Zangief whose devastating spinning pile driver is now easier to execute. I’m sure against a tournament level player the speed of these ‘fast’ characters would render them untouchable, but for the average player they simply feel underpowered.

I stand by my original assessment, Seth remains cheap, His move priority (the ability of a move to override another) and recovery time combine to make him, simply, unfair. Frequently I find myself cursing as his pile driver animation moves though my attack or he is able to counter immediately after an attack which would leave other characters stunned. Occasionally I do wonder if my anger and cursing result from my ineptitude with certain characters rather than Seth himself… No, its Seth he’s cheap.