Ready Up were invited to Capcoms’ London HQ for a hands-on preview of the next installment in the seminal Street Fighter series. Who else could we send but our very own little beat-um-up champ Shaz. Here are her thoughts on this hotly anticipated title.

Now I’d like you to think about how long it’s been since you’ve taken a trip to the arcade. A VERY long time ago eh? I could certainly say the same myself, we’ve played Time Crisis 3 to death, then there’s that one crazy performer putting everybody to shame on DDR and it’s just impossible to get more those 500 tokens for that silly pencil case let alone that swanky HD TV on top prize. Seen them, done them, not got the pencil case. However ladies and gentlemen an old itch returning and soon you’ll be drawn back to the world of loose change.

Dare I say it? Damn it, I will. The crown of all beat-em-ups is making it’s righteous return in the form of Capcoms’ ultimate glory, “Street Fighter IV!” Old Skool is back and it’s time to settle the score with your rivals. But let me get one thing straight, you can’t consider yourself a gamer unless you can Hadoken, right?

So earlier this month I dropped into Capcom HQ for an exclusive HANDS ON preview of SFIV! Such a big relief to know that old treasures aren’t left forgotten forever. Reacquainting myself with the arcade control panel I didn‘t realise how much I had underestimated it. Since my childhood I had relied a lot on the D-pad from the SNES & Sega Megadrive to Playstation 1 & 2. I’m ashamed to admit that I put in a pretty poor performance at the start but it didn’t take long to break out of being shy with the arcade stick. Soon maneuvering quarter circles became second nature again. Ken progressed from jumping like a silly nutter to loading the opponent with raging Shoryuken. Happiness took over and I set about re-discovering my favourite moves and traditional cheap strategies among the familiar character roster.

Our fighting heroes have come back in a brilliant art style, they’re more alive in 3D but are still respectful cartoons. You could recall the ink work being similar to Okami. Simple and effective Capcom are certainly creating their own direction in gaming art. Character exaggeration is a must for Capcom and Zangief still looks impressively intimidating as a muscle monster! Our Guile could do with taller hair though, he’s no big deal without his outstanding brush head.

However not only are we greeted by our regulars, SFIV brings some new challengers to the scene, those revealed at this time are Crimson Viper, Abel and most recently, El Fuerte. Unfortunately El Fuerte wasn’t in the current build so all we know at the moment of him is he’s a Mexican Luchador who loves cooking!

Crimson looks to have been modeled after Angelina Jolie, with a touch of SNK about her. A unique character among the roster she’s beneficial to the cautious players and works wonders with counter strikes. Anyone that can master her can pretty much finish a match without having to move more than a few steps from their starting spot. Her mid air sweeping kicks defend well against incoming attacks and with ground pounding moves she can tackle opponents from variable distances.

Abel isn’t my usual type of fighter as I find him sluggish but those who know how to use Zangief will find Abel a lighter, more agile version of the wrestler. Equipped with mixed martial arts he’s got a fair few variable attack sequences. It’s quite dangerous if you get packed in by his strings of punches, kicks, elbows and throws. Once he catches you, you can expect to get brutally thrown about like a sack of potatoes!

There’s more balance to the game play with the new mode called, “Revenge”. So anyone who’s having to put up with a lot of beating and blocking it’s not all for nothing. Every hit landed on you charges up your revenge meter and when it’s ready you can unleash a super combo. A chance to turn the tables around, watch the camera zoom in close and enjoy the sweet cinematic action play out.

I seriously cannot find any major haunts with the game and as long as we don’t see the return of Fei-Long I can forgive all the horrendous Street Fighter training given to me by my older brother! I’m ultimately psyched for SFIV and I’m crossing my fingers in the hope of a home console release. In fact, let’s bring back the other golden oldies such as Darkstalkers, Rival Schools and even the cute realms of Pocket Fighters!
Casting old fears aside it’s nowhere close to the nightmare that was EX Plus Alpha. Capcom have done an awesome job with it so far, fast impacts, cool cut scenes, slick artwork, angry announcer, chain combo delights, there’s a big tick for nostalgia. Brushed in 3D but remaining loyal as a 2D fighter, just how we like it! Tekken can piss off with it’s simplistic play, true hardcore blistering skill is Street Fighter and anyone who says different shall taste my spinning bird kicks!

Ready Up would like to thank Leo and Capcom for giving us the opportunity to get our hands on Street Fighter IV and we’re happy to say that we can’t wait for more! Leo, you have the address to post the final arcade cabinet to, right?

Have you ever sat back and thought about the amount of time you’ve spent playing games? Go on, terrify yourself, really think about it. As an avid RPG player I can’t help but feel bemused at how I’ve managed to clock up 60 hours on Lost Odyssey already whilst also playing an array of other games. I’m sure anyone else who has dedicated their life to levelling up their black mage to level 99 will understand the great loss of life these games can create!

The first RPG I played all the way through was Final Fantasy 7, and that was it, I was hooked - the storylines, the characters, the bosses, and of course, the spells. So there commenced my RPG obsession. Add in multiple playthroughs of all Final Fantasy’s since then (barring 11 - MMOs are evil IMHO!) and some before, Enchanted Arms, Blue Dragon, Phantasy Star Universe, Elder Scrolls…the list goes on and on and the figure of hours lost to this genre escalates dramatically.

Over multiple playthroughs I have somehow spent two weeks of my life on Final Fantasy 10. A terrifying thought at first but then it sinks in and I strangely feel the terror turn into a sense of pride and accomplishment. So for all those out there that love RPG’s as much as I do consider this:
If you suddenly got given all this lost time back, what would you do with it? If your answer is play games then that time was time well spent. And on that note it’s time for me to get back to Lost Odyssey!

 I love the Xbox Live Arcade. My hard-drive is filled with the Arcade downloads. Even the crap ones. Every Arcade game has been download, played, and neglected for a while.

And that’s what I like.

I haven’t played Oblivion in ages. If I was to put the disc in, right this minute, and fire it up two things would happen:-
1) I would have to spend a wee while trying to remember what I was last doing. I know it won’t be anything to do with the main quest (as I’ve hardly touched it at all) but other than that, it would take me a while to get my bearings, and
2) This blog would never be finished because I’d “just have five more minutes,” promise.

I had yesterday off work, and (in and amongst knocking off episodes of Alias) I spent most of the afternoon on the Arcade games. I didn’t mean to. I was literally going down the games list thinking “ooo, haven’t played that for a while” and having a quick bash at each game. A quick bash. Nothing else.
Somehow, Xevious ate nearly 2 hours of my afternoon.

And I still suck at it.

Fair enough, I grabbed a few achievements along the way, but the thing that kept me going was the fact that I just couldn’t crack the 40,000 points barrier which (along with an achievement) gets me to number one on the in-game leaderboard (as opposed to the xbox live one). It was so frustrating. I finished most games 3000 points short of the number one position. And I loved every minute of it.

It’s the same with my girlfriend. Not that I have lost two hours of the afternoon to her, but that she’s lost several hours to the Arcade. She once saw me playing, and failing, at a level of Jewel Quest. As a rule, she’s not a big fan of gaming, but with a simple “you’re rubbish, I could do that, let me have a go,” hours of her day were taken from her, never to be replaced.

The Wii has done a lot to make gaming accessible to the masses. I think that the right games on the Live Arcade have the power to do the same. Show a gaming Muggle something that looks simple, but will suck them in, and you can create the kind of family fun atmosphere that the Wii gives, but without the arm-waving and pulled muscles. The leaderboards suddenly become hyper-competitive as you try to out-do each other with something as simple as matching a few dancing rabbits…

What Simes said in “Press Start” is right, sometimes it’s nice to go back to the old school way of doing things.