Street Fighter V: Review

When it comes to a true test of your gaming skills against another, very few do it as well as the mighty fighting games. When the granddaddy of them all, Street Fighter, comes around with its new release, everybody stands to attention. However, it seems that it has entered the fight with a few vital cracks in its defence.

Street Fighter V is the follow-up to the 2009 genre reviving Street Fighter IV and is the first in the series to be released straight to home consoles, without having first left a trail of fire at the arcades. This is likely to do with the changing times, as arcades in general are becoming a thing of the past. Sad though it may be, I can get behind this change as it has allowed the developers to craft one of the most beautiful looking fighters on the market. Fights are fluid, the character models and environments have excellent detail and have been crafted to look as if you’re watching a moving watercolour painting.

The fluidity also extend to how the games plays. To sum up, it is pretty much exactly what you’d expect: precise, flashy and balanced. The games fighting systems is a tactile blend of elements from both the third and fourth entry in the series with a few new twists to mix up combat. The biggest change to classic six button combat is the new variable skills (or V skills) which is a set group of skills that differ from character to character. These skills help to make each fighter feel unique, especially, since not all these skills are always directly used for attack: some are defensive while others completely change the tactics you’ll employ in a scenario.

The roster of characters is interesting but disappointingly limited. It’s plain to see that a lot of time was put into making each one of the sixteen fighters different, even finding ways to make series veterans like Ryu and Ken seem different from one another. Although some fan favourites seem to be missing in action. Of the small cast my favourite has to be Nash, a retuning character from Street Fighter Alpha. The character has been completely redesigned both visually and in how he handles, it really is a blast to confuse opponents with his teleportation and mix-ups.

Now to talk about the game modes and, consequently, where everything starts to fall apart. To start, players who enjoy doing things offline really don’t have many options. The game lacks a standard arcade mode and also the ability to play the computer in a best out of 3 match. Your only real option is to play a lack lustre story mode which consists of only 2 or 3 fights with some “story scenes” that last less than 10 minutes for each character. There is also a survival mode but it is locked at one round matches and also the A.I is far too tense which makes it a struggle for players to develop skills. The training mode is the only single player mode which I believe is properly implemented with great systems to help players test themselves and improve their skills. The biggest insult is actually that the online functionality is lacking, with only the ability to play a ranked or non-ranked match, lacking a spectator mode or tournaments.

Many fans and newcomers alike were left angry and confused once they bought the game and found some modes on the main menu aren’t available despite their £50 purchase. Capcom has went on record to say that more content will be coming to the game and you won’t need to buy another version of the game to play it. What they are asking players to do is to have faith in the company after they have already got your money. It is disappointing that one of the most well renowned fighting game franchise would disappoint so many of its loyal fans.

This is not 2009 anymore; the video game market has changed and with fighting games the market is as competitive as the genre would imply meaning that compared to the challengers, no matter how good the fighting may be, Street Fighter V won’t last more than a round against any of the other heavy hitters these days.