Street Fighter 5 Review

The Verdict

It seems as though Capcom primarily targeted the hardcore, competitive Street Fighter players, rather than casual fans, like myself. While I'll certainly delve online here and there, I'm not nearly good enough to go up against the hardcore SF players that occupy that space on a daily basis. That's why I was really hoping for some other modes to keep me occupied in the meantime. Sure, Survival is the game's single player bread and butter, but without standard modes like Arcade mode, or even something as basic as a Versus CPU option, it seems like Street Fighter V is seriously lacking in content, for a game that retails at full price, with a promise of more content in the future.

So it really comes down to what kind of player you are. If, like me, you're a casual Street Fighter fan, then I recommend giving the game a bit more time. At least until June when the game's cinematic story mode will be implemented, and you'll probably find the game at a cheaper price.

However, if you're primarily a competitive player, then chances are this review is falling on deaf ears as you're undoubtedly already playing this game and most likely have attended a tourney or two with the game featured as its main event.

The mechanics are solid, and the game is even much more inviting than its predecessor. Just know that content wise, Capcom dropped the ball on this one. If you're patient and willing to wait a few months, the game might totally be worth its asking price.

The Positives

• Let's get the visuals out of the way first, as they're easily one of the game's best assets. This is a gorgeous game. From the individual character animations and costumes, to the breathtaking background environments, this game is a looker.

• I'm no Street Fighter or fighting game veteran, but even I can recognize the fantastic gameplay that Street Fighter V brings to the table. The game is very much accessible to players like me, as I was easily able to pull off nearly every move with ease. Granted, a buddy of mine who is a Street Fighter tournament player, also sang its praises, which means that as far as gameplay goes, Street Fighter V absolutely nails it.

• Much of the gameplay is refined, and even simplified from its predecessor. It's not as technical, and now relies more on footies and pokes confirming into specials. Each character's Critial Art is certainly a huge damage dealer, but I wouldn't call them game breaking, or "get out of jail" moves. Veterans will undoubtedly have some new tricks to learn, but the great thing about this change is that newcomers will find it much easier to grasp.

• While there are only 16 characters to choose from, which unfortunately makes the negative list, the characters are all very diverse from one another. Some staples return, like Ryn, Ken, Chun-Li and Cammy, but new fighters like FANG, Rashid, Laura and Necalli, all bring their unique moveset to the table.

• If you're looking for the most satisfying single player mode the game has to offer, it's certainly Survival. Here, you'll pick a character and try and survive a gauntlet of fights, as your health bar carries over between them. In between matches, you'll be able to spend your earned points on various buffs, such as a health regen or completely fill up your V-Gauge, or alternatively risk it all by putting your health at minimum, but gaining 10x the points for the next round.

• Even though Capcom will be releasing characters over the next few months, you won't have to bust out your wallet to purchase them, at least if you're playing the game religiously and earning the in-game currency known as Fight Money, which you earn from basically playing any mode within the game. Just be sure you're playing while connected to the game's servers.

• As I mentioned on the first page, the fact that Capcom is only making a single version of the game, with balances all factored into future updates, as well as new characters with DLC, as time goes on, this will undoubtedly save folks a lot of money. Characters can be bought with either real money or in-game currency, but buying a new character will still be cheaper than investing into a whole new, tournament legal mode. Street Fighter 4 came as the base game, Super SF4, Super SF4 Arcade Version, and Ultra SF4. I don't recall how much each of these versions cost aside from the base game, but let's pretend that they each retailed for $30 – $40, then that's $150 – $180 you'd have to spend alone to keep up to date with all versions. Here, Capcom is only asking you to pay $60, and then only for additional content that you're interested in, some that you can even earn with in-game currency. This is a pretty fantastic strategy.

The Negatives

• Upon the game's first boot up, it will force players into a tutorial, that teaches everything from movement to performing basic combos. While it can be helpful to new players, the fact that it's forced might be off-putting for fighting game veterans. Having this as an optional menu item would have been much more preferable.

• Currently there is no way to spectate online matches, which seems like an oversight given the game's huge push for tournament play. One of the greatest ways of improving is by studying the pros and how they play. With no in-game feature that allows for that, players will have to resort to other means, such as Twitch or YouTube. While that's not the worst workaround, the fact that the game doesn't have this feature built in from the get go is rather confusing.

• A co-worker wanted to try the game, so I went into the Versus mode so he could play a match versus the CPU. Turns out, there is no such option. Currently, the Versus mode only allows for two players to go head-to-head. Similarly, there is no Arcade mode either.

• While there have been fighting games that had lower character counts, it still doesn't excuse Capcom from only including 16 characters at launch, especially with such a diverse library of characters they could have pulled from.

• It's sad that this is expected, but the first week had a pretty rough time in terms of online play. Server disconnects plagued the experience, which often resulted in not earning the in-game currency. This also meant that hardcore players that bought the game solely to play online, were most likely disappointed. Though Capcom has worked out its kinks seemingly, it's still odd that they weren't worked out with the game having multiple Betas.

The Neutral

• The Story Mode is laughably short. Some characters only have two fights, with only one round each. The reason why I'm putting this under Neutral is because Capcom is coming out with a full cinematic storyline in June. Sure, it sucks for those that spent $60 now, and were expecting more content in terms of single player modes, but the silver lining is that at least the story mode content will be free for everyone.

Street Fighter is a fighting game franchise that has solidified itself as the prime candidate for competitive fighting tournaments. Over the years, Capcom has tried its hardest to ensure that this stays true, rebalancing the game and its characters, adding in tournament features and spectator modes. However, there was an added cost in the form of retail updates. What I mean is that when Capcom wanted to make big changes to the game, they didn't simply do so by issuing a patch or an update, they released a whole new game, usually retailing around $40-$50. That means, for those that want to continually ensure that they have the most current version that's tournament legal, they would have to keep buying into these updated retail games.

That's why I admire Capcom's take on Street Fighter V, as it's pretty much the antithesis of the versions before. Capcom stated that SFV will be the only Street Fighter game this generation, and that all balances will come as software updates, an characters will be added to the game as time goes on. Awesome! This is what I like to see, a fantastic step forward.

However, as you're undoubtedly aware of this saying, as Capcom takes one step forward, they also take a few steps back.

Let's take a look at what Street Fighter V excels at, where it fails, and ultimately, whether it's worth your investment.