Street Fighter 6 released last year. I must step up the game otherwise I become outdated and Capcom fans club will kick me out of their membership. So today I’m playing Street Fighter IV (1993) made by Gouder. Wait! What?
Yes, it’s official Street Fighter IV. See that’s the Japanese castle roof as Ryu’s Stage in Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike. Fine. I was joking. All jokes aside, I have childhood memory about this game when I still owned NES. But there are official Street Fighter games on DOS that I played when I was kid. There’s the DOS port of Street Fighter 2 and I remember I could easily pull out Zangief’s 360o motion special moves with keyboard but I can’t do that anymore now. But that’s probably DOS port has some easiness on 360o motion execution compared to emulated arcade game. Then there’s another Street Fighter 2 where the roster only consists of Guile and Ken along with their variation like this guy can only do hadou ken, or this guy can only do summersault kick, or this can only do strange tornado kick. Ok, maybe the last example is not official Street Fighter 2 game. If I can get my hands on it again, I will review it for sure.
Anyway, let’s get into this (certainly) unofficial Street Fighter IV. There’s not much thing on option except for music/sound test and difficulty setting (that I keep as “Normal” as the default) so let’s hit 1-player mode!
Here’s the roster and I already don’t like it because there’s no character’s name at all. I don’t remember what was my main back in the day but again 5 y.o. Werdito doesn’t understand the concept of fighting game mastery so his memory can’t be used as reliable preference. As you can see the roster is actually only 5 persons along with their double. It’s fine in Street Fighter 2 to have Ryu and Ken because there’s slightly different in visual and moveset. Ken can do fire shouryuken and Ryu can unleash fire Hadou ken. Meanwhile in Mortal Kombat 2, there’s similar ninjas with different color for sure but their moveset is entirely different. Reptile has exploding ball and acid spit, Scorpion has the ”Get over here!” harpoon, and Sub-Zero has ice blast. Whereas in this game, each character has the same moveset with their double and there’s only bit different in visual. So, we’re in bad start. Correction: turns out that 2 characters that resemble Lee from Data East’s Fighter’s History, are also “Ryu”. So, this game has total 4 discount Ryu! Sniper_jeers02.wav
So, I decide to pick Ranboo, who’s certainly not John Rambo. [Average Hadou Ken sized sarcasm]. My first opponent is Cliff who’s definitely bootleg Ryu with the name of this fighting stage. You can call this stage pit but that’s already taken by Mortal Kombat, mind you.
The control is plain and simple. D-Pad to move around. Pressing up or diagonal up to jump. Pressing down to crouch. Pressing back when enemy attack to block. Pressing “B” button to kick and Pressing “A” button to punch. As for the special move, I have no idea. I just spam this drop kick repeatedly and it works wonderfully. It’s done by holding back and pressing kick button.
From his victory pose, we learn that Ranboo is discount Guile but without mohawk also shirt. Ranboo is proud with his quite visible nipple.
Naturally, as Ryu clone Cliff can throw some Hadou Ken. The reliable drop kick sometime can jump pass the Hadou Ken. I keep doing it until I can get close to him and hit him repeatedly. That’s my only strategy in this game.
I reckon that’s Guile’s uppercut but the range is so short. Where’s his iconic backhand that has long reach, huh? This is why I just keep using the drop kick.
Another reason why I like to use the drop kick very freaking frequently is: I can hit enemy with it while he’s in knocked away animation. In other word, this drop kick can be used to juggle enemy. Also, the recovery time for the drop kick is considerably short. Sadly, there’s no intermission dialogue. Neither before or after match.
My next opponent is Bunny which is clearly bunny girl. But she doesn’t work on Casino. No. She’s at Circus’ parking lot apparently. I don’t think there’s Circus that employ racing car instead of some poor fated animals. If it does exist, PETA won’t sue them because they don’t violate animal’s right. But the drawback is high gasoline price and stunt racer’s wage.
Impressive looking high kick there but that doesn’t persuade me to stop doing the drop kick rapidly.
Not even that graceful ballet spin. I thought Bunny’s moveset is similar to Chun Li’s but apparently not. She can throw some energy ball but can only do ballet spin instead of spinning bird kick. Also, no Tenshokyaku.
Next opponent is some Buddhist monk named Chunfo. He looks original and nowhere similar to Retsu in first Street Fighter. I can give some credit for that.
He can throw duplicate of his hands. Demoman_sf13_influx_small03.wav
I’m sorry, Chunfo. I don’t fight like real street fighter who keep throwing projectile. I fight by keep doing the ol’ reliable drop kick until you run out of health but I win. :)
My next opponent, Pasta teaches me that throw exists in this bootleg Street Fighter game. My astounded expression is quite similar to the Ranboon’s when being thrown there.
To further convince me that Pasta is Ryu’s clone, he executes the tornado kick but with slight change. He travels in sinusoidal wave pattern rather than straight line like Ryu or Ken.
If you expect me to change my strategy because I get injury several times, you’re completely wrong. Just drop kick him all the way!
Related to this Pasta guy, can you imagine Street Fighter’s name based on their favorite food? Chun Li’s name will be mien (Chinese noodles). Guile’s name will be Ration. E. Honda’s name will be Chankonabe. Or Zangief’s name will be Borscht. Awkward.
As I mentioned before that there’s no intermission dialogue. There’s only this versus screen which is quite bland. Anyway, it’s time for clone mirror match.
Apparently Stalong can perform Raiden’s electric fly but I’m not sure how you do that. Scratch that, since this is “Street Fighter” game, the move should be related to M. Bison’s Psycho Crusher. It’s fairly obvious that Stalong is derived from (Sylvester) Stallone.
If my enemy is knocked away far in mid-air, I can juggle him further until his health bar is empty even! This warship stage is very memorable to me. Those machine guns keep moving left and right. I don’t think they are currently firing bullets now because: 1) It’s dangerous situation where fighter is in the middle of fighting. 2) No spark come out from the muzzle or no bullet casing being ejected. Those guns just happen to move left and right for no reason.
I must commend Stalong for having sense to block my deadly rapid drop kick. Also, that’s clearly crouching block animation from Street Fighter 2’s Guile.
And this one is Guile’s standing block animation. Good thing Capcom never sue the developer.
By the way, looking at union jack flag on the left corner. It implies that Ranboo and Stalong works for British navy even though their name is reference to the famous America's one-man army: John Rambo.
I don’t think my next opponent is in roster. Look at that creepy grin he has. Ranboo has simple smile but that guy has clown-ish smile. Horrid!
I was about to say that Musashi maybe a Kabuki artist with that look. But I doubt the famous samurai is a kabuki artist. Because he’s not in the playable roster, I assume he’s boss character. Plus, he can counter my drop kick strategy with this aerial bending move. It has higher priority probably because of its short range.
Musashi can also throw projectile but it has the same color as that guy’s jacket. So you have take my word for it.
He can also do pirouette. Not as powerful looking as Zangief’s spinning Lariat but more graceful. I think. I have to give Musashi some credit because he can beat me in 1 round while others don’t stand a chance.
There’s another opponent after Musashi? He must not be the boss, then. Anyway. Goho Li is another Ryu clone who’s most likely the most similar one and I beat him with drop kick over and over again. Next opponent, please!
Tracy is bunny but without the rabbit ear. Also, she like to do ballet spin too.
I just want to show you what Ranboo does for standing kick. It’s 100% Guile’s hopping kick. It’s nice looking and all but I stick with the drop kick because it has significantly farther range.
Much to my surprise [Not sarcastic, once in a while]. Ranboo can do the German suplex like Guile. The input to do that is similar: forward + Punch in very close range but it’s finicky to pull it off.
Okay, yeah. Moon is Chunfo’s friend because they’re quite identical apart from his purple trouser. I want that trouser. I love purple. From this moment, I learn some jankiness in cross-up. Ranboo doesn’t automatically turn around if I keep doing the drop kick without pause so I’m forced to stop with my reliable strategy to give Ranboo some time to orient himself in correct side. The slowness of turning around is not as bad as -say- Dino Rex but it’s there.
Those senior monks are not impressed with Moon’s capability to defeat my repeat drop kick tactic. He and Chunfo will be expelled from this temple, soon.
Here’s another Italian Ryu’s clone. Maybe his name is based on Art of Fighting’s Robert Garcia. This factory stage reminds me of bit of Zangief’s stage because of that chain link fence. While the fire in the black background reminds of 2nd Boss stage in Vice Project Doom.
The final opponent is: Conbon, Musashi’s cousin but with purple armor. He should be tougher than Musashi, right?
Not really. Both fighters are
able to postpone my victory by 1 round, but that’s about it. Thus, Ranboo the
champion of repeated drop kick, wins the tournament! 
I hope you don’t expect some
sort of exciting ending where Ranboo got some medal of honor by winning the
tournament and send to Vietnam war return to his loving family, because
there’s no ending after completing the game! There’s only this credit roll in
form of film reel while funny music plays. There’s some mistyped word like
“design” word there. Also, some fighters do some moves while the movie being
rolled. I guess. It’s pretty remarkable, in a good way.
Gouder’s Street Fighter IV (1993) is serviceable imitation of Street Fighter 2 if you accept a fighting game where everyone can throw projectile and no other archetype in the roster. No grappler, no rushdown character, no sumo wrestler, etc. So, it’s same-y to the one in Mortal Kombat then. But even so in MK, every character has its own specialty. Sub-Zero has ice-based moveset and can freeze opponent. Liu Kang can do low fireball and fast flying kick. Scorpion can pull enemy toward him and teleport punch behind enemy. Whereas in this “SF IV”, everyone is just clone of Chun Li, Ryu or Guile. So, the roster is pretty bland. Like a vanilla ice cream. Later I found out how to do Ranboo’s (and also Stalong’s) special move. You expect, they’re charge character so their special move input starting by holding back direction for seconds. Right? It seems the developer can’t figure how to make holding back direction count as part of special command input, so they settle with simple direction input. Thus, you only need to press back briefly then forward + punch. No need to hold the back for ages. That’s how you do the unpowered Psycho Crusher. There’s also special command input: down, up + kick which makes Ranboo jumps high and then thrusts his knees downward. On the bright side, the hit detection is pretty responsive and the game speed is fast enough. The music ranges from mildly grating to jovial. The sound effect is fairly not good.
To put it simply, the quality of “Street Fighter IV “(1993) is between Street Fighter 2 and Street Fighter. Not as tedious as first Street Fighter but not as good as the famous Street Fighter 2. I give the game some credit for the more "proper" ending than my beloved Fighting Master. But on moveset department, FM is the winner for its originality/creativity. "SF IV" just copy some move from SF 2. You can play this game with your friend or relative. I did that quite a lot back in the day. Just don’t let your opponent know the secret of my “Repeated drop kick” strategy. It’s wonderful strategy to win every round. Maybe.
Will i play the real Street Fighter IV? Maybe yes. Maybe no. :P
No comments:
Post a Comment