Fighting games over the past 10 years have been typically 3D. Games like the extremely popular Tekken series, Soul Calibur, Dead or Alive or even Mortal Kombat epitomize this. Prior to the 3D fighting game revolution, there must have been a meeting at fight HQ where an agreement was forged stating that the only way to make these games innovative is to shy away from the traditional 2D perspective. Additional research on the inspiration for Street Fighter IV revealed that the game's producer, Yoshinori Ono, listed Super Mario Brothers as one of his influences. At first glance this might look like a typo but alas, Ono was referring to the popular trend with clothing that is, what is old can be made new again. Ono is also hoping to entice some of the three million fans of the original Street Fighter II back to arcades and possibly coerce them into buying a next gen console. This is sounds like sweet, sweet midi music to my retro loving heart.

Street Fighter IV is therefore an ironic breath of fresh air in a genre that often gets accused of being unimaginative. The main characters that everyone loves such as Ryu, Ken, Chung-Li and Sagat are back to once again battle to become the ultimate street fighter of the world. There are a couple of new characters that you will probably overlook in your rush to check out what the new hadouken looks like. Even though there are quite a few fresh faces to the game, each one of them fits in snugly in with the traditional rivals and none really feel out of place... well maybe one. But we'll get to that a bit later.

The opening video is an absolute jaw dropper, though my recommendation is to mute the audio and enjoy it unadulterated. If the introduction to the long awaited Street Fighter IV is a watercolour inspired masterpiece, the music accompanying it is likely the reason Van Gogh cut his ear off.  The voiceovers throughout the game's interface have a very arcde, retro feel but can get a tad annoying and it seems like the original sounds have just been enhanced and included. There is nothing overly new here but hey, do you see the remaining Beatles going back to Abbey Rd to add synthesizers and a rap from 50cent to their masterpieces? I think not!

The story is typical of the medium and never gets more in depth than a couple of anime style cartoons that are far removed from the incredible aforementioned introduction and feel decidedly out of place.  Each of the 25 characters have their own introduction, story and ending, but unfortunately a surprise CGI ending is not awaiting you upon completion.

Capcom were clever in encouraging (or downright forcing) you to explore the new character roster. Initially all but nine fighters are locked and you need to complete the game with each to unlock the rest of the Street Fighter IV character list. Having to finish the game with various fighters as well as completing certain challenges just to unlock the entire roster means Street Fighter IV gives a lot of replay value, but some might be annoyed at this and see it as a necessary chore to simply enjoying the game.

Now, about the 'out of place' character I mentioned earlier... Fighting Street Fighter IV's main boss, Seth, is like walking on crutches over a broken glass whilst blindfolded. It is never easy and it is always painful. The fact that Seth can draw you in from 4 steps away, teleport at any given moment belting you with devastatingly powerful attacks means that Seth is one frustratingly tough cookie to crack.  He is commonly referred to as the “puppet master” and can mimic the moves of all the other characters. Even beating him on medium is no mean feat. This challenge may be enough to put off even the most veteran of Street Fighter gamers and will likely cause many a controller to be Sonic Boom-ed across the room.

Ok, so we have established that you will be playing arcade quite alot but what else is there to keep you entertained? As you would hope there is a vs. mode. Interestingly in versus mode you can play, player vs. player, player vs. cpu or cpu vs. cpu. I like to fight my friends so that was the pick of the bunch, even if it is not all that innovative. There is an online mode as well that allows you to play a ranked or player match. Lag is a constant pain and therefore you are suffering at the hands of your opponent quite often. You do have the option to create a match and it’s a very quick affair when finding someone keen to fight. Also returning is a new and improved challenge mode that pits the player against the clock in Time Attack, multiple opponents in Survival and challenges in the Trial mode. Playing Survival mode on Normal difficulty is a blast. The super and ultra metres have returned albeit improved and are full the whole time. At the very least it's a great way to check out those super cool ultra moves that each character posses in a short space of time.

One of the standout features is the Training Challenges. They can be done for each character and ask you to perform move after move. This is a great way to learn to be competitive online or versus your friends. It will get you thinking and playing with your favourite character in a way you may not have thought possible.

The look and feel of the game rounds out some tidy new features that will help you in forking out your hard earned cash at the shop of your choice to buy the game. The graphics at times are actually quite stunning, not in a Fallout 3 type of way but in a super bright and sexy guise. The focus attack looks fantastic and turns your character to wet ink before they perform a more powerful punch or kick.

The controls feel really comfortable and the analog stick is actually much more responsive than I could have hoped for. It took very little time to start doing my Yoga fires, Tigers, Sonic booms and fire filled Shoryukens. To get the most out of the controls some simple remapping is in order which can be done via the start menu. The D-pad can still be used for movement though, on the 360 I would be steering well clear and still be weary on the PS3. The good news is that combat is fast and frenetic and chained combos are only a couple of well timed clicks away.  The ultimate of course would be to lash out on an arcade style controller. At last check they have all sold out and shown that this game definitely still has its keen followers. I for one would also love to build and arcade machine to play friends on. The things that will keep the punters coming back of course are the super and ultra moves. One thing that perplexed me for the first few hours of playing Street Fighter IV was why on earth the health bars were not straight. Though it wasn’t obvious to me at first it made perfect sense when I started pulling off these 40% life robbing moves, because where the bar raises is the perfect time to unleash your fury. Subtleties like this really speak to the polish that's been applied to Street Fighter IV.

The instant success and hype surrounding this game must have left the team at Midway scratching their heads and performing some Scorpion uppercuts on themselves. Capcom has really shown how to release a classic title in the noughties. This is after all a fighting game, so let's pit it against its rivals. It doesn’t have the graphics that Tekken 6 is boasting, it also doesn’t have the gimmicky bouncing chests that Dead or Alive has, and it has never had the blood that Mortal Kombat boasts (...oh wait a second, Mortal Kombat doesn’t have the blood either) but what it does have is nostalgia and an instant addiction that sucks players in. So that places Street Fighter IV firmly back on the top of the podium for fighting games. New players to the franchise aren’t going to instantly love it, some returning players perhaps are going to be a little jaded but I feel this game is a solid 4 out of 5. See you online. Shoryuken!