Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $39.99
Sale Price: $16.04
Today's Bonus: 60% Off

[Update: July 30th, 2011it's just been announced that a balance patch is coming out later this year. I put the link in the customer discussions section toward the bottom of this page. Provided that changes go in the right direction with all characters, not just Yun and Yang, I'll gladly come back and change my score for this game.]

[Update: July 14th, 2013I know I promised that I'd edit my review to match the changes made when they happened, and didn't do it. I'm sorry for that, but this game is getting updates out the wahzoo. And right now I just found out that this version of SF4 is getting replaced in early 2014 with Ultra Street Fighter IV. It was announced at EVO, earning a lot of groans from practical people. So...you can get this version now and get in some good practice...then go and buy another version in a couple of months, just like most of us did. :p]

Here we are againversion number 3 of Street Fighter 4. Granted, we all saw this coming, and by this point, the only people interested in the game are either going to be the hardcore players or people new to the game. If you follow the likes of Mike Ross, Justin Wong, Mago and Momochi, you probably already have this game and have been reading about the chances made from Super months ago. For those not in the loop, Super Street Fighter 4 brings a couple of new features to the original SSF4 game:

-Yun, Yang, Oni and Evil Ryu are playable characters (and yet there are 2 more open slots on the character select screen!)

-many different online features were added to make things easier to follow and watch

-an ungodly amount of balance changes

Do a quick search for 'ssf4 ae balance changes' and click on the first thing that shows up, and you'll see a huge list of changes made to character moves, damage, hit boxes and more. Sadly, the balance changes were poorly done, and some characters that were already very good (Fei Long) were made even better. Some characters that barely had a chance (El Fuerte and Gouken) were pretty much made worse or the changes they desperately needed weren't given to them. But even worse, Yun and Yang really are as bad as everyone's saying. Yun was a god in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, and he looks to be the same here. I'd never played him before tonight, but as soon as I activated his Super move, I pulled off a quick 9 hit combo just by randomly pressing a few buttons. Sad. And that palm attack of his? Good god is the hitbox on that thing insanegoing through Ultras even after they connect and even working as an anti-air. Yang's really good too, but Oni and Evil Ryu are characters nearly every SF fan could've done without. Not Elena, Hugo or Oro? Not R. Mika or Rolento? We really needed these alternate version characters here? And get thisthese 4 new characters don't even have Trials for you to get the hang of their basic combos, so you'll be needing to hit Training Mode a lot if you want to get them down. What gets me is how more characters is supposed to be a good thing in some people's minds. The last installments of SF2 and SF3 didn't have anywhere near as many characters as SSF4:AE, but they're still played by many today, and with many eagerly awaiting Third Strike Online's release in August. The new online features are very nice, and I don't get why it took them so long to get it right, but hey, better late than never I guess.

There's not a lot I can say about AEyou were either looking forward to this or you weren't. If you're the kind of person that's serious about fighting games, you'll pick it up no matter what. If you're new, I recommend going with the regular Super Street Fighter 4, and if you really get into it, just buy the DLC of AE. It's great that this isn't a full price new release game, but it's hard to justify buying it when the balance is so bad and that they didn't add many features. How about a decent story mode?

Edit: I can't believe I forgot to mention this. Arcade Edition might NOT be the last iteration of SF4. Seth Killian, the Community Manager at Capcom, has mentioned in a recent interview that the team behind SF4 is still interested in keeping things going if AE goes well. While it's lame of them to say that so soon, heymaybe Yun and Yang will be toned down by then.

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This could have been a patch but Capcom would rather bleed its customers dry.

If you only bought this game.....you got lucky and saved a lot of money.

The good:

Game play is good. Definitely the type of game to get friends over and play with them. The game is open to various game play styles.

A fair amount of characters to choose from..... but really ONLY 4 new characters even though the demand is HIGH for new characters?

The bad:

Still no major penalties for rage quitters on on-line battles.

Could have been a patch.

Buy Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Now

Super Street Fighter IV AE is nothing more than Super street fighter 4 (which is already a great game!) with the 4 new characters, some updated online stuff and some 'balancing' at 34 bucks for it.

Its unreasonable to sell it as a different game. For some of us who already own SSFIV there is of course the 15 dollar upgrade but this game feels more like a 5-9 dollar upgrade to me. Ohh btw this does not come with the new characters costume pack or anything like that, you will still need to purchase that apart.

In conclusion it's a great game but again it's not justifiable to sell it as a different one.

Unless let's say that we never had a super street fighter 4. Let's say that we had something like a super street fighter 4 demo or something like that, in that case this would've been a great release of super street fighter 4, with the option to unlock the new characters.

It's definitively not good to have both SSF4 and SSF4AE selling at the same time (it creates confusion).

Read Best Reviews of Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Here

Typically, updated versions of a game are supposed to have imbalances addressed and/or significant content added to justify shelling out more money. When Super Street Fighter IV was released it was absolutely worth it. The game was more balanced (not completely but got closer) and there was a ton of new content and characters added. Arcade Edition went the exact opposite direction. The characters are completely imbalanced and apparently this was done on purpose even though this was not what the fans were asking for. Also there are only 4 characters added to the mix.

If you like keeping up with the Street Fighter scene then I suppose you need to get this update. I personally think we should skip it all together just to let Capcom know this is unacceptable. If you didn't pick up Super Street Fighter IV last time I'd still recommend to go for that instead and buy the Arcade Edition DLC once they decide to fix the balance issues (if ever).

Capcom has done two things recently that make me want to reconsider before buying any of their products in the future. The first one being Resident Evil 3D Mercenaries where we could only have one save and now we have an update, to Street Fighter, not many were looking forward to.

Want Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Discount?

Both of the prior games, Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV, were great fighting games that helped to modernize the series and bring it back into the limelight. Arcade Edition serves a very different purpose. Instead of being a huge expansion, it's simply a large refinement of an already polished game, bringing balance changes galore and some new fighters. The balance changes are subject to interpretation, and honestly I feel like they did a fantastic job at making higher-level play more balanced. If you're just starting out and want to be great at Street Fighter, this is the perfect version to start with. If you're only a casual player, don't even bother with this version unless you're planning to compete in tournaments or to practice heavily. The finer details in both the original release and the 2012 patch are mostly too small to be noticed by the average, casual player, and only players serious about Street Fighter should get this. That said, it's worth every penny if you're interested in it for that reason.

The new characters are few but welcome additions nonetheless. Yun and Yang are back with their somewhat similar movesets and high offensive potential, but they lack trials to complete so you have to learn their combos on your own. Likewise, Evil Ryu and Oni are also geared towards players who practice frequently. Being good with any of these new characters requires lots of dedication, but they're still fun to use casually.

The most notable thing about this addition, however, is the ability to switch between Super and Arcade Edition rules. This way you can play people online who don't have Arcade Edition yet, while also switching between the two to compare combos and techniques. This, again, will only be noticed by the super-hardcore players, but it's still very significant.

In closing, this game is just as fun as Street Fighter has always been. If you have the original Street Fighter IV and want to upgrade, get this instead of Super. If you already have Super and aren't too into the competitive side of the series, then you don't have to bother with this. The package itself isn't worth it for the characters, but when you consider everything as a whole, it makes it perfect for people who are just getting interested in Street Fighter IV as well as tournaments that don't want to have to download DLC just to play as these characters.