So Capcom has once again taken an amazing fighting game and updated it by adding even more awesome to it. What’s better than Street Fighter IV, if not SUPER Street Fighter IV?

As you may recall from some of my earlier posts, I am a huge Street Fighter fan. I’ve been through Capcom’s update cycles before (I’ve played/owned Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter II Championship Edition, Super Street Fighter II, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo), so when they announced late last year that they’d be updating Street Fighter IV, I didn’t interpret it as some kind of attempt to milk their customers as so many of the basement-dwelling internet populace did. I knew it meant Capcom would take what was so great about Street Fighter IV, tweak it, refine it, and add a ton of great things to it.

Street Fighter IV (which I’ll refer to as “Vanilla IV” from this point forward) was unbalanced. It wasn’t unbalanced to the point of being broken like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but there were characters who were overpowered and had a clear advantage over all others, like Sagat. With Super IV, Capcom went back and rebalanced the characters a bit, making the playing field a bit more even.

I noticed this a lot with my main character, Sakura. In Vanilla IV, Sakura was considered a “low-tier” character, mostly due to her low damage output and her low stamina. They’re buffed her up a bit in Super IV, increasing her damage output slightly, while adjusting the amount of damage she takes. She’s also got a very handy new Ultra move in the Shinku Hadoken (and the anti-air Shinku Tengyo Hadoken) which I’ve been trying to work into my game.

Every character now has two Ultra moves, with all returning characters gaining one new one since Vanilla IV. You select one at the beginning of each match, depending on your play style. This gives you an amazing amount of versatility in the way you play. Going back to Sakura, my main weapon when I play as her is her EX Shinpukyaku, which combos very well into her Shinku Tengyo Hadoken, making that a much more useful Ultra to me than her old Haru Ranman.

Ten new characters have joined the roster, boosting it up to a whopping 35 characters. Returning from Super Street Fighter II are Dee Jay and T. Hawk, from the Street Fighter Alpha series are Guy, Cody, and Adon, from Street Fighter III come Dudley, Makoto and Ibuki, and two new characters, Korean kickboxer Juri and Turkish oil wrestler Hakan are brand new additions. They all add something new to the roster and really spice up the online play (Super Ken Fighter IV this is not, at least in my experience so far). I’ve taken a liking to Cody myself, and I’m trying to get good with him but it’s slow going, sadly.

There’s also new online modes, including Endless Battle, which is an 8-player “Winner stays” scenario, just like in an actual arcade. Team Battle lets you partner up with another player and try to score wins for your team. Replay Mode lets you join a lobby and watch recorded matches, checking out other strategies and being able to analyze a character’s moves without having to do so in the heat of battle.

The only thing they took out, though, was the old theme song “The Next Door” (aka “Indestructable”). This saddens me beyond belief. I can no longer feel it comin’ over me, nor feel it all around me.

A lot of people have put up a big stink about how this is all a retail release rather than a DLC update. These people are stupid. I mean, I’m fully aware that today’s gamers are a group of entitled, self-centered idiots, but the fact that people were demanding that this update be released for free is absolutely astounding. It also shows that they know nothing about Street Fighter, again proving their limited mental capacity.

If you can look me in the eye and say WITH A STRAIGHT FACE that ten brand new characters, a rebalancing of the 25 old ones, new stages, bonus stages, and several new modes should be handed to you FOR FREE, then I’m going to Dragon Punch you in the face. Capcom isn’t even charging $60 for this one; it’s a budget title. You’re spending $40. If you REALLY liked Street Fighter, you’d understand that these are SUBSTANTIAL, game-changing updates that really are worth paying for. It’s not a patch to fix a graphical glitch. This is essentially a brand new game.

So shut up.

If you liked Street Fighter IV, you’re going to love Super IV. Vanilla IV was an amazing fighter with a ton of depth. Super IV one-ups it in every way imaginable. The cast is huge, the mechanics are more refined, and not everyone plays as Ken anymore! What more do you want?

Buy it. It’s absolutely worth every penny.