Launch titles for new consoles generally possess an air of the over-familiar – the rush to get them ready for the first day in the shops habitually involves using assets from a version made for an older console. But Super Street Fighter IV – the latest iteration of what can plausibly claim to be the best-loved of all beat-em-up franchises – feels commendably fresh on the 3DS. Street Fighter games almost by definition recycle their predecessors, with their cast of familiar characters, and never have any form of plot to worry about. Capcom has therefore been able to concentrate on what the 3DS can bring to the party.
And Nintendo's 3D marvel turns out to be very well suited to beat-em-ups. The key reason for that is its graphics chip, immensely more powerful than those of previous Nintendo handhelds, which brings visuals akin to non-portable consoles, rather than forcing developers to make 2D graphics appear three-dimensional. To show off the stereoscopic 3D, Capcom has come up with an over-the-shoulder view which can be toggled on or off, that works beautifully, although arch-traditionalists (who are rife among the ranks of beat-em-up aficionados) may still opt for the original side-on view, which is turned on by default.
The touchscreen also plays a part – again, one which might upset the hardcore following, but which will delight those whose fingers aren't stroboscopically rapid. During bouts, the touchscreen is split into four, each denoting a special move, which you can launch with the touch of a thumb, as long as your Super Combo and Revenge gauges are suitably charged (the latter, which lets you launch Ultra Combos, is only filled when you've taken a lot of punishment). They take a while to recharge, and you can select two of your favourite special moves, but hardcore Street Fighter-heads would view them as a travesty. You can turn them off for head-to-head play, or set them to ape the function of the ordinary buttons. And, of course, you can perform special moves in the conventional manner, with various arcane button combinations plus gestural movements of the analogue circle pad, which provides the control system with the silkiness it has previously lacked on Nintendo handhelds.
All the familiar Street Fighter characters – 31, to be precise – are present and correct, while the classic Arcade mode is augmented by various ways of playing human opponents: locally, via the Internet or via Download Play, which lets two people take each other on if they only have one copy of the game between them. A bewilderingly customisable Training mode lets you hone your skills, and Challenge mode measures your ability to produce specified combos at will, and includes two mini-games involving punching barrels and a car.
Super Street Fighter IV 3D, despite being a beat-em-up, is one of the most grown-up-feeling games we have ever encountered on a handheld console. It is commendably lacking in compromise and makes good use of the 3DS's unique abilities. Even those hardcore fans who worry it has been dumbed down will find out that, in practice, it hasn't. Impressive stuff for a launch title.
