Street Fighter IV
(CAPCOM) XBOX 360, PS3
Rating: 
When it comes to grappling games, you can talk as much smack as you want, but after a couple of rounds everyone knows who the real beat-down master is. If you’ve got the chops, rejoice: After nearly ten years, you can finally lay your menacing mitts on the new installment of that bruising classic, Street Fighter. Your favorite characters are back on the mat—Chun-Li, Ryu, Ken, Cammy, and Blanka—along with a few welcome newbies, such as Mexican wrestler El Fuerte, the sexy spy Crimson Viper, and Abel, a French martial artist. The storyline—if you pay attention to such things—is set between Street Fighter II and III, but, of course, it’s the combat that counts. The six-button control scheme for light, medium, and heavy brutality has been retained, but there’s a new fighting system: Focus Attacks, which allows you to absorb your enemy’s assault before performing a savage countermove that, depending on how skilled you are, is unblockable. Also returning are the Super Combos and the life sapping Ultra Combos—enjoy unleashing them once your Revenge Gauge is full. Who says anger can’t be productive?
