Indeed, Ryu may be adorning his typical red not-exactly-for-boxing gloves, but this entry has absolutely no fight in it.
I love fighting games. Almost every fighting game has given me enjoyment. “Tekken” from Namco Bandai, “Mortal Kombat” from Netherrealm Studios, “Bloody Roar,” and even the WWE games from time to time, all have a special place in my heart. What’s a mystery to everyone else though is how much I despise “Street Fighter,” the granddaddy of fighting games in general. Many people find it odd that as a fan of fighting games, I choose one of the first fighting franchises ever to pick on as the runt of the litter. It’s true that I often treat this series like it’s my own Meg from “Family Guy.”
As a fairly new owner of a PS4, I wanted to dig deep and see what fighting games are coming out and what games have already been released. Jumping into my hands is “Street Fighter V,” Capcom’s somewhat new stab into the franchise with me coming in from an inconvenient tag-in to steal the kill.
“Street Fighter V” is 2D fighting game that allows you to choose 16 characters and provides you with a story campaign for each character that lasts about two to four fights, depending on who you play as.
And that’s about it. Yes, I am aware that there is online functionality and local multiplayer, but it doesn’t work like that. When a fighting game is being reviewed, it should be judged on its roster and variety of gameplay. As a developer, it should be expected of you to put both a multiplayer and a single player mode, and both should be given equal attention. After all, the key to success in fighting games is in your replayability. How tired am I going to get of this nonsense? Do I have a healthy amount of options? Are there other ways to make this game interesting without alcohol?
The answers are frequently, kind of and no.
My main issue with most of the Street Fighter games is that Capcom has the balls to re-release the same game nearly every year or two. I understand in this day and age that ports with balancing changes and some extra content is a norm, but we’re also in a day and age where this should be unnecessary. Capcom, have you ever heard of an update? I’m sure you have because some of your content is plastered in ads saying “Update coming soon!”
So, where is the content? We’re given 16 characters with weak story campaigns and you expect the tourney players to use this? How stupid do you think gamers are?
For starters, I know that across the Street Fighter franchise, there are at least 50 characters! Are you telling me that you can’t afford to put at least half of the cast in the game?
“No, Ty. We can’t! We have to hire a bunch of people to make this game look pretty and animate and everything. Plus, we need to have this deadline just to release before the tourney season! Making games is so expensive!”
Well, maybe, games wouldn’t be so expensive if you made it a labor of love and not a labor of business. If eight people can make an awesome game like Ubisoft’s “Grow Home,” then maybe that’s proof that you don’t need 300 people to make a good game. But I digress.
“Street Fighter V” is like having a trophy wife; it stands around and looks pretty but when you realize it has the personality of a picket fence, you find yourself wanting a divorce. I played through every story campaign and finished them in under two hours with a 100 percent win rate. And with each match I kept thinking, “Oh, how pretty” before I remembered how bored I had gotten.
Before I started this paragraph, I looked through other reviews to figure out why I’m about to give this such a low score when there are so many issues about how bland this game is. Many other critics seem to agree with me in that single-player sucks and there is a huge lack in content. (“Star Wars Battlefront,” did I just meet your new girlfriend?) And yet, I’m still confused in how this game is getting “8 out of 10’s” and C’s.
My guess is that they all forgot how to count. Or maybe I just missed a memo about high numbers being a bad thing. But, if you can’t beat them, join them.
“Street Fighter V” for Playstation 4 and PC gets 12 slices of moldy cheese out of five pieces of cardboard.
