Nukezilla Review: Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition

Possibly the most sought-after launch title for Nintendo’s new dimension-shattering handheld, Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition has some high expectations to live up to. Thankfully, it not only lives up to — but surpasses — those expectations.

First of all, it’s damn impressive that Capcom have managed to squeeze this game down into a handheld in the first place. The graphics have taken a noticeable hit when compared to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions, obviously, but SSF43D still looks really, really good. The backgrounds are static, rather than the living stages present in the bigger versions of the game, but it’s not that big a deal as you won’t be spending a lot of time looking for details in the environment here.

There are two types of Street Fighter players in the world: those who learned how to play on an arcade stick, and those who learned how to play on a D-pad. I belong to the latter group, so I didn’t have much trouble picking up this port and wailing away on some unsuspecting scrubs online. I imagine it won’t be too difficult for arcade assailants to adapt, as long as they’re willing to put in the time to get used to the D-pad setup.

The biggest issue when playing SSF43D on the 3DS is the placement of the attack buttons. Your fierce attacks are mapped to the shoulder buttons while light and medium are on the face of the device, so it can be a bit awkward to pull off certain moves. Again, anyone who’s used to playing on a D-pad will know the deal here already, but Capcom did add a nice little feature that helps in this regard: the touch screen can be used to execute certain moves with just a tap, or it can house easily-accessible “buttons” that combine different inputs (such as LP + MP + FP for easier execution of Ultra combos).

There are two different control methods available in SSF43D: Lite and Pro. Lite puts your character’s special moves right on the touch screen for you, so you can execute even the more complicated ones without even touching the D-pad. Pro mode limits the touchscreen to normal moves (focus attacks, throws) and button combinations (as mentioned before, to help with Ultras) only.

Lite mode effectively breaks the game if playing against someone else, as characters whose moves usually need to be charged no longer do. A popular tactic online seems to be to pick Guile, then throw out Sonic Booms while walking forward, and Flash Kick as soon as the opponent tries to jump over one of the projectiles. I fought a particularly nasty Blanka the other day who used a similar strategy.

Thankfully, the option exists to only play against people using the same control method as you, and that makes things much less frustrating. The only downside here (and it’s a minor one) is that you can never pick “Quick Match” if you want to play like this, as that will pair you with the first person it finds, regardless of controls. Of course, having to nudge down and press a couple extra buttons isn’t a big deal, but it’d be nice if there was an option to set your Quick Match settings in the system options or something.

Speaking of playing online, it works really well here. The 3DS is definitely far more adept at getting (and staying) online than any other handheld before it, and it makes SSF43D a joy to keep playing after you’ve tired of Arcade mode and the various Challenges (yes, they’re still included and yes, link timing is still nearly impossible to get right). There is lag sometimes, but not all the time, so that leads me to believe it’s brought on by network issues rather than deficiencies in the game’s programming. Bottom line, online play here is at least on par with anything on consoles, and far better than anything in other handheld games.

SSF43D has a novel implementation of the 3DS’ StreetPass feature, wherein passing another sleeping 3DS will initiate an instant battle between both participants’ teams of character figures, which are collected via a slot system (sort of like the figures in the Smash Bros. games). Winning these battles nets your more Figure Points, which can be used to accrue more figures, which can then be used to win more Figure Points. It’s pointless, but it’s fun. Of course, nobody outside of Japan really uses StreetPass, so you probably won’t get many chances to play with this mode anyway.

If you’re a fighting game fan, you should buy this game. Hell, if you own a 3DS you should buy this game. It’s essentially Super Street Fighter IV translated nearly perfectly to a handheld system, whose (admittedly tiny) flaws are not its own, but rather limitations of the platform it’s played on. I’ve found myself dropping an hour or so into it every night since I got my 3DS, despite the Tournament Edition Fightstick sitting next to my Xbox 360. Capcom have handily created a standout launch title for Nintendo’s new system — one that makes the question “Should I buy a 3DS?” a lot easier to answer.