Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

When it was announced that Arcade Edition would be coming as a DLC add-on for Super Street Fighter IV I immediately set aside the $20 to buy a points card for the 1200 point add-on. When I finally sat down to play my favorite fighting game of the generation again I was met with a patch that completely ruined the experience for me.

Arcade Edition adds a lot of new features to the core game: 4 new characters along with Endings for Arcade Mode. In addition, it adds some more Online Features such as more Replay Modes, the ability to follow players, and the ability to play in lobbies specifically made for Arcade Edition, as well as Super. The Arcade Edition Mode changes some of the characters as well, otherwise known as a balancing. Overall, it seems like a worthy pickup for the price. However, it's what those changes do that really send me over the edge on this one.

What Arcade Edition effectively does is break the game in favor of god characters, aka Yun and Yang. While it makes for some great buffs for Makoto, Fei Long and Hakan, it effectively neuters other characters like Guile, Ryu and Chun-Li. Unnecessarily so as well, since Super was already pretty well balanced. Taking Fei Long and Makoto from bottom tier to Upper Tier is a big stretch in my opinion, as it really just makes the game unbalanced and unfun. For offline players hoping for some achievements, they've effectively made Arcade Mode for this Edition a lot tougher, meaning spamming isn't as effective, and trying to get Evil Ryu and Oni on the highest difficulty a chore, even with Zangief, who is now almost useless against Seth, who by the way, you have to finish with a Super and/or Ultra in order to face either of them in addition to prerequisites. So if you're looking for achievements, Arcade Edition is a no go.

For the competitive Street Fighter player you really have no choice but to buy this add-on, and for that this review isn't for you since you already know how severe the changes have been. As for online play, Capcom has seemingly borked their netcode once again, so more inputs are dropped, meaning practice for competitive and casual play has also been hurt as a result. And this change is for everyone, not just the Arcade Edition mode.

In addition to these negatives, there aren't any Trials for these 4 new characters, making it harder to learn them and how to combat them in battle. Finally Capcom has stated that Costume Pack(s) will come later for them, so in essence, you're really not getting a complete package here.

So without an additional patch for balance changes that are desperately needed, Capcom has effectively ruined Street Fighter IV. In the meantime, I'll continue to play Super Mode since it's still extremely fun to play.

Score: 1 out of 5