Chinatown Fair in NYC got Street Fighter 4 yesterday.

(I can’t really call this a “Hands On Impression” as that might make it sound like I got to play it a few times, when in fact I only played it *once* the whole night).

By the time I got there after work (around 6:30) there were so many people lined up and crowded around the machine that you couldn’t even see the machine. Compacting this, the game is set up in two side-by-side Japanese-style sit-down “cabinets” which is cool when you’re playing, but not so much for spectating.

I’d say for the first couple hours I didn’t get to play, or even witness, the game. Most of the guys around the machine had been there since before Henry (CF tech) had even set the machines up. I put my name on the list and was #40 lol.

Eventually I finally got my turn and picked Zangief. My opponent had Ryu and zoned me pretty well. I walked into an embarrassing number of fireballs getting used to the jumps and general feel of the game. I experimented with the lariat and banishing hand (pretty effective!), managing to get in and piledrive him a few times, and I even got a super SPD on him once which especially rewarding. Sadly I didn’t get to land my Ultra (your level 3 super where the game dramatically pauses and you get the cut scene animation before it activates) and the one time I tried to use the new Focus Attack it didn’t work too well for me heh. I ended up only winning the one round and had to go to the back of the line. So I just watched the rest of the time.

I got to ask questions about the gameplay from the other guys who had played more. Despite being someone who is at the arcade playing MVC2 & CVS2 like 3 times a week, I just didn’t have much interest in SF4. Honestly up until I heard CF was getting the game I hadn’t even read any articles or watched any videos about SF4 beyond the first one they released. The graphics are decent, but they sure aren’t the game’s selling point. (There’s some serious ugly IMO). As always with SF it’s the gameplay. I agree with the assessment that the gameplay feels like a mix between 3rd Strike and Super Turbo. The new Focus Attack system seems to add a nice layer of strategy but because it takes meter it’s not something you can do over and over like parrying.

Character-wise, people were mostly picking the usual standbys from the original cast while they tried to get used to the system. A couple people picked La Fuerte and lost badly, not helping the Mexcian wrestler’s rep as lowest of low tier. No one picked Rufus (thankfully?) or Viper. Justin Wong had six wins with Abel. Justin had six wins with everyone he played. The machine is currently set so 6 is the most wins you can get, and after that your game ends — which might sound like a ripoff at first, especially when you consider the game costs $1 to play!

($1.00 a game is a lot! But I think it’s fair when you consider CF must’ve shelled out a good chunk of dough for this game/setup. And also, the machine has a built-in in dollar slot, so that pretty much sets the price…)

The win-streak cap is actually a good thing, at least for now — because the alternative is for the top players like Justin to have 20 or 30 plus wins in a row, and everyone just waiting in line to play him. Later they’ll change it, but for now everybody gets to play the new game more this way.

Like I said, I wasn’t excited about SF4, but after last night I definitely got interested and am looking forward to trying it more. Only thing is, the SF4 machine at CF is like the hottest movie right now — there’s going to be lines til it cools off. So to anyone thinking about checking it out, you’ve been warned :)