Gamespotting 003 - The Rebirth of the BeatEmUp

The year 2009 will down down is gaming history for many reasons, highly anticipated releases are coming up and consoles are getting a revamp to keep up to date with the ever evolving world. But in my opinion, the best reason that this year will be highly remembered is because the release of one game, Street Fighter 4.

For years the Beat Em Up has slowly declined in popularity compared to its hayday in the mid 1990s with game such as Killer Instinct, Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat taking over most home consoles and arcades. But with each new beat em up released doing nothing new for the genre and the rising popularity of the FPS due to games such as Doom and Quake, it seemed that Beat Em Ups could get no better. Sure there have been great fighing games released over the last 10 years, examples Soul Edge (Soul Calibur included), Dead Or Alive and various collaberations between two franchises such as Capcom and Marvel providing great gameplay but nothing else for the player to enjoy. Also compared to other games that have lots of bonus content, hidden features and additional gameplay being sold for the same ammount as a Beat Em Up does, why would the games market buy these games.

But One game can change all this, and I believe that the game is Street Fighter 4. I have only played this game for a few hours, but I felt that I went back to 1994 with my Mega Drive fighting against my mates with the championship control pad. It still feels the same as the older Steet Fighter 2 and 3 titles, but adds the genious gameplay from additional titles in the seres such as the alpha games and EX3. Of course you still can pull of the Dragon Punch or Sonic Boom in the game way, but it allows you to play the game in many different ways than any other Street Fighter title, especially when you play as some of the new characters especially created for this title.

Already been given top scores by leading games review sites such as Gametrailers and Gamespot, the title is a welcome addition to anybodys collection (Especially when you are bored of the game First Person Shooter just set in a different setting such as FEAR 2 or Gears Of War 2). The only thing that I can complane about is the boss of the game Seth (you will know what I mean when you play the arcade mode) The Beat Em Up is back, and personally I have missed them. Only thing that I would like now is a new Killer Instinct title and the rebirth of the genre will be complete.

ULTRA COMBOOOOOOOOOOOO