The World Warriors have made their way to the PlayStation 4 with Ultra Street Fighter IV. The last in the Street Fighter IV line has everything from the previous versions and more. However, is this the definitive edition of the game? In short: No, but it’s not the broken mess you’ve heard about either.
I played this game both before and after it was patched. Many users complained about a variety of bugs like delayed input interface, characters skipping animations, or even moves like the Sonic Boom being invisible. I saw all of the videos before I played the game and expected the worst. To my delight however, the game ran fine. Yes, there was a delay between the time I hit X to enter a mode and it actually taking me there, but playing through single player and the various training and challenge modes posed no problems. The game felt a bit sluggish, but I chalked this up to me being away from it for so long.
Playing online was an eye opener however. Selecting characters and modes showed me significant input delays that weren’t as apparent in single player. Worse still was the actual matches which suffered from a lot of slowdown and even more input delay. Some matches didn’t have these issues but I still managed to get my ass kicked. Again, I haven’t played this game since the Arcade Edition on the PlayStation 3 so it could have been because of that.
To be thorough, I went back and played Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition on PS3. I’m glad I did because this showed me all that was wrong with Ultra on the PS4. Menu inputs had absolutely no delays and when I played online, not only was that a smooth experience, but I was able to win matches with the same frequency as before. I may not be as good at SFIV as I am with older games in the series (Street Fighter Alpha all day!), but I can hold my own pretty damn well and I was able to pull off my moves with no problems on the PS3. Without a doubt, Capcom and Sony botched USFIV.
Playing the game after the patch went live was a better experience but it still wasn’t perfect. Though they have been reduced, button input delay still happens during the menus. There is also still some delay when trying to pull off characters’ moves as well which lead to me being defeated in frustrating ways online. Though my win ratio went up after the patch, I know I lost some rounds because my character didn’t react fast enough.
Though this is on PlayStation 4, it graphically doesn’t look any better than it did on the PlayStation 3. When I went back to play DmC: Devil May Cry on PS3 after playing it on the PS4 for my review, the differences were immediately apparent. For USFIV however, I had to practically squint my eyes to see any differences. Aside from having a higher resolution, this game looks exactly the same. If there is a frame rate difference, I didn’t see it. This isn’t a knock on the graphics, which have a nice stylized look to them, but the game is visually identical to its predecessor.
As for features, this game has everything from its last-gen brother (or sister… we don’t play gender favorites here). This includes: all of the costume DLC, all of the various offline modes (Arcade, Versus, Training, Challenges), and all of the online modes (Ranked Match, Endless Battle, Team Battle, Tournament, and Online Training).
It’s a shame that Ultra Street Fighter IV on the PS4 didn’t live up to its potential due to some glaring technical issues. If you’re a casual fan of Street Fighter than you can probably forgive some of the faults and have fun. If you’re a seasoned veteran, then you’re better off sticking with Ultra Street Fighter IV on the PS3 or Xbox 360. Even at $25, this game isn’t exactly worth the price of admission. Perhaps this could change with another patch or two but right now, this fighter needs to do some serious training in the dojo.
This review of Ultra Street Fighter IV is based on a digital copy for the PlayStation 4 which was provided by Capcom.
