2009 was a great year for video games: Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2, Shadow Complex, Assassin’s Creed … the list goes on and on. However, I think one game is way above the rest …

Street Fighter 4 was released 10 years after SFII entered the scene. When I first saw it, I was amazed at the way it looked – the characters were painstakingly rendered and the animations were the newest scenes I had in any game. I was very impressed the first time I saw the ultramoves of the different characters, and I still can’t get enough of them.

The balance of the game is incredible. Yes, there are definitely some weak characters who have a hard time taking on top tier characters. However, there is still much debate among the experts as to which character is the most advantageous, and there is no clear winner (the best SF4 champions have their favorite, which varies quite a bit). For example, many people would classify Dhalsim as a weaker character, but some of the best players dominate with him.

Capcom really did pull off a miracle by taking a 2-D game and bringing it into an amazingly rendered 3D world, but keeping the game mechanics true to the original. Although the depth of the game is immense, it is surprisingly accessible to beginners.

Just look at the focus attacks – anyone can pull them off and score an unblockable hit, but you could spend a lifetime trying to master the “race cancellations” that open up.

In 2010, Capcom will release SF4: Championship Edition. I can not wait. For me, it’s not the additional characters that are the most attractive part of the launch; I want Arcade’s “fourth” mode. That’s where multiple people join a room and they all play to keep fighting (the loser comes back in line). This was a feature that was in SFII: Remix, but it didn’t make it to SF4.

In conclusion, SF4 is great and deserves to be the game of the year.

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