Something Old, Something NewUltra Street Fighter IV has 44 characters, each with his or her own different moves, strengths, and weaknesses. Four of the new characters—Hugo, Poison, Rolento, and Elena—feel recycled. That's not surprising, since they're actually transfers from Street Fighter X Tekken. The fifth new character, Decapre, resembles Cammy (a long-time Street Fighter character) in a mask. The characters' play styles are unique and agile—Decapre's fast, tricky charge moves are a special joy to use. The slowest, the screen-filling Hugo, makes up for his lack of speed with a massive reach and powerful hits. The newcomers are fun additions to an already diverse roster.
View all The older characters receive some changes, not necessarily to their benefit. Cammy's Cannon Spike has been nerfed, and many of the newcomers' moves outmatch the old-timers'. You can alleviate the new changes somewhat by choosing previous versions of the characters with Edition Select. For example, you can play as Sagat from the vanilla Street Fighter IV or Sakura from Arcade 2012 Edition. The option offers a cornucopia of new matchup possibilities, but it isn't available in the online multiplayer mode.
Another new addition, Ultra Combo Double, lets you take both of a character's Ultra Combos into a fight. You hit your opponent for less damage, but you have more anti-air and reversal options at your disposal. The new Red Focus attack absorbs hits so long as it's activated but at the cost of three levels of your Super Gauge (the blue meter at the bottom of the screen that allows you to perform extra-damaging special moves and super combos).
Red Focus also offers more strategic possibilities, such as breaking combos and complementing your own combo barrage with extra power. And the new delayed wakeup, activated by pushing two buttons at once when your character is lying on the ground, further improves the game by throwing off the timing of opponents' wakeup attacks.
Something BlueDeveloper Capcom cut some corners with this update. The Challenge mode is now incomplete, since it lacks training levels for all the new characters. In addition, weird bugs that weren't in the previous version pop up. For example, the sound glitches in and out at times (especially in the menu and during the anime cutscenes). Worse, despite being based on a six-year-old arcade game that can run on toasters by now, Ultra drops frames even when the graphics are at default settings. The framerate never gets so bad that the game becomes unplayable, but input lag can become a frustrating issue when you're trying to string hits together. Turning Vsync off and lowering the graphics settings remedies the issue, but it shouldn't be necessary.
Fighters' alternate costumes are still locked behind a pay wall, a practice that has become standard. The new duds come in two packs for $3.99, but you can pay $19.99 for all of them, which is more than it costs to upgrade Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition to Ultra. There is also a costume pack for Arcade Edition that's compatible with Ultra for $14.99, the same cost as the digital upgrade. These aren't exactly bargains. It's a shame, really, because these extras would've been in-game unlockables just a few years ago.
Ultra Street Fighter IV's biggest flaw is the lag that plagues the online Versus mode. I got stuck in infinite loops trying to connect to other players. Dropped frames, frozen screens, and the inability to find or connect to matches was the norm in my testing. If you don't have a local Street Fighter group, this can be extremely frustrating. Even if you do have a local scene, online multiplayer is a major part of a competitive fighter and shouldn't be so broken. Capcom is working to fix online multiplayer with beta patches, but I've yet to notice a significant improvement.
Flawed, But Full of PotentialThis is the best available version of Street Fighter IV. On consoles, anyway. The PC version would stand proudly next to it if not for the awful online lag, something that apparently carried over during the move from Games for Windows Live to Steam. I am hopeful that the bugs and glitches can be patched. As for the balance issues, they are the reality of the fighting genre; some characters will always be weaker or stronger than others, so it's up to individual players to fill in the gaps with their skill.
All these issues aside, the core of the game is the same great fighter we've played for over half a decade now, with slight improvements. If you're a fan of the series, you probably already own a console copy of Ultra, and you probably love it. If you want it on the PC, however, wait until Capcom clears up the online multiplayer problems.
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