SFII HD designer calls out SFIV for user unfriendliness

you know what's funny? nailing a noobie SF player, actually, nailing a hardcore extreme SF player is even funnier.

I think you can play the game no matter how good or bad you are, but you'll need experience and major finger twitching to win. So NO, this game isn't a good game for casual players. It's pretty obvious even for the oldest players than putting a quarter into a SF machine probably meant you'll get your ass handed to you.

no matter what fighting game you play there will be a huge divide among casual players and the expert players. i do agree that the execution of the moves in sf4 are pretty difficult compared to other games (SC4, Tekken, DOA)

this guy is pretty much dead on in his statements, too bad the journalists make him sound like the bad guy in the article. sf4 is definitely not a game that caters to casual gamers and shouldn't be.

i got marked down because i dont play fighting games but i thought that the "whyd you have to go and make things so complicated" was funny? whatever.

missing option in the poll:

yes its fucking hard for newbies, and yes I like it the way it is.

I've played street fighter maybe a total of 10 hours in my life before SF4. I lose every single match online (except one fluke against el fuerte) I can't pass trial mode 4 on -any- character and I love it.

Its hard the way that Guitar Hero 3 was hard, just enough to make you want to get better.

No, Rhamsey, you got voted down for making a comment on an article about fighting games stating that you don' t play fighting games. Do you seriously not see how your comment was irrelevant?
The only comment you could have made that would have been any more irrelevant would have been "First!!".... and you would have been down-voted for that too.

@farseer
sure my comment wasnt relevant to fighting games, but it was relevant to the image used in the story, which last time i checked is part of the article. so i dont see how your argument fits. its not like i randomly started talking about some other game.

Rhamsey, I wasn't making an argument. You speculated (in a very passive-aggressive way) why you got downvoted by the community. I was just supplying another speculation.

If you really wanted to just praise the picture, you shouldn't have made a comment dismissing the fans of the genre before you did so. You probably would not have been downvoted had your comment been:

"That caption is hilarious!"

Kara throwing, enough said.

O christ its back.....

ah damnit wrong person.

I actually like the focus and EX attacks, because they're pretty simple to pull off: hitting two buttons really isn't much harder than hitting one. The combos and cancels, on the other hand...Christ.

It wouldn't be so bad if the training mode had an actual tutorial. I can't imagine how anyone could say this game is accessable to everyone, even the casual players. I was frustrated enough to just return the game and put the money down on H.A.W.X. instead. Then again I don't generally do well in the fighting genre.

people that dont read the diagrams on the booklet or online for the combos must be really technically challenged to learn how to play

It's not the reading dude, it's actually putting it into motion and remembering them for some people is quite difficult...

for me, its the links for the combos and some cancel-dependent combos that make it too damn complicated.

Focus Attack and EX moves are straightforward enough to me. (press 1 attack, normal, press 2, stronger. That makes sense. I mean, 2 -IS- bigger than 1, right? RIGHT?)

In this respect Soul Calibur and DOA are more accessible to casual players

Except Soul Calibur has this daunting movelist where quite alot of them look the same but actually have very subtle but crucial technical difference in their effect. But that's exactly what I like about SC. Everyone can do those moves, only those who understand them know when to use them to make them useful.

And tekken... the 10 hit combos are a little tough, but still not too bad. except its pretty much all useless now with all the higher level players using other kind of combos that are almost unbreakable and easily takes out 80-100% of your health.

DOA is probably the most casual-friendly among the 3d fighting games I've played though.

BUT! street fighter's Ultra moves does give weaker players a better chance of winning against a better player in it than say games like Soul Calibur and DOA.
DOUBLE BUT! pulling off a lucky ultra while wrestling with a 70% success rate on QCFx2(I know I'm not good with this and that this isn't even close to the average success rate on such an 'easy' input, which is why I tend to just use EX moves. lol.) to earn a win doesn't feel satisfying.

Which is why he's wondering why so many people claim the game is accessible to casual players. You completely missed the point of this article.

yep. there it is

http://www.redstaplerchronicles.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/office%20space%20bobs.jpg

He didn't miss the point. He is saying that he doesn't mind the game the way it is. Personally, I would say the Street Fighter IV is easy to pick up but difficult to master. My wife hates fighters but was intrigued with how it looks. I taught her the basics and even though she can't cancel and doesn't have the dexterity to do an ultra combo on command, she can to the basic moves on command and 1/3 of the time gets off the ultras in time. What is important is that she enjoys the game.

I'm getting frustrated with this trend of making everything 'accessible'. I don't have a problem with a game having an easy setting or even having alternate schemes like in Marvel Vs. Capcom where you can button mash to do moves. But don't dumb down the core game play just because you want to sell more copies. Add alternative play modes. I _like_ a challenging game and I don't suspect that I am alone.

I agree, ive spent 10 minutes at a time wagling the analog. My friend who is obsessed with SF said that the best controllers are the arcade pad and a sega controller with adapter for PS3.

Just a tip, some of the impossible seeming combos require move cancels and double tap focus cancels. The trail mode does not indicate when that is the case however.

Word

Like the one where you get hit 5 or 6 times in SFIIHD and the round ends? I'm sorry, if for the only reason SFIV is better than SFII is the fact that the rounds last longer allowing the cream to rise to the top, then that's enough for me.

Cream? Sounds like someone uses Chun Li a lot.

"Like the one where you get hit 5 or 6 times in SFIIHD and the round ends?"

It used to bother me, now i don't mind it. Even when i'm getting my ass kicked, there's always an open possibility to come back to win, which i've done a few times. The game leaves no room to be screwing around, which makes it exciting. Besides, that's how the old SF2 games were. Maybe they'll redo alpha 2 or something in the future.

I think they are competing teams inside Capcom.

lol. Chun-Li is literally the only character outside of T.Hawk and Dee Jay that I never use. But really, I prefer a longer fight.

acefondu: The thing you are complaining about is how Super Turbo has always been. That is not what I was referring to when I mentioned "smart, intelligent decisions." The main thing they did with HDRemix that was great was the smart changes in how some moves are done.

Ridgecity: Considering Sirlin and his team work at Backbone, they can't be teams competing within Capcom. If they were, then perhaps SFIV would have carried over some of the improvments.

Exactly, and the reason WHY they spam shoryukens is because that's much easier to pull off than the perfect spacing/timing required to land combos and other advanced attacks.

Even SSF2THDR is easier to pull off combos in my opinion, and some of the character's "hitboxes" in SFIV I found to be ludicrously small, bordering the point of uselessness.

People on here are bitching about making the game TOO accessible, but at this point it is virtually unaccessible, even to those with previous SF experience. All this does is make 90% of online matches spamfests.

Honestly, I feel like I had much better competition in online DOA fights than on Street Fighter, and I thought THAT game was filled with spammers and hosebeasts...

I tried unlocking the characters on easiest and Seth is the cheapest boss EVER! If you're lucky enough to get a punch in he'll grapple you and slam you down to death.

Medium? Seth is a bitch even on Easy!

So because kof has a shitty boss it somehow means that seth is allowed a freebie for being a cheap as shit boss? How about this is STREET FIGHTER, you know the "king" of fighting games and they have a shit final boss in there? Just because someone else did it doesn't make it right.

what you fail to realise, brett who is apparently from atlanta, is that the bosses in EVERY KoF game are crazy hard[cheap]. seth is a stroll down memory lane compared to Magaki in KoF11..

I like how Seth automatically gets harder the better you play.
(not really, he's teeth-grindingly hard to beat)

I beat him the first time on medium....
Weird I thought he was kind of easy and kept losing to Bison that bitch

Seth has one setting, cheap. There is no difference in playing him on easy vs playing him on hardest.

Same here, riccochetJ. Make that two glass joes, cause boy am I getting my ass kicked online. I may be complicating my rise in skill by forcing myself to play as Dan (gotta love that guy) but, still. If you wanna play let me know. My gamertag is: heyo007. Feel free to add me and we hone our skills in SFIV.

@heyo007

I haven't seen you online, man. I'm still waiting for that fight! :)

And RiccochetJ, feel free to add me. I'll be happy to lend you the little knowledge that I have.

PSN: jorojoserojas

Sorry about that, Jose. I have to crack open my SFIV Collectors for the PS3. I've been playing the 360 one so far. I'll get on that and we'll match it up, brother.

Ahhh man, I only have the xbox version of sf4. I do have the hd remix on ps3 though.

Xbox: Riccochet J
PSN: RiccochetJ