Growing up in 90s New Zealand it was mandatory for all fish and chip shops to have a pineapple fritter on the menu, a poster showcasing various sea life and a Streetfighter gaming machine that allowed plenty of entertainment from one 20c coin.
Streetfighter is a Hall of Fame gamingtitle and continues to live with the latest title, Ultra Streetfighter IV. But like a greasy fritter it doesn't take long before the taste of nostalgia is overtaken by reality.
From first looks it's everything a Streetfighter fan would want. Ultimately nothing has changed. You line up against a fellow fighter on a basic platform, use your special moves (yes, Ryu still does a great hadoken), mash buttons and the best over three rounds wins. There were moments of nostalgia that sunk in throughout playing - like kicking a car to pieces for bonus points. I completely forgot about how funny and pointless that is.
Playstation IV game Ultra Streetfighter IV.
There are the classic playing options in arcade mode, where you complete a story mode trying to defeat every other character in the game or vs mode where you can battle a friend. Of course Streetfighter pre-dated the internet, so now you can test your skills against people from around the world, instead of around the block.
There are 44 characters which you can control from the classics such as Ryu, Ken, E.Honda, Chun-Li and Dhalsim to others fighters I never came across at my local dairy as a kid - with strong fighting names like Dan, Elena and Cody.
There are various stages from jumping monkeys in Asia to a volcanic setting in the Pacific which don't add much to the game.
It doesn't pretend to be something else, but in comparison with other fourth generation titles the former arcade game looks archaic and probably has little shelf life when you take in the hours gamers dedicate these days without things like pesky loose change holding them back.
