For all the new stuff that’s been thrown into Street Fighter 4, there are only four new characters if you overlook the unlockable and boss characters. And I am overlooking the unlockable and boss characters. So that leaves us looking at Abel, Crimson Viper, El Fuerte, and Rufus.
Abel isn’t a bad character, and he isn’t half as cheap as I’d first surmised. Sure – the computer loves to roll in and throw you, but once you realize that Abel can be thrown out of his roll, it becomes easy to win against a computer Abel by just moving back until he rolls forward and then moving in to throw him before his roll is complete. I really like the idea of a MMA fighter in Street Fighter who’s focused on grappling, but some of Abel’s moves come off a bit stupid. Grabbing you and swirling you around twice? Kind of lame. Instead, his special throw should take you down and have a 2-second animation of a ground move. The move isn’t cheap though – it’s very much like E.Honda’s buttslam throw. Not nearly as cheap as Zangief’s throws. I like Abel’s move that grabs opponents out of the air while he’s still on the ground, and I like his multistep rush attack that ends in a throw. It reminds me of Fei Long’s triple punch. I don’t use Abel often, but I would. He’s not a bad character.
Crimson Viper is the last character (besides Cammy) with whom I tried to beat the game. I was wise to wait, because as soon as I tried her, she officially became my least favorite character in Street Fighter 4. Not only did I have trouble beating the game with her, I had trouble even getting up to her rival character. Crimson Viper is a bad, bad character. Me no likey.
El Fuerte isn’t an overpowered character, but playing against an opponent who knows how to play El Fuerte well can be really frustrating. His dash can end in a (low attack) slide, a (high attack) jumping tackle, or a jumping throw. If the El Fuerte player is good at rock-paper-scissors, he can pull this move over and over and win using nothing else. Plus, his ultra is the easiest to execute of any character in the game, and it does a good bit of damage. if it weren’t for the fact that most of El Fuerte’s other attacks don’t do tons of damage, he might be a seriously overpowered character.
Lastly, Rufus. I hate Rufus. He looks stupid, he’s difficult to play, and when the computer plays him he can be very hard to beat. Finishing the game with Rufus was a serious challenge, because I didn’t find his special moves very useful. I mostly used his standing fierce punch, his leg sweep, and a throw. Rufus’s only real redeeming quality is that he’s humorously written. His cutscene with Dhalsim is hilarious, and his victory text after many battles has him mistaking just about everyone for Ken Masters. He thinks Guile is Ken, he thinks Ryu is Ken, and he even thinks that Cammy is Ken.
Next time, I’ll be looking at the unlockable characters, which will include my favorite two in the game.
