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Street Fighter IV coming to iPhone

I've wondered before just how a fighting game on the iPhone would work, and now I'm going to find out: Capcom has announced that they're releasing the latest Street Fighter game (they're up to IV now) on the iPhone. You can see how it works over at IGN -- there's a virtual joystiq on one side, and four virtual buttons on the other. I have no idea how it will actually work in practice; it certainly seems like your thumbs would cover up both your character and the enemy while fighting, and that's assuming that your thumb has the dexterity to know which buttons you're pushing without tactile feedback. But we'll see -- Capcom says the game will have a large number of fighters to choose from (though probably not as much as the full retail game), and the ability to play multiplayer via Bluetooth.

One other interesting note on this one: Street Fighter IV has only been released on the major consoles, and the iPhone will be the game's first handheld relase (that we know of so far). This could be Capcom's experiment -- if they can release it on the iPhone before putting a port out on the DS or PSP, and see some success, we could see other larger developers releasing ports earlier (or maybe even exclusively) on the iPhone in the future. But let's not count our hadouken before it's completed -- first we have to see if a game like this will even work on Apple's little handheld touchscreen.

I've wondered before just how a fighting game on the iPhone would work, and now I'm going to find out: Capcom has announced that they're...
 

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Raj

Capcom released MegaMan 2, a presumably much easier port, for the iPhone, and I (a big fan of both Capcom and Megaman) spent about 2 minutes playing before I deleted it.

The game didn't work well with the screen-joystick (touch-fuzziness).
It didn't handle app-pauses and didn't pause on home button override (you lose your place).

I wish Capcom well with SF4, but with what I saw from MM2, I would probably wait till it's clear it's playable first.

February 17 2010 at 2:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
smoke_tetsu

Street Fighter IV was also released on the PC.

February 17 2010 at 1:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Albert

Are you serious, you have played Street Fighter before right? Seriously?

February 17 2010 at 1:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
FightTheFuture

this might mean resident evil for iPhone sold well. keep it up Capcom!

February 17 2010 at 12:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Aidenconri

There is a decent fighting game for the iPhone already out there called, if memory serves, "Blades of Fury". It has a similar sort of lay out with added iPod support to listen to your tunes. It only has three buttons, attack, magic, and shield, which also works as jump when used in combination with up on the virtual d-pad. The game is actually a joy to play. Simple controls though, as it was a first attempt at the genre I think by the game designers, but it shows great promise. Also in regards to covering up your fighters, it normally doesn't as you tend to have a system like the samurai showdown game for neo geo where the camera zooms in or out based on the proximity of the characters to eachother on the screen.

February 16 2010 at 11:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Aidenconri's comment
FightTheFuture

thanks for the rec. cool game.

February 17 2010 at 1:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
NeuroJoe

Does Will Ferrell wear a unitard in that game?

February 17 2010 at 11:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
RM imagery

Idk Nickux, combos and difficult moves could be interesting depending on how the controls are programmed.

Though I do think that this will be much better on the iPad (with a custom version) - without obscuring the characters.

February 16 2010 at 11:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nickux

Nothing says fun like playing SF with a touch-screen joystick and buttons.

February 16 2010 at 11:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Level 5

I'm sure it'll be fine. I play SF competitively, and I can tell you right now this obviously won't be the version of choice for tourney play. It all just depends on how you look at it, and how serious you take it. Let's face it, people who take the game seriously are not going to like this port, but bringing SFIV to the iPhone isn't for the hardcore fan. But ya know what, for the causal fan, or someone who just wants to pick it up and play a few rounds here and there, this is a great idea, and I'm glad Capcom is doing it (although, me being an Android owner, I'd love to see it ported to Android as well).

Devs, take notice, a casual gamer's port of a hardcore gamer's game is something I'm sure will work. Can't wait to see SFIV on the iPhone.

February 16 2010 at 11:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Level 5's comment
Norman

I don't think it will be fine. I played a lot of gameboy and NES games on jailbroken iphone classic with zodttds emulators, and i can say that playing games where hitting the right key fast like Mega-Man at boss-levels is unplayable if you don't want to sacrifice 2 weeks just to learn how to push that button right in that situation (like THIS one boss fight there).

A game like this without tactile feedback will be not only a little but a LOT worse than it will be on any normal console.

February 17 2010 at 2:37 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Level 5

I don't think this is the same situation. You're trying to play existing NES ROMs and adapt to using on screen controls. I'm a big fan on NESoid on my Nexus, so I feel your pain there (I've just accepted that I'm only going to be able to tolerate RPG's).

This however is a game being changed to accommodate a new control scheme. And like I said, this isn't for the hardcore SF fan that wants to do buffer cancels into supers, etc. It'll work on a different level for players that eschew the mindset that this is going to be just like the arcade version because obviously it won't.

February 17 2010 at 7:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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