GDC 2011 Hands-On: Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition - Preview
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 03 March 2011 / 3,735 Views
I'm no stranger to Capcom's marquee fighting franchise. I've been making Ryu and his frienemies do the smackdown samba since Street Fighter II. I've spent significant time with Street Fighter IV, both the regular and Super variants. Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition (SSFIV3D) for the Nintendo 3DS keeps everything you know about Super Street Fighter IV and turns it 45(ish) degrees...literally.
SSFIV3D offers the classic experience from Super Street Fighter IV but on a handheld and looks quite good doing it. It's not going head-to-head in a beauty contest with its HD console brethren, but it does look better than the N64 ports we've played with.
You can play it in the standard view that you're used to or shift to a slightly over-the-shoulder viewpoint that really takes advantage of the 3D. This isn't a full-on over-the-shoulder like a third-person adventure, it just turns the action a bit and keep the camera slightly behind and to the side of your character. This may seem disorienting at first and can make gauging distance challenging, but I quickly adapted to the new angle.
The controls for SSFIV3D are almost exactly what you're familiar with. Heavy attacks are mounted on the shoulder buttons while light and heavy attacks are on the face buttons. This makes the only control difference the lack of second shoulder buttons for combined L+M+H attack buttons. I was able to jump in and Shoryuken or Spinning Piledriver to my heart's content. Focus attacks and grappling still work the same way too.
They had the game set up in casual mode, which is where there are four programmable buttons on the lower touchscreen. The programmability carries over onto the face buttons as well. You can map super and ultra combos (amongst other things) to face buttons if you so choose. How these shortcuts will affect game balance is yet to be seen.
I started playing a computer opponent, but then the Capcom guys set up two of the 3DS units for versus mode. This is when it really felt like I'd stepped into familiar shoes. I grabbed Cammy and did what I do best with her: whooped my competition. Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition is the same tight, focused fighting experience you get on the HD console equivalents, just shrunken down and given a third dimension.
