Introduction

Ultra Street Fighter IV is what happens when a venerable franchise refuses to let a perfectly good engine die and then insists on coming back for brunch, lunch and a very long afternoon tea. The 'Ultra' tag is, appropriately, an exercise in incrementalism: it bundles years of balance patches, new characters and a smattering of mechanics into a single package and then asks players to pretend this is the fresh start the series deserves. On PS4 this arrived in 2015 as a port cobbled together by Other Ocean Interactive on Capcom's watch. If you already own some iteration of Street Fighter IV, Ultra will feel largely familiar. If you do not, congratulations: you are about to meet one of the most influential, stubbornly deep 2D fighting systems of the last decade, dressed in shiny polygonal clothes.

Gameplay

Street Fighter IV is a loving tradition disguised as a modern game. Underneath the 3D models lies classic 2D plane gameplay - exactly the sort of hybrid that reassures purists and terrifies people who prefer things that move in only two dimensions. The basic button layout is the traditional six-button scheme, so if you grew up believing that medium punch and medium kick could solve personal problems, this game will not disappoint. The headline mechanical innovation from the original SFIV that still matters here is the Focus Attack. Performed by holding both medium buttons, it lets you absorb a hit, then counter; hold longer and you get crumples and unblockable hits. It sounds complicated when explained and still sounds complicated when executed, which is part of the charm. Focus Attacks rewarded patient reading of opponents and introduced the kind of mind games that turned many matches into elegant bouts of mutual suspicion. Ultra adds Red Focus - a slightly more invincible variant - and the delayed wakeup option; together these adjustments tidy up some of the system's rougher edges and make certain setups less abusive. Complementing Focus Attacks are the Super Combo gauge and the Revenge (Ultra) gauge. The revenge gauge fills when you take damage, which means comebacks are baked into the rules. When that cinematic Ultra Combo triggers the camera wobbles to let you know you have simultaneously impressed and panicked your opponent. Ultra also introduces Edition Select and Ultra Combo W, letting players mix-and-match versions and Ultra choices for competitive chaos. Yes, it sometimes reads like a menu at a slightly overambitious diner, but it works. The roster in Ultra caps out at 44 fighters. That makes for an embarrassment of grapplers, projectiles and egregious hair choices. Characters introduced across updates - Juri, Hakan, Elena, Rolento, Hugo, Poison, Decapre and a host of returning favourites - ensure that you can find something that suits your particular brand of nonsense. The game smartly preserves classic inputs: throws, taunts, dashes and the traditional balance between ground control and aerial aggression. Ono's ambition to nudge SFIV back toward a 'boxing' feel - emphasizing reads over long flashy combos - mostly comes through. Combos still exist and will ruin your day, but knowing when to Focus, when to counter and when to walk forward like you own a stoop gives the best players their edge. Modes are sensible without being indulgent. Arcade and story bits exist to provide context and a reason to press buttons when friends are not around to witness your mistakes. The home versions added online play, Challenge Mode for learning character-specific combos, Championship Mode for ranking tournaments and a variety of DLC costumes. These additions matter; they keep the game accessible for newcomers while preserving the competitive core that made SFIV a mainstay of tournaments. On the downside, the PS4 port's early life was marred by bugs and glitches significant enough that EVO temporarily refused to use it. Capcom and partners patched most of these problems, and the company later claimed parity with older console builds, but the first impression lived on in the minds of players who prefer their tournament stages without surprise disappearances of inputs.

Graphics

Ultra still looks like Street Fighter IV's distinct art style: 3D models with a deliberately non-photorealistic, ink-splattered finish that aims for a hand-drawn feel. The art director's choice of calligraphic strokes and smudges gives fights a comic-book edge, which is a relief because otherwise you'd be staring at 44 carefully groomed polygonal nightmares. The camera occasionally breaks the fixed perspective for Ultra Combos, which adds cinematic flair and a tiny sense of reward when you land something dramatic. Visually the game has aged into a respectable classic rather than an eye-popping modern showcase. The PC had fancy filters named Ink, Watercolor and Posterize; the PS4 port simply benefited from more stable framerates and higher output resolution on modern hardware. The animated cutscenes are functionally fine but have always suffered from the sort of anime-sells-easily storytelling that gives you plot fragments and lots of flailing hair. In short: it looks good, it looks stylized, and it will make you forgive certain physics when you remember how satisfying a well-timed reversal can be.

Conclusion

Ultra Street Fighter IV on PS4 is a textbook example of a great game aged like a sensible cheese: it's dense, occasionally pungent, and worth bringing out for special occasions. Its strength is the fight system - a well-honed blend of old-school inputs, Focus mechanics and comeback theatre that keeps matches tense and rewarding. The enormous roster and inclusion of modes like Challenge and Championship make it friendly for both newcomers and the tournament-hardened. The weakness is not the game itself but the path it took to the PS4: a long chain of updates, a bumpy port with bugs at launch and the uneasy sense that you are buying years of DLC wrapped in a shiny box. If you want the purest, most feature-packed version of 'Street Fighter IV' before the series moved on, Ultra is it, provided you accept that part of its personality is being the sum of many earlier selves. It is not the most modern-looking fighter, and its PS4 debut was rocky, but Capcom's patches and the underlying mechanical brilliance make it a worthy pick-up. Score: 7.1 out of 10. Consider this the review equivalent of a respectful nod and a firm handshake; one that might also secretly be checking if you trained your anti-air.

See Latest Prices for Ultra Street Fighter IV on PS4 on Amazon

See Prices for Ultra Street Fighter IV on PS4 on Ebay