A Few Things About Street Fighter 4
Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 10:24PM Street Fighter 4 is finally here, with several perfect 100/100 reviews. Here's a few things I noticed about the game.
In ranked matches, you can see the opponent's name before the match and kick them or reject the challenge. This allows you to cherry pick who you fight and negates the entire purpose of a ranked match.
In ranked matches (well, all matches) there is no double blind character select. This means the optimum strategy is often to wait until the opponent chooses first so you can counter-pick. This is a very annoying situation.
When lag inevitably happens in an online fighting game, there are different ways to handle it. Some SF4 matches I played had large input delay, maybe as high as 15 frames. This is the time between your button press and seeing the effect happen. Adding input delay is really the worst way to handle lag. GGPO's amazing netcode shows that avoiding input delay and hiding lag in other ways is the way to go. That technology has been readily available for years, so it's disappointing to feel input delay in an online match.
The button config screen is "the wrong way." The right way is for the screen to list functions, then you press the buttons you want to assign. The wrong way is to list buttons, then you scroll through lists of functions to assign. The reason that one way is right and the other way is wrong is pretty clear when you watch people try to configure buttons. I've had to watch what must be thousands of people do this over the years in all the tournaments I've helped run (not to mention local gatherings). When the config screen says "Jab" and requires you to press the button you want, you just press the upper left button on your stick (or whatever button on your gamepad). This is a one-step process. But if the screen lists "X" and then requires you to scroll through functions until you find jab, it requires a two step process. You have to know which button on your controller is labeled "X." When this screen is the right way, no one has to know if the upper left button happens to be X or A or B or whatever else.
If you think this is negligible, you have never seen people set buttons. The wrong way turns what should be a 3 second task into a fairly confusing affair. Yes I know the wrong way allows you to have lots of functions in your list, but this can be done the right way also.
On to gameplay issues. The jumps have strange acceleration to them. While that's subjective, look at Zangief's jump that seems to have the acceleration of a flea. (Incidentally, why does his splash not stay out the whole time in the air?). Also, getting hit out of the air is extremely floaty, which means it takes unusually long to get back to a state where you can actually move again. This "moving in jello" feel is reinforced by many throws that have dead time at the end when it seems like you should be able to move (see Vega's for example).
The size of the stages is extremely large relative to the size of the characters. This helps runaway tactics.
Optimizing for the 1% rather than the 99% case. There's two examples, the first is tech recover (quick get up from a knock down). 99% of the time, I want to get up fast, but this is the action that requires button presses. Why not admit that getting up fast is the intent and make it default, unless the player holds down some buttons to get up slow? That's how it works for Robo-Ky in Guilty Gear, by the way. Incidentally, don't the two kinds of get up timing only lessen the importance of knockdown by allowing you mess up the attacker's timing a bit? Like the decision to have large stages, this seems not to favor offense.
Next is the 2-button throw, a bad idea in fighting games with 2D gameplay. 3D Fighting games are different beasts, so they are excused here, but note that even Dead or Alive offers a macro to turn its 2 button throw into a 1 button throw...and maps that macro to a face button by default. Anyway, 2 button throws solve a non-problem that no one has ever actually had. That's the problem of accidentally throwing and being sad about it. Street Fighter 2, Guilty Gear series, and Street Fighter Alpha 2 all demonstrated that 1 button throws work just fine and don't actually create any problems. Adding a second button press just adds complexity where it's not necessary, and helps nothing. (Edit: it does add a throw whiff which could be a good thing, but simpler is still better...)
Other non-problems we might solve in 2D fighting games would be to make blocking 1 button and jumping 1 button (each are traditionally zero buttons). We certainly could add those button presses, but it would make more sense to reduce the button presses to as few as possible: zero to jump, zero to block, and one to throw.
It's especially unfortunate that Cammy's hooligan throw requires a 2-button throw in the middle to complete it. Why exactly is this necessary, rather than one button?
2 button throws actually introduce the problem of kara-throws, a bug from SF3 that we now have again in SF4. This is when you cancel a forward moving attack a frame or two into it with a throw command in order to greatly extend your throw range. Do the designers want a long throw range or do they not? If they don't kara throws shouldn't be in the game. If they do, then base throw ranges should be extended for all players, not just the ones who input a difficult command.
Another similar bug is the chain combo cancel bug. As an example, consider Sakura. Low short does cancel into special moves. But if you rapid fire the low short (do it 2 or 3 times quickly each one cancels the last) then you CANNOT cancel the last hit into a special. I'm not saying this is a problem at all, necessarily. This restriction is there for good reason: to prevent the game from degenerating into low short -> big damage stuff. It would make more sense to give players a reason to start combos with bigger moves sometimes. Guilty Gear does a great job of this by reducing your entire combo's damage by 20% for each low short. (Hey Guilty Gear players, I know I'm simplifying there.)
Ok so what's the problem, sounds good that you can't do low short, low short, special move, right? But you can do it. If you make the last short a link rather than a chain (do it slowly, but not so slow that it doesn't combo) then you can cancel it into a special move. So really, you can get around this restriction if only you have high dexterity skills. Now, this is also true in ST and SF HD Remix, but that's not so much intent as what we were stuck with. For an entirely new game, I'm surprised to see this still there. I'm even more surprised to see combos that use this in the challenge mode, meaning the developers know about it and accept that low short is really this powerful. SF4 Sakura, for example, can low short, (link), low short, ex shoryken, ultra. She can do a lot more than that, but you get the idea.
This issue of rapid fire moves using a bug to cancel into specials is actually minor compared to the next topic though, a topic that will dominate much of the game: link combos in general. The game is filled with difficult 1-frame links. These are moves that just barely combo into each other with 1/60th of a second timing. In high level play, players will master these and they become common. So Sakura doing low jab, (link), low fierce, short helicopter kick, (link) low short, ex shoryuken, ultra for 50% will be common. One friend of mine already does this combo in real matches after only 2 days of playing, as well as other scarily damaging combos off low short that involve hard links.
Other examples, Ryu can now link low short, low jab, low forward. He can also link low strong, low strong, low roundhouse. Linking is the name of the game, which actually makes the game closer to CvS2 than to 3s or ST. The effect of all these links is to hide the actual game behind an impenetrable wall of execution. If you practice (ie, develop 1p skills unrelated to strategy and unrelated to interaction with the opponent) then you gain access to the real game, a game of high damage off small hits, but only for the dexterous.
Of course some level of this is inherent in just about every fighting game. It's a question of how far to turn the knob towards 1p activities and away from strategy. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo has dexterity requirements of course, but winning tournaments while using zero or very few link combos is entirely possible. That simply isn't the main focus of the game. The existence of many, many new links in SF4 shifts the focus toward that though.
Next up, we have ultras. All I'll really say here is that in real matches I find myself having to pump qcf x 2 over and over looking for the right moment to do the ultra. When I find that moment, I have to complete the qcf x 2 command with PPP. Let's hope I don't press PP in those moments, because that command gives me a super, which is an entirely different move. I'm not sure what qcf x 2 + PPP is doing in a "casual friendly game" in the first place.
Then there's focus canceling. The idea of paying half your meter to cancel a move is taken from Guilty Gear where it was called roman canceling. It's a wonderful mechanic in Guilty Gear, by the way. The command in that game is press any three buttons--I use PPP. This is actually pretty natural because when using a joystick, your right hand's natural resting position is on those PPP buttons usually. In SF4, the roman cancel command is medium punch + medium kick, then tap forward, forward. This is really awkward and a whole lot of inputs for one decision (the decision to roman cancel). I wish I could map this command to PPP or something, rather than having to do button presses AND double taps. There's many combos involving this that you'll need to be able to do to be competitive, so I'm not sure why this ended up requiring so many extraneous inputs.
When I read about the 100/100 scores, I see again and again how "simple and elegant" the game is. Two super meters, a 3-tier focus attack system, and all the complications above seem to fly in the face of that. Even more though, I hear how "casual friendly" it is. This is deeply mysterious and I'm not sure why this so often claimed. Not every game has to be casual friendly, so it would seem more honest to just explain how casual unfriendly all these things are. Qcf x 2 +PPP all the time, extra button presses to throw, extra button presses to roman cancel, and many, many extremely difficult link combos work in concert to create that impenetrable wall of execution between you and the actual game (the interaction between you and your opponent). I wish we could get rid of all this stuff and focus more on the gameplay itself.
Edit: I forgot to mention two more things. First, the unlocks. I'm very surprised to see basic functionality of the multiplayer game--the characters--locked behind tedious 1p tasks. I had to pay a tax of fighting the computer on easiest for long time just to get the core features of the game. (I did this picture-in-picture while watching episodes of Frasier.) I'm fully aware that casual players love unlocks, and that's why non-essential content like costumes, movies, icons, and titles are all perfectly fine to give as rewards for playing 1p content. But the *characters*? This steps on the toes of those wanting to play the multiplayer game by making our first experience with the game a very boring one. I wanted to hire a MMO gold farmer to do this for me.
And the last thing I should have mentioned here is that despite all these many problems, there is fun to be had in the game...
Reader Comments (275)
Any game with noticeable input delay during an online match is in the stone age of networking.
Yikes, you make it sound like they really didn't think this out too well...
While this is mostly besides the point of the article, I'm going to have to defend 1-button jumping; consider Smash. Having up mapped to jump makes it easy to accidentally jump when you intended to attack upwards. (Which of course also caused the running up-smash bug, but then in Brawl this became a feature rather than a bug, so tap-up-to-jump became unnecessary in that regard.) Of course, I suppose Street Fighter doesn't have upward attacks, but I don't see anything wrong with separating the two functions so that a game can.
But even without upward attacks, having a 1-button jump has another useful feature: When jumping and movement are controlled separately, you get much more control over your jumps, as you no longer have to be holding a specific direction at the start of it! ...though I suppose Street Fighter doesn't have either maneuvering or directional attacks in the air either, does it?
Edited by Sirlin: Street Fighter chose to give access to more moves by adding more buttons (6 attack buttons) as opposed to holding up while pressing one of two attack buttons as in Smash. Also, Smash is designed to be played on an analog stick, and that's not the best device to input a jump on anyway so their decision makes sense in that context. I'm not really trying to say anything good or bad about Smash, but adding yet another button press to jump in a non-Smash 2d fighting game would not be a very good use of a button, I think.
Two buttons throw's...... meh I can live with.
Lack of blind pick....... is retarded, but online at least doesn't matter in KEN FIGHTER 4
Lack of quarter matches/winner stays on....... UNFORGIVABLE.
Getting up shouldn't be a button press.... 100% agree there.
Capcom should have played HD a bit more, cause here's a few other poor design choices imo.
1: Chun's hopping spinning bird kick?
2: Old crappy inputs on fei and cammy?
3:No honda jab head butt?
4:Music (opening) omg its like sf3 all over again... well maybe not that bad but i could live without the boy band stuff
5:Hitbox overlay in training?
Its a great game just has niggles. but hopfully should be fixed by the time "super hyper mega champion edition Street fighter 4 6th strike" comes out.
I liked SF3's music much more than this High School Musical ripoff band.
I agree with all the points made in the article. Also, searching for games takes much longer than it does in any other online fighter I've played, and when you fail to join just one game you have to start the search all over again. At first I liked the interruptable Arcade Mode where people can join in at any time, but then you get tons of Quick Match players or people with less than 4 bars and you end up not playing either Arcade or multiplayer matches.
I've been looking forward to finally being able to play a good fighting game online on the PC, and I've been watching match vids on youtube for months. Now, the game looks great, but the heavy execution reliance that Sirlin talks about in his review is a bit disheartening. Not because I have a problem with execution on its own, but because heavy execution reliance tends to make many moves redundant.
My main problem with a heavy focus on links is that they will be used heavily since they start off of fast, and therefore, safe moves. Slower moves like standing fierce or similar will be useful only for pokes, and only for some characters. Since they are slower, they are also more unsafe, making them less reliable. This creates redundancy in the movelists. What's the point in having 6 attack buttons when only 3 are used? I've yet to see anyone use Dictator's far standing fierce in any match vid I've seen. Is it just less useful than the standing roundhouse in every way? Then why have it in the game?
Another concern is that the links mostly seem to be mostly low moves. In fact, I have yet to see a Ryu player actually use any standing moves. The high/low parries of SF3 made it more viable to use high moves every now and then to throw off an opponent's attempt to low parry. Without this function I fear the game will turn into "Crouch Fighter 4".
And by the way, did they include the 25% increased damage you take from getting hit while crouching, like in SF3?
As an avid blanka i find two button throws obnoxious, especially when i'm trying to blitz a turtle.
Also not a fan of these revenge ultras maybe because mine is so god awful but nothing burns my balls more then when i'm fighting some nubby Ken who i've dominated the whole fight, links into an ultra for like 60% of my life. At least when they were tied to the ex meter there was a trade off.
Unlocking characters was definatly a chore but unlocking colors....you gotta be kidding. The time trials arn't even hard they're extremely tedious, the ai is a punching bag 90% of the time and then it'll suddenly wake up (usually on fight number 11 of 12) tear you a new one and waste half an hour of your life.
No double blind is a disaster as well, waste 29 seconds of my life every match that is if i can get into a room in under five minutes
Sirlin what are your feelings on the DLC alternate costumes? 1000 gamerpoints (15 dollers) seems obnoxious for content that's already on the disk/from the aracde.
I'm surprised I haven't seen many complaints about FADC on here. To me, I think the idea is ok, but in terms of execution, is note easy at all! The actual cancel is not too bad, but linking attacks after the cancel is extremely difficult. I don't know why a simple tap of MK+MP couldn't have done the same thing and made it a lot easier for all of us. But no... now I have to spend many hours in training mode trying to utilize this so I can get easy hit ultras.
I've had more fun in one day playing SFIV than all the time I spent with HD remix. Try spamming moves in SFIV. Not so easy huh? Now try that in HD remix. No wonder so many people who wanted an easy ticket are complaining. SFIV truly rewards you for all the time you put into the game. HD remix is a remake of a game that came out 15 years ago and it shows. SFIV is superior in each and every way and I will never go back to the unbalanced mess that is HD remix.
Although I feel that many of your points are valid, I have to disagree with some of them.
For the most part, I agree completely with everything you said about online play (double blind, users name, lag problems, etc). I wish you had a say in the SF4 online experience. Also, wow, the controller config... I've been saying the same thing for awhile now. I agree with frustration of the SF4 config system. Lastly, the unlockables... boy was that boring and pointless. Glad to see I'm not the only one who got annoyed at that.
But to be fair, I'd like to share my opinions about some of the problems you mentioned. As for the throws, although I miss the one button command, I like the two buttons. Reason being is the "miss" factor if you dont execute your throw correctly. It punishes players that love to spam throws. It adds the risk factor that I personally like that has always existed in SF. It adds the same element of knowing when to throw that is tied with fireballs or dragon punchs; if timed incorrectly, you'll be punished for it. With one button, you cannot have the "miss" animation since you'll be throwing a punch or kick instead of "missing a throw".
Kara throws this time around in SF4 is not a glitch. Ono mentions this in an interview. I'll post it once I find it again. But either way, I dont mind it. Its an added difficulty that gives a benefit to those who can do it. This goes for anything that has added difficulty (Parries, FADC, and roman cancels, etc).
Focus attacks inputs are fine imo. Yes they come from the idea of roman cancels from GG, doesnt mean it should have the same input. I do have to admit it is taking me some time to get used to the SF4 command/dash vs RC. But its just something we have to get used to. I dont feel its any "better" or "worse". Its just what we're habit to do thats messing with us.
In terms of casual friendly, I have a few friends that have gotten into SF4 and they have fun doing whatever. Yes, the harder stuff are are impossible for them to execute but that goes the same for a lot of games. It doesnt take away from the casual experience. Theyre still pulling off supers... ultras occasionally. Throws are going just fine... but no kara throws. Focus attacks are still being used plenty... but no FADC. Theyre not using the "full" potential but that applies to a lot of other games including guilty gear. When playing GG, Ive seen casuals not being able to take full advantage of the juggling capabilities of the game, roman cancels, or fake cancels of some characters, etc. Unfortunately, casuals will miss out on parts of the games that some other people might find so great but it doesnt make it any less fun or worse of a game.
Lastly, although a good point about the ultra input, I dont see what else it could really be so I feel like I just need to suck it up and get used to it. If someone can think of a better input that is less prone to accidents, I'll gladly take that over to what it is now.
TLDR VERSION:
Agree w/
Online Double Blind / User Name / Lag
Controller Config
Unlockables
Disagree w/
Throws - Miss Animation (Risk Factor)
Kara Throws - Added Difficulty (Gives advantage to those who can do it)
Focus Input - Different =/= Worse
Indifferent w/
Ultra - What else could the input be?
Sirlin's response: Different doesn't = worse, that's correct. But worse = worse. It's too many inputs to do those cancels, and anther game shows how wonderful it is when you implement it better. And why are you ok with Kara throws giving advantage to those who can do it? Isn't 2player interaction the point of the game, not 1player dexterity tests? This is a case of a pure dexterity test that could be removed with no consequence at all. Simply give Ken more throw range. Why do you think that only some players should have access to that throw range? It's a mysterious position to take.
As for it being newbie friendly...
It is. I can tell because I'm one of them. My only experience with fighting games before this was Mortal Kombat (1 and 2) which I absolutely adored as a kid and One Must Fall which I found a great game too. I've always attempted Street Fighter in the arcades but because I had no clue how to execute anything it was normally just wasted money.
Anyway, I've been looking for a fighting game eversince and I got SF4 on Friday. While I can't say I'm an expert already, by all means, I am relatively capable of holding my own and can take medium hard/hard opponents (computer) by - what I feel - outclassing them. This is totally contrary to my experience with 3d fighters like Virtua Fighter and DOA4 that I just couldn't get into, maybe because of me, maybe because of the game. These 3Punch/Kicks you speak of are hotkeyed to one button, it doesn't get much easier then that.
While it's true that the game is not an easy game at all I feel like it allowed me to get "into" fighting games and that's partly because the game did a good job of introducing me to the mechanics. As seen in the challenges but also the AI that demonstrates the use of moves frequently which allowed me to learn.
That said I enjoyed reading your review, not so much because I understand all the points you make (yet, anyway). But you give me a closer look to the mechanics of the game which I can hopefully some day use in my own advantage.
Ciao
"For the throws, although I miss the one button command, I like the two buttons. Reason being is the "miss" factor if you dont execute your throw correctly. It punishes players that love to spam throws."
What punishes people who spam crouch block? You only have to hold one button no chance of failure there, your only danger is jump-ins which are easily countered by anti-air or armor break FA's.
"Without this function I fear the game will turn into "Crouch Fighter 4"
These are my feelings aswell.
Amen, Brother Sirlin.
"There's fun to be had." Not a ringing endorsement, and the game doesn't seem to deserve one. The game play is terribly artificial; the new mechanics are unintuitive, and apparently designed for very provincial, closed-ended purposes.
I expected all of the RyuKenAkuma scrubs to come out of the woodwork -- 95% of my ranked matches are against Ken and Ryu, yawn -- but do these people really have any incentive to try some of the other characters, with all the weird and definitely NON-casual-friendly mechanics? Why the hell is Chun-Li's tenshoukyaku now limited to being a canned combo finisher? Who made THAT decision (and who OK'ed it)?
Regarding the "moving through Jell-O" problem, that has to do with animation as well as poor network code. Technological limitations can sometime bear amazing fruit; due to memory and perhaps processing constraints, the SF2 and Alpha games were forced to implement a much more anime-like style of movement, i.e. emphasizing drama via exaggerated and very deliberate action. With SF3 and now SF4, that anime feel (which has always been superb for action-oriented animation) has been severely watered down, with all the in-between animation frames that remove emphasis from the key frames. It will be interesting to compare the new KoF game to SF4, in these terms.
Kids these days.
I agree with every thing said in the review, and many of the problems are very serious (the link combo system is very annoying, MAN some of these are really hard.)
That being said, I still think the game is very very good, one of the better fighting games i've encountered. Super Turbo (and its' derivatives like HDR) are probably better games overall, but there's a lot of new and fun stuff in SF4.
I like the two button throw, for example. In ST if you misjudge the distance on a throw you will do a standing heavy punch, if your opponent attacks at that moment you might trade with them. You guess he was going to block and you were wrong but you don't get punished. In SF4 if you guess wrong and go for a throw when the other person isn't blocking you're gonna get punched in the gut. This is a better system, and I don't think any one is having trouble inputting throws at all so it's a net gain as far as i'm concerned.
I think that after a couple generations of SF4 we will have a really great game on our hands. I'm sure most of these problems will be resolved in SF4: Champion Strike, or whatever they decide to call it.
I totally agree with your opinions on the game. Its a great game and there is a lot of fun be had, but I think the mechanics and feel of the game are not inviting or friendly.
Ive been playing the game for the last 6 months and I just cant seem to LOVE IT, like others do.
SFIV is all hype, and the lack of supply for the MadCatz arcade sticks to the general public is just disappointing.
Lets get some games in on HDR. MAD GRAB SPECIAL
As a long-time fan, but never a poster, I have always wondered about Sirlin's objections to the difficulty of input in fighting games. I'm a long-time Smash pro, and I always valued the intensity of that game's technicality as something to be prized. It is not a game easily learned. It is a game where a player's physical talents, reactions, and quickness of mind are tested constantly. Yet, in my reading of him at least, Sirlin seems to feel that the difficulty of a game should be minimized to exaggerate the mental battle and decision-making between participants, and sees this as a useless obstruction to the real fight between two people.
This is all well and good if you want to play rock-paper-scissors, but a video game carries with it the expectation of the use of controllers, reactions, and timing. To go with the typical sports analogy, I don't try to set up my basketball games with 10 players who all have the same speed, height, and size. Nor do I devalue individual motivation by forcing each of them into a set practice regime of equal time to ensure that none of them has earned an advantage over the other.
As a spectator, and perhaps an amateur participant, we are in awe of the physical feats that top players perform because the vast majority of us do not have those skills, and could not reach that level even if we wanted to due to our own individual talents. Or, perhaps we are in awe of the player with obviously inferior physical properties who has, through force of effort, elevated himself over those inherently superior. I feel this way when I watch and participate in competitive video gaming. I watch and enjoy those players whose developed senses of timing, spacing, and consistency, whether achieved through talent or effort, are demonstrated.
When the layer of physical depth is removed, the opportunity to be awed at these skills is also gone. Unfortunately, the transition from Melee to Brawl has emphasized this point for our own community. Yes, having a deep physical game makes it inaccessible by its very nature, but are not our sports leagues in the same boat? We can't all be in the MLB, NFL, or NBA, and obviously most of America still shares in some sense of enjoyment over the high level of physical talent on display. So what is at the core of Sirlin's argument? Is the goal to bring the game to a chess-like arrangement where decision-making is strongly valued over the physical skill of moving one's pieces correctly? Is it just to keep the game as accessible as possible to the widest audience?
Just something I've always wondered, and I've never really seen a clear answer for it on the website. Thanks in advance!
Tim
Response by Sirlin: I think you set your sights very low indeed. If you are looking for merely a sport, then sure these aspects unrelated to multiplayer interaction would be ok. But why are you aiming so low? How about a better competition than sports can offer, one that focuses on decisions and some skills we deem relevant while getting rid of others that aren't? I'm also not sure why you are in awe of such boring skills. If the game at hand is Beatmania IIDX, the entire point of the game is 1p dexterity skills so sure I could be in awe of someone displaying them. In a multiplayer competitive game like a fighting game, awe wouldn't come to mind. It would be sadness that the spirit of the game was so obstructed. Unless of course you think the spirit of the game is only a dash of decisions with lots of 1p technical execution--a pretty unexciting sprit, I'd say. Besides, if you really cared about something being spectator friendly, we could make such a game (maybe put in a bunch of exciting ultra supers). Pleasing reasonable spectators doesn't mean a game needs artificially difficult commands to play.
Also, I never suggested "artificial difficulty" be introduced. There is an obvious fine line here that I don't think we need to get hung up on. I'm not saying we make moves into full circle-cross-5 button sequences. Every action has a purpose and a corresponding timing and input, and the difficulty thereof plays into the viability and effectiveness of the tactic. Both players know this. There is still interaction, simply in evaluating the opponent's ability to handle situations where inputs become more difficult, and forcing them into these situations if it gives you an advantage.
Evaluation of an opponent's skills are at the heart of this discussion. Part of the risk/reward between players is an understanding of the execution skills of the opponent. So while you may dismiss such skills as "1P technical execution," when you introduce the aspect of difficulty of execution against a live opponent this changes immensely. I'm not sure how familiar you are with Smash, but every combo requires slight adjustments in timing and spacing due to the exact controller position of the opponent when they are hit. There is very little in the game that could be considered "1P technical execution," because everything stems out of an interaction. Dexterity is important to this process, and seems to be a perfectly valid skill to test.
Perhaps I am asking the wrong question. Which types of decisions and skills do you consider to be important? If requiring multiple button presses are a bad thing, then how do combos make any sense at all from your perspective? Should not the consecutive hits be automatically applied once the first hit connects? Some moves would start combos that emphasize damage, some with knockdowns, and some with supers if available. You could make them be based on range as well, eliminating the need for a player to practice how distance between the players forces them to modify their combo. That would put the emphasis back onto decision making, but I don't see evidence that this is the direction that you would like to go. This is why I get confused, because I feel like I see inconsistency here. Perhaps this arises because there are simply not enough controller buttons to include all of the options that you would like to provide.
Response by Sirlin: Certainly range matters. You can't have a 2d fighting game without testing the skill of getting in the right range. Nor can you really have a real-time game without testing timing of when to do a move. So certainly we have these or we wouldn't even be in this genre in the first place. As long as combos are easy to perform, they can have the decisions you mentioned. In ST, it's not hard to do jump roundhouse, low fierce, fireball. And if it was even easier somehow (bigger cancel window) then who cares? The real test was if you jumped in at the right time to do this combo. And yeah you can chose to end a combo with a knock down or more damage or a mixup opportunity or whatever. I'm lost as to what is inconsistent. Just remove things that don't need to be there...
If you had checked the button configuration, you would have noticed that you can change the two button throw to a single button like you want.
You can also bind a single button to focus attack or taunt, along with all three punches or all three kicks.
Edited by Sirlin: "If you had checked the button configuration." Nice condescending comment, but you miss the point entirely. I don't want a 7th and 8th button to play the game in a normal way. Other games like SF2 series and guilty gear have 1-button throws without devoting a whole button to it...and roman cancels without devoting a whole button to it. My EX2 stick only even has 6 buttons on the face.
From what I'm reading, it sounds like it's hard to get a medium between one player technicality and two player interaction/decision making. I believe the intent of Sirlin's article was to contrast all the media has been conveying Street Fighter IV and it's true technicality as well as nit-pick a bit; but, I believe he clearly sent his message across and used concrete details as well as commentary to strengthen his argument. These are just use to prove his point that this isn't Casual Fighter IV.
For my own opinions, I disagree with grabs in terms of two button input but am on the fence and leaning towards your opinion of kara-throws. In terms of FADC, even though I'm not good at it yet in regards of inputting it into a well sized combo string (as I get kinda antsy with my hands and anxious that I might screw up) it's still and easy input if one wants to mix it up and meaty a st.hp that gets blocked and you FADC to catch the opponent off guard and grab him. In terms of the revenge guage and ultras, that is not hard at all be it on arcade stick or gamepad. Just don't be sloppy. Also, it takes right timing to do an ultra, it can't be cancelled into unless the character is Dan, and has to be linked into which I believe takes more timing than cancelling. If one just does safe pokes, hit confirm, special attack, FADC, then Ultra, the damage will be scaled down anyways. Links, on the otherhand, I agree with Sirlin. Then I pretty much agree with Sirlin on everything regarding online. Though, I find it fun to show my PSN and title that says "Sexy" with my pretty flowers icon. But I can see that this could intimidate players or set some kind of false judgement and lead into a booting out of the game. Since I play with guys I know from IRC anyways and it's more than just Ken, Ryu, and Akuma, I don't have problems setting up matches and actually play some "ggs". As for the whole "jello" bit, I don't feel it; but, I do agree that Blanka is too slow and maybe Honda.
All in all, the changes I hope to be made are to online mode, "unlockables & DLC", button config, and kara throws mainly.
Yet you wrote
"Next is the 2-button throw, a bad idea in fighting games with 2D gameplay. 3D Fighting games are different beasts, so they are excused here, but note that even Dead or Alive offers a macro to turn its 2 button throw into a 1 button throw..."
This is exactly what SF4 can do, only you have to change a few settings in the config.
So you are just complaining about stupid crap like this for the sake of complaining then?
Response by Sirlin: You still don't get it even after you last post. Throw is one of the basic 4 face buttons in DOA. Street Fighter uses 6 buttons already. You cannot make throw 1 button unless you use a 7th button, which is ridiculous and even infeasible on many sticks, including mine. "1-button throw" means that it's one of the 6 buttons you already have mapped. I thought that would go without saying.
Am I the only one who finds a two button throw much easier to handle than a one button throw? I would must rather be able to freely choose whether I throw or do another attack whether than have it be based on how close I am. And with a stick it's pretty much the exact same amount of time and "dexterity." You could say that you shouldn't need a stick, but come on. I don't know of any good traditional fighting game that doesn't play loads better with a stick. This is a genre that really came of age in arcades. An arcade stick, when I built my first, turned fighting games from a chore that I played because my friends liked them to something I really enjoyed.
Come to think of it, I can only think of one series that I enjoy playing without a stick, and that's Smash Brothers.