Capcom’s “Street Fighter IV” now available on the App Store

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streetfighteriviphone

Hadouken! I hope you’ve been practicing your hurricane kicks and lightning cannonballs, because Capcom’s much anticipated port of its beloved Street Fighter IV fighter is now available for $9.99 over on the App Store.

I’m hustling to jump on a plane, so while I’ve picked the title up, I haven’t yet had time to try it. Unfortunately, though, it looks like our fears about the virtual control scheme are well founded. According to TUAW:

[The iPhone version] is about as faithful a Street Fighter IV game as you can get on the iPhone, playing a fighting game without actual buttons is not really an ideal experience. While I was able to pull off a Hadoken and almost all of the other old moves after a few tries, the highest levels of competition in a fighting game require precision and subtlety, and this control scheme has neither of those. If you just want to play Street Fighter on an iPhone, sure — be an early adopter, pick up the game, and enjoy a few rounds of Guile vs. Ryu. But if you’re looking for the kind of in-depth fighting experience that Street Fighter IV on consoles and in the arcades offered, you probably won’t find it here — the controls are a little too inconsistent to really dig into the deep counter and powerup systems on display.

That’s about what we expected, but still disappointing. Then again, the iPhone is a casual gaming platform, not a handheld meant for serious video game competition. As long as most people can pull off their Lightning Kicks and Spin Drive Smashers most of the time, Street Fighter IV will probably be good enough for them.

If you’re a fighter fan and have picked up Street Fighter IV, who don’t you tell me what you think of the game in the comments?

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