Over a decade after the original, a new Street Fighter was finally released for PS3 and Xbox360. It combines the old school characters and move sets with updated graphics, levels and four new characters, to create a very good fighting game with high replay value. For those of you who haven’t heard of Street Fighter, I’ll give you a quick rundown. Street Fighter was originally a side-scrolling beat ’em up game where you’d play as Ryu, a martial artist who was competing to become the world’s greatest fighter. The game would progress with you taking on fighters from around the world until you reached the end and fought against the world champ. Street Fighter 2 was a game along the same lines, except instead of playing as just Ryu you’d have the choice of eight world champions, ranging from Ken, Ryu’s rival, to Chun-Li, a Chinese agent looking to take down the crime syndicate Shadaloo. For each character they’d have their own special move set, stats, and background, so each arcade mode would be a special experience in of itself. Now between Street Fighter 2 in 1991 and Street Fighter 4 being released just last week there has been lots sequels, prequels and just some let-downs. But I can honestly say this is the most fun I’ve had playing Street Fighter in a long, long time. The eight original world champions are back along with a few past faces and some completely new ones. The graphics have been updated to a cool cell-shaded look which looks beautiful and flows like water. The controls are pretty easy to learn and just hard enough to master, so it never gets old but the challenge is always there. As for any veterans of the old-school fighter you’ll be pleased to know that with all the old characters there’s still all the old moves, so all those hours of toiling at the arcade will still have paid off. As for you noobs, don’t be afraid because all the special moves are easy to learn and you can be fighting like a master in a few days. Another thing I really like is the addition of the four new characters, because usually when a game introduces new characters they’re either, A) Useless or B) Filler to keep the game interesting. But that’s not the case with this game. All four are very good in their own right and can easily hold their own against some of the originals. My favorite is Abel, a French mixed-martial artist without a past but plagued with memories of Shadaloo. He’s a great character because his moves are fast and strong yet easy to learn, but on a downside he’s a grappler so against a long range opponent it takes some practice to win. Also, another strong point is the online. For some games when you play online you might get massive lag that just ruins the experience, but with Street Fighter it’s been smooth and enjoyable as far as lag is concerned. With all the stuff that’s great about the game, there are a few flaws. Like the horrible cut scenes at the beginning and end of each fighter’s arcade mode. They are just badly dubbed anime which tells you almost nothing about anything. I understand if they had used 3-D it would have taken a lot of time and money, but it would’ve been nice if they at least used good dubbing or explained something. But I don’t play this game to watch cut scenes. All in all, if you want to play an excellent addition to the Street Fighter series, then I really recommend this game. It has a great line up of characters, beautiful graphics, and some serious replay value.