With EVO 2009 in full swing at time of writing [of this sentence], fighting games are undergoing a resurgence of popularity. The hype surrounding the release of Street Fighter IV on the XBOX 360 and PS3 certainly played a role, but the mechanics of Street Fighter IV plays a huge part also.

Reviews around the release of Street Fighter IV revolved around how “accessible” and “simple” the controls were. How easy it was to jump in and kick ass. Quite frankly, it would be akin to telling someone who just gotten his driver’s license that he can just jump into the 24 HR LeMans race and be a contender. The funny part is that the game is one of the least complicated competitive fighting games out there.

Instead of talking and explaining the entire technical history of Street Fighter (which I almost did), we are going to look at the very core basic of what makes Street Fighter IV a showcase of rock-paper-scissors chess boxing match.

The infamous shoryuken is the butt (and lead, I suppose) of many jokes involving violence. The forward, down, down-forward plus punch motion is the universal anti-air for most characters. Due to the combination of its speed and size of the hit-able and attacking boxes, the shoryuken is almost a sure thing SAM barrage. However, the shoryuken does not come out fast enough and/or does not attack far enough to stuff some attacks. For the characters that don’t have a shoryuken, they either have an anti-air that functions as a shoryuken in some respects, or no shoryuken move, but make up for it in some other way.

The other important, but less well known, mechanic is the universal standing overhead. All characters have some normal attack that comes out a little slower, but hits people who are blocking low, and, because attacks that hit low comes out faster than the overheads, it is used as a mix-up to start a combo.

The third and most important attack is the throw. In Street Fighter II, you could literally win a match and get into a fist fight afterwards by doing nothing by throwing. It did ridiculous amounts of damage combined with the fact that it is by definition unblockable. The throw was put in as another way to mess up a person’s defense game. When your opponent remembered to block low and blocked your overheads, the only option is to throw. It answers the age old question in all fighting games: “How can I sneak in more damage here?”

Every Street Fighter and fighting game afterwards kept the throw and put their little spins on it. The throw in Street Fighter IV is a highly evolved being from the Bronx 7-11 Street Fighter II days. Instead of the unavoidably damaging throw in Street Fighter II, which breaking out of only reduced the already insane damage, the throw in Street Fighter IV is the “Fuck It” button. It did the equivalent damage of the strongest kick or punch, and did not directly lead into a combo.

The newest kid on the block in these series of games is the focus attack. Its purpose is to punish predictable attacks and to extend combos. It is really just a new spin on Street Fighter III’s parry mechanic, where if you were psychic enough, you can freely punish any and all attacks from anyone. The focus attack did a nice job cutting down on the parry ridiculousness of Street Fighter III. Quite honestly I find the focus attack a simple answer to a simple problem of someone trying to punch your face into the air behind it, thus: boring.

All together, the 4 system mechanics is what makes Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter IV. All combo-enders in this game leaves both you and the guy at a distance suitable for what this game is known for: a hard fought tug of war with fireballs. First guy to stand gets his choice of cross-ups, high-low mix-ups, throwing, and meaty attacks (One that covers the other guy’s entire hittable box when he gets up from a knockdown) to start his offensive. If whatever you’re throwing out has just the right amount of pause from your character, the other guy can, and usually will, take the offensive and try to beat it so far down your throat, you’d experience what the blitzkrieg might have felt like if it went through your digestive system.

In a nutshell, a good player before, during, and after every hit would constantly think: “Is it high or low? Is he going to throw? Super? Is he baiting? Is it going to whiff? Can I do anything to punch his face in?”

The moment you guess wrong, throw out the attack, or just straight up did not see it coming, your ass becomes grass.

And that’s why James Morgan-Delossa will never decidedly kick my ass. He doesn’t know how to read my mind.

Next time: BlazBlue!