PRIMA GAMES SUPER STREE FIGHTER IV [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Update 1 May 2010 - I'm reducing my ratings to 2 stars as I'm beginning to find more and more discrepancies and mistakes.

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I enjoy playing Street Fighter, even though I'm not a very good player. The primary reason for getting this book is to have a convenient reference to find information like damage, stun and frame data, basically all the more technical data. This book falls short in that respect.

The book contains the moves for all the characters, the button combination, links, special moves and Ultra combos. The moves are complete but the combos aren't. Only selected combos are featured, like those 1-frame and normal links, normal and difficult combos. There are so many possible combos so I can't fault not including all possible variations, but the combos from the Trial challenges are included. Damage and stun data are only shown for selected combos, not so for single moves.

If you're a beginner, the book does offer general strategies as well as character specific strategies. They are great at providing a quick summary on what the characters are capable of, especially the new ones. There are a couple of good comments on specific moves.

The tips on essentials are also great for beginners. It covers all essentials like chains, links, trades, plinking, zoning and the usual stuff. But for more advanced execution, you'll have to look online. It's more of an introduction than a tutorial.

Here's the part that makes me feel like my money was being snatch away from me. Only frame data for the ten new characters are included. I was expecting the whole cast of 35. Not only that, again, I've to say that the damage and stun information are missing. I'm also not sure if all the moves are included because of the way information is presented. Some characters would have a set of close-range punches and kicks included, some aren't included. Take Ibunki for example, there's only close LP, close HP and close HK. The other 3 are missing -- close MP, close LK and close MK. It doesn't mention that they were left out on purpose.

It seems also like some of the Makoto's moves are mixed with Ibuki's, on the frame data page. I've read from some SF forums that frame data might not be that accurate as there are people pulling off moves that would be impossible given those frames.

The lack of frame data for all the characters really disappoints me. Now I have to go back online to print those information out (to save money from having to buy the other SF4 guide).

The section on the character changes since the last Street Fighter game is limited. It's all in one page and each character has only one line of change, something which I find incredulous.

The book also includes information link unlockables but it's basically information you can easily find online. There's also a complete list of trophies you can collect and the requirements for them.

Good editing is definitely lacking. There are times where I found wrong button combination printed, missing information (such as from the frame data section) and other discrepancies. It's a book where I felt that the author had no input from Capcom, who should have been the one providing all the technical data.

The lack of advanced strategies also make this book less useful for advanced players. For beginners, yes, you can still learn a few tricks.

I hope in the next Street Fighter related guide, it can really be comprehensive with all the technical data included. Maybe throw in some interviews with top fighters and character match-up strategies - we know how to fight with, let use know how to fight against.

As an avid fighting game player, I picked up Super Street Fighter IV and the Prima strategy guide this past week. After spending a considerable amount of time with the game and the guide, I can say this is 100% a huge improvement over the original Street Fighter IV guide.

The opening section will get any beginner from a scrub to at least an educated player. If you read through the entire opening section you shouldn't have many questions for advanced players and hopefully you won't be spamming Shoryukens online all the time. It even covers some advanced tactics in an easy to understand manner.

The character section is huge, with some characters having up to 10 pages each. However, some of those pages are for artwork and images of the basic attacks. It is nice to see pics of all the outfits though. That's a huge bonus so that I don't have to figure out which one I want by trial and error.

As for the strategies in the character section, unless you're an advanced player, you'll find everything you need to get pretty good with each character. I see that some other people are complaining that the strategies aren't advanced, but I have to disagree with that. You don't get every little detail about every character, but you get the most effective strategies that I see even top players using. Akuma and Ibuki's vortex strategies, Viper's ridiculous high-jump canceling and zoning strategies, a lot of info on Juri and Hakan, Cammy's instant dive kicks, the list goes on and on. I'd argue that the E. Honda section is pretty much the definition of how Honda is played at high levels.

I haven't looked through all of the 35 characters because I don't play all 35 characters, but out of the 15-20 I've read through, all of the strats are very solid. I have yet to find a single strategy that doesn't work, and everything was easy to understand.

The unlockables section is lacking. I really wanted to know how to unlock all of the titles and icons. I've also ready online that there's a way to fight Shin Akuma and Shin Gouken, but that's not in the guide either. It's almost like Capcom didn't want this information in the guide, which I can't understand.

The frame data section also seems like Capcom dropped the ball. There's a note that says the author had to do all the frame data by hand. Why? Shouldn't Capcom supply all that information to the author. It makes no sense that the author had to find the frame data by hand. It makes you wonder what else Capcom was holding out on. This is the official strategy guide, so you'd think Capcom would be open to helping with everything, but that obviously wasn't the case here.

With that said, the frame data section in the guide only covers the 10 new characters and can be a little confusing since at the end of each table the next character begins with no break. However, you can go the frame data site, that's linked in the guide and you'll find better tables for all 35 characters.

I thought about giving this guide 4 stars instead of 5, but I can't fault Prima for what is clearly Capcom's fault. It's bad enough I had to pay $40 for what's essentially a patch to the original SF4, now Capcom is holding out on Prima as well?

Either way, this is the best fighting game guide in recent memory. The Tekken 6 and Soul Calibur IV guides were terrible, and the original SF4 guide was average at best. I won't even talk about the last Mortak Kombat guide that read more like an instruction manual than a strategy guide.

My main character is Chun-Li so, as soon as I opened this book, I went right to her move list. Lo and behold, I found a typo on one of her main moves. Within 30 seconds, the usefulness of this book was diminished for me. My second character is Cody. I found a typo on his move list too. Now, it is entirely possible that I am just unlucky, and every other character is fine. But it's doubtful.

There's other problems with the guide. Frame data, inexplicably, is only available for the new characters. Why couldn't Prima print the extra 10-15 pages to include the existing ones? They already included those characters in the old SF4 guide. There is info on each character's moves, but I found much of it to be lacking depth. It is okay for beginners, though.

There's a few good things - the mechanics section in the beginning was upgraded nicely over the SF4 guide, and the character art is nice. But that's about it. This guide is lacking overall. I was hoping for a new guide to cover Arcade Edition, perhaps up to the standards of the amazing MVC3 guide - though a different company (BradyGames) made it, I was hoping perhaps Prima would be willing to step up their game. Alas, not. SSF4, a game of monstrous depth, with a scary learning curve, deserves better.