Street Fighter II (and the updated turbo edition) was an essential purchase for any console owner in the 1990s, the perfect beat em up for any fan of arcade fighting action. Owners of the previous incarnations will be pleased to know that version IV offers the same 2D fighting style, the same characters, and the same button bashing frenzied action, but all updated to showcase the best of the Xbox 360's next-gen abilities.

Of the old characters, Ryu and Ken and their 'Hadouken!' fireball are probably the most rounded of the characters, equivalent perhaps to Mario and Luigi in most Nintendo games - good all round strengths, without being exceptional in any areas. The powerful characters comprise the boxer, Balrog (excellent in a close melee situation, useless from distance), Edmund Honda, owner of the 'hundred hand slap' special move which feels like a cheat because it's so easy to use, and Russian strongman Zangief, whose spinning piledriver is still the bane of my life, I just can't pull it off!

Indian mystic Dhalsim and his stretchy limbs can be a good character to begin with, particularly for those inexperienced with the game, as his ability to attack from distance can score you some quick hits before your opponent can react. He is quite a weak character however, and will lose energy quickly in closer combat.

Chun Li and her rapid 'lightning kick' (similar to Honda's hand slap), Blanka and his electrical shock powers, and Guile from the US military all return, and will be familiar characters to those who have owned previous games.

Thai boxer Sagat, M. Bison (the final character to defeat in Streetfighter II) and Vega are all playable from the start in arcade mode, in addition to 4 other new characters who make their debut - Frenchman Abel (who in the story mode, is seeking to recover his lost memory), Crimson Viper, luchador wrestler El Fuerte and the rather overweight Rufus are all welcome additions to the fold, and give the 2 player game more variety.

In the Xbox 360 version, there are an additional 9 characters that can be unlocked, meaning that a maximum of 25 players are selectable once you have mastered the 1 player game and unlocked all of the bonus fighters.

As with its predecessors, people who don't often play video games will frequently pick up Street Fighter and because of it's easy appeal, often beat more experienced gamers, even through a simple tactic of 'press all the buttons at once/as quickly as possible'. This can be quite entertaining, especially when a group of girls who appear to have no interest in the game, suddenly pick up the controls themselves and knock bells out of each other!

There's nothing new here to convert people, but Streetfighter IV retains all of the best elements of the previous games, whilst updating it with new characters, locations and special moves. Best played with a group of people, on a 'winner stays on' basis, you'll soon be losing track of time as you try (like me) to finally master some of the special moves.

Overall, Streetfighter IV delivers exactly what the expectant hordes wanted - an updated, bigger, better version of one of the all time classic fighting games.