Street Fighter IV impressions

Rented SF IV this weekend and have put in a couple hours. It has been overwhelming praised, but I'm definitely not blown away. It's a pretty safe SF2 in 3D adaptation. It's well animated, but I wish they had gone more daring with the paintbrush/watercolor art style. I find the characters a tad cartoony and really loved that highly stylized first trailer. The game definitely needs an arcade stick and the computer AI is pretty brutal even on the lower difficulties...maybe it's just the crappy D-pad on xbox 360. I've only played about 4 characters so far (really like the new C. Viper) but the game is certainly solid. I really like the challenge mode since it teaches you the ropes and builds up the difficulty well. The final boss in Arcade Mode is impossibly cheap and the anime cutscenes have some laughable voicework. The main theme song is also pretty corny. The gameplay is solid though and there was no noticeable lag for me online...well done.