Street Fighter 4 is finally starting to come together a bit. I spent a long time trying to find the right character for me. I started out how most people do, with familiar characters. Ken, Ryu, etc. Eventually I started playing Sagat and had my first taste of success. I started moving up in rank, started getting achievements complete and ultimately got bored. That's not to say, I was ever good. I was good enough for what I wanted to accomplish at the time but that's about it.

I never really liked playing Sagat though. I liked winning with him, but ive never played him in past street fighters. It didn't take me long to realize that Sagat had a lot of great tools to fight against my closest rivals. (Real life friends) I didn't have to try to hard and I didn't have to practice much to be pretty consistent.

Enter: Championship Mode. Suddenly everybody has a reason to play again. A place to start over and a ranking system that's meaningful with some real structure. This is where I start to realize that im falling behind. The old tricks just don't work anymore. The old combo's just aren't coming out and I realize im not interested in being "The King" anymore. Not because im losing with him, but because I don't care that im losing with him. The desire was just gone.

So I messed around again. Played some Sakura and that wasn't really my style. I played some Akuma and as hard as I tried it just never came together. (Even though he's probably my favorite character, I know im so original right?) Though Akuma did one thing for me. He made me realize that I still have the desire to win; I just need to be playing the right character. Playing as Akuma I fought my way through Group 3 and landed face first in Group 2(E).

Then the pain began. Group 2 was immediately better competition then group 3. It was also the reality check I needed. I was not ready to be playing these guys with Akuma. All my best tactics were easily outdone and the punishment was brutal.

So some time passes and I hadn't played in a while. One of my friends decides to hang out and throw down a few matches. We throw back a few beers, the night is going well and everybody is having fun. But constantly, match after match he's getting the better of me. So drunk and getting annoyed I start sulking. Do I just suck? Do I need more practice? Is the controller holding me back? Is it the character? (And worse, is this as good as im going to get?) At this point I don't even care whom im picking, so I scroll over Zangief and the round begins.

Suddenly I hear frustration on his part for the first time all night. "Whoa man, where did that Gief come from?" Truth is, I have always played Zangief off and on over the years and various Street Fighters. He was always just "for fun" though. I never tried to play him seriously. I explained all this and got the most appropriate response ever: "Why the **** not?"

Indeed. I don't know. I honestly don't know why I never put that much together. Kept playing as Zangief the rest of that night. Though I never overcame the deficit of wins and losses from earlier, I evened out the ratio for the rest of the night. My gief kept receiving compliments, and I was feeling good about it.

I decided to take him online. Before I realized it, I started taking in some solid wins. What was most satisfying I think is, you know in your heart when you just get lucky sometimes. These weren't lucky wins. These were decisive, controlled wins. My night capped when I finally made it to a finals round, only to have my challenger disconnect at the end. That was good enough for me, at least at that moment. I might not have received the points, but the victory was mine.

Since then ive been practicing a lot. Learning his combo's doing the "homework". This is the first time since SF4 came out, that ive truly had fun trying to get better. Maybe it was just the character all along. Time will tell.