IMO:

To play single player or online: SFIV
To play with friends: SSBB by far

As a long time Nintendo-fanboy and long-time hater of Street Fighter, my true opinion easily leans in the obvious direction, but if you look at it subjectively objectively, i still want to say that Brawl is the more comprehensive experience. Street Fighter IV is Street Fighter, and only Street Fighter. Even if it is the perfection of Street Fighter in a form that encompasses modern advances in gaming well (though the art style leaves a bit to be desired), all it is is Street Fighter. Brawl was trying (and to a large extent, succeeding) to be more.

EDIT: I always mistake the meanings of Subjective and Objective

Okay, I have to say, I'm not a fan of fighters in general - never have been never will be and I've played all the main fighter franchises many times over. So I'm coming at this from a different vantage point here.

But my son rented SFIV and wants to buy it but it's bugging the hell out of me. SFIV is nothing more than a reskined and retooled SFII. It's an upgraded port of a 20 year old game with fancier graphics and online. Now I'm not knocking the gameplay, it could be the best fighter -ever but there's no way in hell I'd pay full price for a game that probably cost 5m-10m to develop.

Looking at Brawl in comparison to value added. Same improved graphics and retooled gameplay, Online play (although SFIV's is much better) much greater variety of character types, FULL single/co-op player mode. MANY other modes, level editor, 300 songs - almost all redone, licensed characters, LOTS of stages, which actually make more than a cosmetic difference, physics engine, etc., etc.

Even if you played SSBM to death the added content in SSBB is worth every penny and then some.

SFIV while it does the main thing right - gameplay - adds NOTHING to make this a 'next-gen' experience. No physics, no texture engine (neither cloth nor hair move expect for in pre-rendered frames). Personally I find the movement almost as jumpy as old school SFs - as if it's the exact same frames redone in 3d models. It IS for all entensive purposes just a resskined/retooled SFII with (aside from the obligatory new characters/levels) ABSOLUTELY NO NEW CONTENT nor use of any of a HD systems capabilities (aside from the obvious HD graphics and online which SFII HD Turbo also offers to a lesser degree).

Is it fun? Absolutely. Is it a must-buy for any lover of fighting games. Absolutely. Is a $60 game? Absolutely not. Of course it'll sell mad copies anyway but this is like a Wii mentality (gameplay over advanced features) coming to the HD systems. I, and I realize I may be alone here, could not concieve of paying the same price for a $100m game like GTAIV and for a reskined SFII with no next-gen anything at all that probably cost 10m and could easily run on Wii (without HD textures natch) or even heck, PS2 or Xbox.

However many do pay full movie price for a $20m movie as well as a $200m movie so I guess that's fair. But I just don't see SFIV being anywhere's near as good a value as Brawl.

^^ couldn't agree more

Street Fighter 4 is a lot better.

It has far better online play.

There's more depth and a bigger learning curve. This gives players more things to practice and adds more value to the game.

Hit stun. The game has combos, something Brawl lacks. There are so many cool combos you can do. It's a lot more fun than spamming safe moves over in over (i.e Marth fair).

A more balanced roster.

Street Fighter 4 is truly amazing.

Brawl isn't a great fighting game to be honest. It's a great all-around game with with a lot of content. Hell, it even gives you 6 hour platformer. Street Fighter 4 is just more satisfying to play.

I was going to write a counter argument to this until I read your last paragraph. You did a good enough job killing your own argument.

It should be noted also that your argument of GTA IV isn't a good one considering a major complaint of the game is that it may have thousands of things to do, but many found none of them particularly fun or well done.

I'll check back in when I play SFIV.

street fighter 4 easily.

brawl is good but well overhyped.

when i first got hold of brawl i thought it to be pretty good as theres a large game in there.

i quickly got bored with emissary mode, and i didnt take to well to the mini games

sound test was very good though. as was brawl grafix.

but main gameplay was just button mashing, and i couldnt find any control suitable for it.

i tried the classic controller didnt feel good, wii and nunchuck felt worse.

the best control i found for it was the wiimote on its own, but even still the button placements didnt feel good.

i had it for a week before i ebayed it back on.

i got street fighter 4 today and its been a blast, im happy i have the game.

360 version ??

Both different in many ways, although i prefer Street Fighter IV, mainly because of its ''Classic" game play.