Say what you will about Capcom’s strategy of incessant re-releases for their fighting games (Street Fighter IV has gone through the indignity of five releases- Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, Ultra Street Fighter IV), but at least the games are top notch; essentially, the release of a new Street Fighter game can often single handedly usher in a new generation of fighting games.

Therefore, fans who are eagerly waiting for Capcom to just get on with it, get done with the Street Fighter IV rehashes, and release Street Fighter V already, are probably going to be disappointed to know that if it ever does come, it’s not coming for a fair few years. Half a decade, in fact.

“Game development is a long and arduous process,” producer Tomoaki Ayano told VG247. “If you look at the history of the series, it took six years to go from Street Fighter II to Street Fighter III, and nine years to go from Street Fighter III to Street Fighter IV. Purely based on that it would probably take us until the year 2018 before Street Fighter V comes out. So I hope everyone will play Ultra Street Fighter IV for a long time.”

Yeah, but people who wanted to play Street Fighter IV or any of its variants probably already have by this point. I understand not wanting to impede sales of their upcoming game with the announcement of a true next generation Street Fighter, but all this is doing is losing more goodwill for Capcom.

Recently, the company announced the four most requested features from the upcoming patch for Super Street Fighter IV. These include: an online training mode, fight request for training mode, new characters and something to combat hard-to-read wake-up games (what).

The usual menagerie of character balances is also in, with Chun Li seeing an increase in vitality, Yang having an increase in attack power and some characters like Cammy and Akuma being toned down in some respects.

Head over to the site to also view producer Tomoaki Ayano’s responses on the changes and also to comment on whether you love or hate them.

This is Ryu having a bad day

Capcom’s cashcow has been wheeled out again on both the PS3 and 360, the latest offering available both as DLC and a full-blown release. Suffice to say, should you already own one of the previous editions, think carefully about whether to part with more of your hard-earned cash as the new content is fairly subtle.

It speaks volumes that the latest release offers only a few minor tweaks, proving just how solid the title was when it first came out a few years ago. This time round, the most notable aspect is the inclusion of four new fighters tagged onto the extensive roster. It brings the total number of pugilists to a healthy 39 – all available from the start with no unlocking necessary!

• Evil Ryu makes yet another appearance after his debut in Street Fighter Alpha 2. For those of you unfamiliar with his work, he’s a less cuddly version of the traditional Ryu, complete with steely red eyes, flames covering his form and a bad ass attitude to boot – he’s a kind of cross between Ryu and Akuma. Oh, and he’s got a big hole through his chest too! As you’d expect, he’s all about the fireballs and kicks – with new ultra and super combos thrown in for good measure.  If you can pull off the stick movements and button presses, the full screen animations are mightily impressive.
• Oni follows in the same vein as Evil Ryu – another guy with severe issues. Blue, bad and blessed with funky hair, Oni is a powerful demon-type beast who’s all about energy moves and smashing his opponent to pieces. His air dash move is particularly impressive, and combined with his various fireballs and smashes, he’s perhaps the most formidable new character.
• Finally, Yang (the one with the spiky hair and rollerblades) and Yun (the one with the cap and skateboard) are the Lee brothers – both extremely agile guys who can traverse the screen quickly before unleashing a series of kicks and punches to devastating effect. On the face of it, these two characters are perhaps the least exciting of the four new additions – perhaps because they’re not on fire(!) – but they remain firm favourites with the die-hard Street Fighter gamers. Master them and the screen quickly becomes a blur as you deliver a flurry of seemingly unstoppable punches.

Hair style aside, Yang is a pretty good character

Beyond these new faces, Capcom has also been bigging up some balancing changes that have been made but again, only the most fanatical of players will probably notice – or care about – these.

One interesting addition, however, is the revamped replay mode that makes it easier to check out the abilities of some of the elite players and track their fighting prowess. The enhanced Replay Channel allows you to “follow” five other players and their replays, show off your own fight replays to up to 50 players, and tap into the Elite Channel where you can watch the greatest matchups of those who have earned a rating of at least 3000 PP. It’s a nice feature, especially if you want to see what the game and the characters are capable of.

Oni is a powerful fighter with some great combos

Ultimately, SSFIV AE is a cracking title with loads of fighters, an array of moves and screen-busting combos, and some super fluid animations. Newbies should definitely grab a copy – as should the SF fanatics out there who scrabble for every scrap of content… and for that reason, this deserves a hearty score of 8. For the more casual gamers among us who already own a previous edition, perhaps a couple of points should be knocked off the overall score. It’s a great game but there’s not a whole lot of new content for the money.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.

In the Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition for the Nintendo 3DS there is a street pass battle mode.  In this mode you will battle other players in the background once you’ve filled a roster of figurine characters.  The following code is for a special platinum version of M. Bison that will help you dominate your opponent.  Bison’s stats are:

Attack – 140
Defense – 114
Super Bar – 3
Ultra Bar – 0

Not too shabby, but anyway here is the code and you must remembers it is CASE SENSITIVE.. here it is:   EebkxqWbYJ

Source

Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono says that developing Super Street Fighter IV on the 3DS was very difficult for the development team, because the expectations were too high.

In an interview with CVG, Ono said, “In a way it was a path full of thorns, because there were established console editions of the game with internet connectivity that became what people would automatically expect.”

He said the fans did not care if it was just a portable version of the game- the wanted a version to equal the greatness of the console versions. “They don’t care if it’s a portable edition. When we say we’re going to release a Street Fighter for launch on 3DS, people are going to expect everything that currently exists for Street Fighter regardless of platform.”

Capcom had to take Nintendo’s engineers’ help to release the game before the deadline. “… The efforts put into doing that along with Nintendo engineers who have been working on the operation system in the libraries of the dev kit was difficult. It wasn’t a struggle as such, but it was difficult to meet the launch date with everything implemented so perfectly.”

The British Board of Film Classification has recently plastered an age rating on the Arcade Edition of SSF4.

The arcade version got a release earlier this year, and Capcom have since considered porting the tweaked version to consoles.

The BBFC listing mentions Japanese artist and animator Jiro Kanai, who is renowned for his work on Akira, Lupin III and Detective Conan. According to the listing, Kanai directed six minutes of new cutscenes for the game, which have passed without cuts.

Check out the full listing on the BBFC site.

Producer Yoshinori Ono, has revealed that some extra character for Super Street Figher IV will actually not make it into consoles.

He said that his proposal to release the DLC wasn’t approved by Capcom, this was revealed via his Twitter account:

“I couldn’t got approval from [upper level staff], but I’ll continue [the] proposal! I got approval from my boss, Keiji Inafune, but I can’t [get] it from [upper level staff].” he said.

Fact is that he is still sending proposals, so there is still a slight chance that we will some day see this DLC appearing on the PSN and XBL.

Source

During an interview with 4gamer, series producer Yoshinori Ono said that he will not be releasing Super Street Fighter IV for the PC, and the reason for that is the high piracy with the PC version of Street Fighter IV.

Despite SFIV for the PC being a strong seller, it was also the “number one in piracy.”

On the other hand, Ono believes that due to piracy, the game was spread to a wider audience, but he has to protect the Street Fighter IP.

Ono also said that a PC version of SSFIV might still happen, but only if they find a really powerful copy protection solution.

In addition, he also cancelled the possibility of a Steam only release, saying it would be unfair due to people who cant buy from Steam.

Source

In an interview with Famitsu, Ono said the PSP and DS simply cannot do justice to the game. Apart from the great graphics the 3DS will support, the fact that the 3DS has wireless capabilities and that SSFIV on the 3DS will be about players interacting with each other wirelessly is a huge plus point in favour of Nintendo’s upcoming handheld.

PSP = Meh... is that what you're saying, Capcom? IS IT?!

Ono also said that Super Street Fighter IV on the 3DS would be as good as ever, and that “the gameplay will be the same as Super Street Fighter IV” and wouldn’t be downsized for younger audiences.

“Rather than that we’d like to make it into a title that makes kids grow” he said.

More on SSFIV 3DS later.

[ComputerAndVideoGames]

Since SSF4 is not an original game, the most important question to ask is “What’s new?” After all, the basic fighting system remains largely unchanged. Normal moves still cancel into special moves performed by specific directional inputs; whilst EX specials, focus attacks and super/ultra combos are still as vital to winning as ever, and Ryu can still Shoryuken FADC into ultra with the same motions & timing as in the original. Just like Street Fighter 4, the gameplay in Super captures that cliché of ‘easy to learn, hard to master’. Any single attack, whether it’s a simple Hadouken or a round-altering Wrath of the Raging Demon, can be pulled off with ease after a little practice. What does take time, however, is learning the individual character matchups and figuring out which of your character’s techniques work well in a given situation. The amount of complexity and depth in this brawler depends entirely on how much effort you put in.

The most significant gameplay change is the addition of a second ultra combo for every character. Just like the original SF4, these flashy, high-damage manoeuvres can be activated once your character has taken enough damage and the revenge meter at the bottom of the screen lights up. An effective ultra combo is as important to picking up wins as ever; however, you now have two options to choose from before every fight. It’s definitely a nice touch since not only does it give you a reason to check out all of the characters again, but it also adds another level of pre-match strategy and mind games into the mix. For example, your chosen character’s first ultra might be easier to combo into and guarantee some additional damage, but his or her second ultra has the ability to pass through fireballs and dish out some heavier punishment. Which one should you go with? Choosing the right ultra for the right situation can often mean the difference between victory and defeat.

MORTAL KOMBAAAAA- No, wait I’ve got it: WELCOME BACK, TO THE STAGE OF HIST- No? Curses, wrong again. I swear I’ve seen this before somewhere…

The new combos also contribute to rebalancing what was already (mostly) balanced combat in Street Fighter 4. Guile’s impressive new Sonic Hurricane ultra seems to have greatly improved the character’s overall standing amongst the rest of the cast and Chun Li’s Kikosho is a much safer bet over her sometimes unreliable Hosenka. Unfortunately, this is not the case with everyone. Cammy and Fei Long’s counterattack ultras, for example, are very situational and often don’t seem to work even when they should. The rebalancing in Super doesn’t end with simply the new ultra combos however. The overall damage output seems to have been decreased, and Capcom had the good sense to go in and tweak some characters and attacks that caused players some grief in the original Street Fighter IV. Fans can sleep easy now that Muay Thai expert Sagat is nowhere near as threatening as he once was and Zangief’s spinning lariats are much more punishable. Overall though, if you were comfortable in the original SF4 then you should be able to jump into this expansion with no problem. Super Street Fighter 4 isn’t about changing the formula; it’s about adding to it and making it better.

The largest of these additions comes in the form of 10 new characters, boosting the total roster size to a comfortable level of 35 unique fighters. Two of these characters—the sultry Taekwondo master Juri and the Turkish oil wrestler Hakan—are making their Street Fighter debuts. Juri is an agile, offensive character who can store fireballs by holding down any of the kick buttons and can chain many of her normal moves together if you activate her Feng Shui Engine ultra combo. Hakan, on the other hand, is a bizarre grappler who can increase his attack range and the combo-chaining of his normal attacks by dousing himself in oil mid-match. His Oil Combination Hold is also one of the most amusing ultras in the game to watch, though humiliating when used against you. Veteran characters new to the world of Super Street Fighter 4 are T. Hawk and Dee Jay from the Street Fighter II universe, as well as Adon, Guy, and Cody from Street Fighter Alpha, and Ibuki, Makoto, and fan favorite Dudley from the Street Fighter III series. Just like the members of the returning cast, all ten of the new characters have two ultra combos to select from. Greater character variety is always a positive, and each of the new world warriors deliver in this regard with their unique fighting styles. As expected, some made the transition to SF4 better than others, but I’ll leave the tier list rankings and such to the pros. All 35 combatants are unlocked from the start, so there’s no need to grind through ‘Arcade Mode’ to unlock any of them. Given the dubious quality of Super Street Fighter 4’s ‘Arcade Mode’, this is a good thing.

The graphics are pretty similar to SF4’s. Which is not to say that Chun-Li looks bad, by any means.

The structure of ‘Arcade Mode’ in SSF4 is standard issue for the genre—you start by choosing your character, difficulty setting, and the number of rounds per opponent. You’ll then fight through seven different battles while experiencing the story of each character. This is all well and good, but there are several problems with ‘Arcade Mode’. The first is that the difficulty is all over the place. On the easier settings, the A.I. opponents practically stand still and let you perfect them. On the harder settings, however, some of the computer controlled opponents, especially boss man Seth, seem to be able to read your moves and instantly react appropriately. This can certainly be overcome with some patience, but it can be frustrating to find the appropriate difficulty for characters that you aren’t particularly skilled with. The other issue with ‘Arcade Mode’ is that the presentation is extremely poor. Characters’ stories begin with a set of still images set to that character’s voiceover and end with poorly drawn anime cutscenes. Many of the stories are also rehashed from previous games or are just laughably bad. Street Fighter 4 didn’t exactly have the highest quality ‘Arcade Mode’ either, but it was undoubtedly superior to what is found inside Super’s Arcade.

On the plus side, Super Street Fighter 4’s ‘Arcade Mode’ features the return of the car smashing and barrel breaking mini-games from the Street Fighter II days. These brief acts of destruction are a nice little distraction that can be selected in Challenge Mode once you clear them for the first time in Arcade. Also in ‘Challenge Mode’ is the returning ‘Trial Mode’ from Street Fighter IV (Time Attack and Survival were oddly removed). This new and improved ‘Trial Mode’ still tasks you with completing various combos per character, but you now have the option to skip around from trial to trial whenever you please. While some of the later combos are a bit impractical, ‘Trial Mode’ can still help you learn the basics of a certain character and improve your overall execution. Practice sessions can be extended into the final area of SSF4’s single player component—‘Training Mode’. ‘Training Mode’ is unchanged from vanilla Street Fighter 4. Choose your training dummy, configure his actions to whatever you want, and go to town.

Luckily all characters are unlocked from the start, so you only have to grind through Arcade Mode if you really want to.

All this single player stuff is fine, but what really makes a good fighter is its competitive modes. Fortunately, SSF4 delivers on that front. Local Versus Mode is present and, as always, going head to head with a friend in the same room is good fun. When this option is not available, however, you’ll want to hop online and explore SSF4’s much improved online component. The game contains three main ways to fight online: Ranked Matches, Team Battle, and Endless Battle. Ranked Matches work similarly to how they did in the original Street Fighter 4. Simply search or use the returning Arcade Mode Fight Request feature to find an opponent and duke it out for points. The major change to ranked fights is that every player now has two point values to keep an eye on. Player Points (PP) reflect a player’s overall wins and losses, while Battle Points (BP) fluctuate per character only. For example, if a great Blanka player wants to oil up and try out Hakan online, he or she doesn’t have to worry about losing any BP accumulated with Blanka. All 35 characters have their own BP value; only your Player Points will fall if you go on a massive losing streak with a new character. This new system is a nice little touch since it has the potential to create more character diversity online, instead of an endless spree of Kens and Ryus.

‘Team Battle’ is exactly what it says on the tin. The host of a session can create a room for 2 vs 2, 3 vs 3, or 4 vs 4 online battles. Teammates then select the order they wish to fight in and the matches play out single elimination style. Non-combatants are able to watch their teammates’ fights, so you are free to (de)constructively criticise/trash talk as you see fit. ‘Team Battle’ is cool, but it’s best suited for when you have a group of friends online to invite since, like all team based games, your pals are easier to get along with than random people on Xbox Live. The third online mode, ‘Endless Battle’, is the most interesting of all. Session hosts can create an ‘Endless Battle’ lobby for up to eight players. Once the room fills up, the first two players on the list will go at it until a winner is decided. The victor then stays for the next game and the loser is sent down to the bottom of the list. The objective is to see who can accumulate the most consecutive wins before being dethroned by one of the other players. Your number of wins and losses are tracked in that particular Endless lobby but, unlike ‘Ranked Matches’, there are no points on the line here. Like ‘Team Battle’, players who are waiting for their turn to fight are able to view the matches in progress. ‘Endless Battle’ is nice because it’s much more stress free than standard ‘Ranked Matches’. It can also be used as a learning experience as you try out new characters and watch how others play. Capcom have also promised a ‘Tournament Mode’ that will be made available for free later this summer.

Old favourites, new faces: SSF4 has a character and fighting-style for everyone.

Super Street Fighter IV’s online also features standard issue Leaderboards and a much improved Replay Channel. By entering the Replay Channel, players are able to watch any of the most recent ‘Ranked Match’ uploads by browsing through an entire list titled “New Replays” or by narrowing the list down to a specific generation of characters (Originals, Alpha, Boss, etc.). Most impressively, the Replay Channel records all of the player’s own recent matches in a ‘Battle Log’. This is another great learning tool because after any heartbreaking loss you are able to replay the match through the Battle Log and analyze what went wrong. Any replays, whether they be your own or someone else’s, can also be saved for future viewing.

Earlier I mentioned that the presentation of ‘Arcade Mode’ is pretty abysmal. Fortunately, this is not the case with the game as a whole. Despite being identical to a year old game, the graphics in SSF4 are still very impressive. Character models and stage backgrounds (especially the new stages like Solar Eclipse) are highly detailed and definitely have a high level of polish about them. The ink effects of the focus attacks and some of the flashier ultra combos such as Guy’s Bushin Muso Renge are among the highlights of the game’s technical achievements. Menus are also slick and easy to navigate. Super sees absolute improvement in the sound department for two main reasons: firstly, the cringe inducing Indestructible theme has been completely removed and secondly, you can now choose to play the awesome character themes during versus and online modes instead of listening to the normal stage music. This is especially nice because some of the new characters’ tunes (Cody and Juri’s themes for instance) are particularly good. Voice acting is solid yet appropriately corny and, like the original, you can toggle any character’s voice between English and Japanese.

The ludicrous-quality of some moves is still present in-game.

Super Street Fighter 4 isn’t a groundbreaking achievement—it’s an updated version of a year old game. Still, it’s also one of the best 2D fighting games available in terms of gameplay and available content. It’s also cheaper than the original despite an abundance of new features. If you were interested in Street Fighter 4 but ultimately passed, then you should look into Super. If you loved SF4 and want more, then you should look into Super. If you have any interest in the fighting game genre at all, then you should look into Super.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.