Capcom
Street Fighter used to dominate, more specifically Street Fighter II and its many versions. Any true gamer in the 90’s had a favorite fighter (Chun-Li) and could play for hours alone or with friends … then came Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive … the 3D fighters and SFII began to slide down the fighting game charts. Sure there have been various release of Street Fighter 3, Alpha Anthologies, collections, the EX series but nothing to move up the rankings, just more of the same. Even Mortal Kombat has taken a new direction, first into 3D and now teaming with the DC Universe, so what is such a well known, dated franchise like Street Fighter to do? Keep the core characters, eliminate bad ones, add a few noobs, update the graphics and add in effects worthy of a John Woo slo-mo scene and your getting started.
Street Fighter IV from Capcom will look to continue the series without a fully realized reinvention. The character roster, listed below as seen in the video, offers up a large collection of mostly cult characters (Chun-Li) and retains all the special moves they’ve gained through the gaming generations and pumps them up with new, Udon I believe, inspired looks and an animation, graphic style that is simply tasty. The game play looks like Street Fighter with the Woo-ish effects thrown in during special moves and counters, zooming in and around the character, changing angles, very cool effects that need to be seen during game play to feel if they are good or bad for the gamer. The story is yet to be fleshed out but listen as each character is revealed and there are hints at story and rivalries such as Sagat and Ryu fulfilling a promise, Gen knowing Chun-Li’s father and Cammy on an investigation. They are just nuggets of info but outline the quest for power, to be stronger that outline the overall game.
So far a solid rosters, established game play and potentially interesting storyline, but what about the graphics, sick, plain sick to say the least. The paintbrush, Okami, look of Street Fighter IV is no secret but it’s seeing this style in action mixed with the painting in motion cut-scenes and anime that just makes a Street Fighter fan drool. There have been a handful of SF anime, mostly good, and seeing the anime mixed into the game play ties the story based anime and SFIV together in spirit, possibly in actuality. While that is TBD, check out the trailer below where all these comments have been generated from and check back when the game hits.
Street Fighter IV roster, as shown in this trailer includes, in order shown, Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Guile, E. Honda, Dhalsim, Zangief, Blanka, C. Viper, Abel, El Fuerte, Rufus, M. Bison, Sagat, Vega, Balrog, Akuma, Gouken, Cammy, Sakura, Dan, Fei-Long, Rose, Gen and Seth.
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