Street Fighter IV is a fighting game and the next installment in Capcom's long-running Street Fighter series.[6] The coin-operated arcade game was released in Japan on July 18, 2008, and is a planned home release for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows-based personal computers.
| Street Fighter IV | |
|---|---|
| Street Fighter IV Flyer | |
| Developer(s) | Dimps/Capcom |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Designer(s) | Yoshinori Ono (producer) Daigo Ikeno (character designer) |
| Platform(s) | Arcade[2] Microsoft Windows |
| Release | Arcade |
| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer |
| Arcade system | Taito Type X2[4] |
Gameplay
Street Fighter IV features fighters and backgrounds rendered in 3D, while the gameplay is on a traditional 2D plane, thus creating a "2.5D" effect. Producer Yoshinori Ono has stated that he wanted to keep the game closer to Street Fighter II than its sequels, and as such the "parry system" from Street Fighter III has been dropped. A new system called "Focus Attacks" ("Saving Attack" for the Japanese version) has been introduced, as well as Ultra moves. The traditional six-button control scheme returns, with new features and special moves integrated into the input system, mixing classic gameplay with additional innovations.[7] On December 30, 2007, a gameplay trailer showed how typical gameplay worked, with the 2D plane of fighting shifting and rotating dramatically during certain moves.[8]
The game has a very similar feel to Super Street Fighter II Turbo, but also has several features from Street Fighter III 3rd Strike.[9] Pressing both light attack buttons is still for throwing, and both heavy attack buttons are for the personal action or taunts. Both medium attack buttons are for the saving strike. Dashes and quick standing are also in the game. At the moment, C.Viper is the only character who can perform a high jump.[9]
It was intended that the car-smashing bonus rounds from earlier Street Fighter games would return. Ono later stated that the bonus stages would not be in the arcade game, but they may be in the console ports. He cited the reason being that the time players spend on bonus stages takes money from arcade operators.[10][11]
Saving system (Focus attacks)
The system that has been referred to as "Saving" for the time being, but will be renamed "Focus" for North America and Europe [12], is a new system that is being introduced in Street Fighter IV. The saving attack is a move that allows the player to absorb an attack and launch a counter attack, and it is performed by pressing the medium punch and kick buttons simultaneously. There are two phases to the attack. In the first phase, the player will shift into a new stance, at which point he is able to absorb one attack from the opponent. The second phase is the counter attack. The longer the player holds down the medium punch and kick buttons the more powerful the attack will be. If the buttons are held for long enough the attack will cause the opponent to crumple slowly to the ground, allowing the player to follow up with a free hit. If the buttons are held for longer still the saving attack will become unblockable. Attacks that were absorbed during the first phase of the saving attack still cause damage to the player; however, life lost from the opponent's attack will be gained back afterward. In addition, during the first phase of the saving attack the player may perform a dash either forward or backward to cancel the saving attack. Finally, at the cost of half the super meter, many special moves can be canceled into a saving attack. By executing a saving attack during the special move, the animation of the move will be cut short and go instantly into the saving attack animation. This allows players with precise timing to cancel special moves into saving attacks, and in turn cancel saving attacks into the forward dash, resulting in new combo possibilities. If a special move is blocked by the opponent, the new system allows players to cancel the blocked move with a saving attack, and then cancel the saving attack by dashing backward safely away from the opponent.
Ono has stated that this system was incorporated in order to shift the emphasis away from combos and toward a more realistic system he has compared to boxing, in which "the skill is in reading your opponent's move before he starts moving ... We haven't forgotten about combos and linked moves, but saving makes it so that you have to read your opponent."[13] The system aims to make ground attacks as viable a way of approaching opponents as jumping was in previous games.[13] The saving system is a core part of Street Fighter IV's gameplay.[14]
Super Combos and Ultra Combos
Super attacks, officially dubbed "Super Combos", return in Street Fighter IV. Similar to Super Street Fighter II Turbo, each character has one set super move.
In addition to Super Combos, the game also features Ultra Combos. Ultra Combos are performed similarly to the character's Super Combo but are executed with three attack buttons (much like the EX Special system which uses two attack buttons). Ultra Combos are long and cinematic moves featuring a lengthy combination of punches, kicks and other moves. Just as there is a Super Combo meter, there is also an Ultra Combo meter, but whereas the Super Combo meter fills as the player hits an opponent, the Ultra Combo meter fills when one takes damage from the opponent. Along with the Super Combo, Ultra Combos are one of the only times the camera breaks from its normal fixed position to show a more dynamic, cinematic view of the gameplay.[14]
Online
Street Fighter IV will feature online gaming and is the sixth game in the series to do so (the first five being the original Super Street Fighter II for SNES/Genesis (via X-Band adapter), Super Street Fighter II X—Grand Master Challenge for Matching Service which was only released in Japan for the Sega Dreamcast, the Xbox version of Street Fighter Anniversary Collection, the Xbox Live Arcade version of Street Fighter II': Hyper Fighting and the latest being Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3). Like other games such as Virtua Fighter 5 or Tekken 6, Street Fighter IV will feature item collection and secondary costumes. Producer Yoshinori Ono is looking into using microtransactions for future downloadable content, including new characters and stages, but he said the final decision would be Capcom's.[14]
Story
It was revealed in the January 2008 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly the game will take place in between Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III, making it an interquel[14], similar to Street Fighter Alpha, which took place between Street Fighter and Street Fighter II.
During the Arcade Operator's Union 2008 convention, held in Japan, a brief description of Street Fighter IV was revealed on an arcade flyer. Its description translates to:
"The year after the legendary World Warrior Championship (SF2) it silently begins. Suspicious incidents occur, and behind it a mystic organization is on the move in the shadows. Those chasing and being chased in the complicated middle of friendship and betrayal. Now, the curtain rises and a new fight begins."[15]
Capcom later released an animated fight scene between Ryu and Akuma, viewable on the home versions of Street Fighter IV. Also appearing are Ken and Gouken, the latter of whom also has his own added scene at the end.[16]
Characters
On the character roster, producer Yoshinori Ono has commented, "It isn't finalised yet, but we're trying to use all the characters from Street Fighter II' Turbo, and we're obviously cooking up new characters as well."[13] A number of classic characters will be returning, with re-imagined designs and new special moves. All eight of the original "World Warriors" have been confirmed to be appearing as playable characters,[17] while playable demo builds of the game featured Balrog and Sagat as bosses in the game, one after the other.[18] The fourth demo build of the game featured Balrog, Vega, Sagat and Bison as playable characters. Pictures of them have been revealed by scans of the June issue of Arcadia magazine. [19]
Four new characters are featured as well. The first is Crimson Viper, a female American spy wearing sunglasses, leather gloves and a form-fitting suit.[20] The second new character is a French martial artist named Abel. He is described as an amnesiac, a "man with no past" looking to defeat surviving members of Shadaloo.[20] The third new character revealed is a luchador named El Fuerte ("El Fuerte" means "The Strong One" in Spanish).[21] The fourth is Rufus, a fighter who has Kung Fu moves and a rotund appearance, who seeks to fight Ken Masters to prove himself as the best fighter of the United States.
The new boss character is named Seth. He is known as "The Puppet Master" and is the Chief Executive Officer of S.I.N., the weapons division of Shadaloo. His body has been modified using advanced technology.[22]
Fei-Long from Super Street Fighter II and Dan from Street Fighter Alpha are scheduled to be included in the upcoming home versions of Street Fighter IV.[23] According to Yoshinori Ono, other characters specific to the Street Fighter Alpha or Street Fighter III games could appear in the home versions as well, such as Sakura or Ibuki[24], but only Fei-Long and Dan are confirmed.[11]
In the January 2008 Issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono stated "Let's just say that [jokes] that your magazine have reported in the past might find their way into the game as fan service." Executive editor Shane Bettenhausen took this to mean the appearance of their long-standing joke character Sheng Long in Street Fighter IV, though added that if the character did appear in the game, it would be Gouken.[25] On April 1, 2008, Capcom posted a fake update to their blog heavily suggesting his presence in the game,[26] but confirmed the very next day the character would not be present in Street Fighter IV.[27] However, in an interview with GameVideos.com on June 6, 2008, Yoshinori Ono was asked if Gouken was going to be in the game to which he replied "Will he be in the game playable that particular character, well we probably wouldn't put a non-playable character in an animation like that and highlight him to that degree." [28]
On July 14 of 2008 Capcom Unity released a poll for fans to choose which characters they would like to be added to the home version of the game; the poll featured characters Cammy, T. Hawk, Fei Long, Dee Jay, Sakura, Ibuki, Hugo and Dan. [29] The producer of the game, Yoshinori Ono, announced that the winner of the poll was Cammy; and, in an August 2008 interview, he confirmed that she is "definitely in the game". [30] Cammy appears in an animated featurette promoting the upcoming console versions of the game [31]
On August 15, 2008, Capcom confirmed Akuma's presence in the arcade version of Street Fighter IV as a secret boss in the single player mode.[32][33] A week later, Capcom further revealed that Akuma would become playable on August 22Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page)..[34]
Cammy is now finally officially confirmed to be in the home versions following producer Ono's interview with 1up.com [30]
| Returning characters | New characters | Home version | |
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DevelopmentBefore producer Yoshinori Ono pitched the idea to Capcom R&D head Keiji Inafune, the prevailing attitude around Capcom was that a new numeric entry to the Street Fighter series would not be made. There was initially a lot of resistance to Ono's pitching of a new Street Fighter game so many years after the original. However, in light of fan demand plus the positive reaction to Street Fighter II': Hyper Fighting on Xbox Live Arcade, Inafune eventually allowed the project to begin.[14] This is Ono's first take on a new entry of the Street Fighter series, although he had previously worked on 3rd Strike, the final updated version of Street Fighter III. On October 17, 2007, a teaser video showing series stalwarts Ryu and Ken fighting using a heavily stylized cel-shaded art style made to mimic Japanese sumi-e art was released officially announcing the game. The game runs on the Taito Type X2 arcade board inside a Taito Vewlix cabinet[4], marking the first time that a numeric sequel in the Street Fighter series will run on non Capcom-proprietary hardware. The arcade release will take advantage of the Type X2's network capabilities and will allow players in separate machines within the same LAN to fight each other. A demo version of the game was present at the Arcade Operators Union Amusement Expo on February 18, 2008, with all returning characters as well as Crimson Viper and Abel playable.[35] Location tests were carried out in selected Japanese arcades leading up to the game's arcade release.[18] GraphicsThe characters and environments will be rendered in 3D computer graphics and use a stylized cel-shading effect to give the characters and environments a hand-drawn look.[7] As in some of the trailers, during the fights certain attacks will display ink sprays. The game will feature full cel-shaded 3D environments and characters, fighting on a 2D plane, while the viewpoint can shift and rotate in key moments for dramatic effect.[8] The version of the game shown to EGM ran at consistent 60 frames per second.[14] The character designs will stay true to the Street Fighter II style, although Akira Yasuda no longer works for Capcom. The art director and character designer for Street Fighter IV is Daigo Ikeno.[39] Home versionsStreet Fighter IV has been officially announced for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Microsoft Windows. A release date has not been announced, but it is expected to be released either late 2008 or early 2009. Ono has revealed that additional characters will be included in the home releases, and that the home versions will include online play. The home versions will be available in standard packaging and in a Collector's Edition. The contents of the Collector's Edition are yet to be announced, but Capcom is currently administering a survey on www.streetfighter.com as to which collectible items fans would want to see in the Collector's Edition. The only launch promotion confirmed thus far is an Art of Street Fighter art book. The book promotion is currently being advertised by Gamestop as a pre-order bonus. References
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