Giant Bomb Video Game News

If I could be playing Street Fighter IV against a set of skilled human opponents, I wouldn’t be writing this article right now. But alas, I’m writing this from gate C16 at the airport in Las Vegas, where I’m waiting patiently for a flight back to California. I’m leaving the scene of a Capcom event, called CAPTIVATE08, where the company invited the press and some valued members of its forum community to see a handful of its upcoming products, including a nearly complete arcade version of Street Fighter IV. With plenty of opportunities to play between appointments, I probably sank around four or five hours into the game over the last 48 hours. I think I have a pretty firm grasp on the way things play, and you probably already know that the game uses the standard six-button configuration, so let’s skip some of the basics and talk about meters and focus attacks.

The fighters have two meters that charge up two different super combos. The standard super meter fills up as you execute and land attacks. When it’s full, you can perform that character’s super combo. Most of the super combos are pretty standard. Ryu’s got the shinkuu hadouken, his super fireball. Ken will perform shoryureppa, his double dragon punch, and so on. Most of the characters’ super moves are performed as they have been in the past, with double charges, double fireballs, and so on.

The other meter is a small, round gauge that sits next to the super meter and is labelled “revenge.” The revenge gauge fills as you take damage. When it fills to a certain point, “revenge” changes to read “ultra,” signifying that you’re able to pull off that character’s ultra combo. The ultras are performed by doing the same motion as the super combo, but hitting all three buttons instead of just one. The ultras seem to be more devastating than the supers, and can help turn the tide of a battle. While your super meter retains its charge between rounds, the revenge gauge starts out empty for every round.

Hitting a punch and kick of the same strength at the same time has a different effect, depending on which set you hit. Pressing both light attacks executes a throw. Hitting the hard attacks taunts. But hitting the medium set does something pretty different. It’s called a focus attack, and it seems to be an interesting addition to the game. I found focus most helpful as a parry. If you hit the buttons as an attack is coming in (you may also need to be blocking to pull it off), it’ll block the attack and quickly strike back, almost like an alpha counter, but it doesn’t use any of your meter.

Hitting the buttons when you’re merely standing still starts to charge up the attack, which has three levels depending on how long you hold. A quick tap will bust out the attack animation almost immediately. Charging a little bit gets you to a level two focus attack, which will stagger an opponent if it hits. Charging it all the way up performs an unblockable focus attack that stuns the victim and drops him (or her) to the ground. If you strike quickly before your opponent falls, you can get a free hit, but the fall happens pretty quickly, so you don’t have time to jump in on a stunned opponent or anything like that. The focus attacks are one of the few portions of Street Fighter IV that retain the inky style of the game’s initial footage. You seem to be able to cancel specials into focus attacks, too, which feels like it could have a lot of interesting potential.

The game’s roster includes all eight of the original World Warriors, the four bosses, and four new characters. That leaves the “New Challengers,” added in Super Street Fighter II, out in the cold. But that might not be a permanent omission. Scans of a Japanese magazine surfaced earlier in the week that revealed the game’s boss, a bulked-up bionic man named Seth, who is named after Capcom employee and Street Fighter pro, Seth Killian. Seth, the character, was missing from the version of the game on display, which had a single-player mode that led up to a fight against a character’s rival (for E. Honda, the rival fight was against the game’s new luchador, El Fuerte) and ended with a plain “thank you for playing” message. The final arcade game will end with a boss fight and a series of static screens that serve as an ending for each character. The home versions of the game will contain fully-animated endings, as well as an animated intro for each fighter. Both will be done in an anime style, and Capcom made it sound like someone famous from the world of anime would be handling the sequences. Additionally, the home versions will feature online play.

The Japanese magazine also contained concept art of Fei Long and Dan, along with text claiming they could appear in the home versions of the game. In talking to Street Fighter IV’s producer, Yoshinori Ono, I learned that there are many pieces of concept art for different characters floating around his desk right now, and that nothing has been decided other than that the home versions of the game will feature some new fighters. So consider Dan and Fei Long as possibilities, but not confirmed just yet.

The game is said to have more of a story this time around, which will serve to explain a few different things. The game takes place between the events of Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III. M. Bison is in the game, but isn’t he supposed to be dead after being defeated in Street Fighter II? This will, apparently, be explained. Seth, the game’s final boss, is part of the Shadowloo organization.

The game’s four new characters seem like interesting additions, and they’re all a little more complicated than the standard World Warrior, at times feeling more like characters from Street Fighter EX or perhaps an SNK game. Abel has an anti-air attack that essentially reaches up, catches airborne enemies, and pulls them in for a flashy throw. He also has a three-punch combo special that’s done in the same way as Fei Long’s three-punch combo special–three fireballs in a row.

Crimson Viper is a mid-sized female character who yaps into a cell phone during her pre-fight animation. She has a dash punch attack that can be directed along the ground or into the air, depending on which punch button you use to do the move. She also has a very quick kick move that creates a fiery, damaging trail. This move can be done in mid-air.

Rufus is the token “funny fat guy” character, and he sort of reminded me of Bo Rai Cho, the fat drunk who appeared in the last few Mortal Kombat games. Rufus doesn’t have a ground attack that involves vomiting, though. He has an anti-air attack that crosses the rising action of a dragon punch with the fast punching action of Honda’s hundred hand slap. He also has a double kick special–the first kick comes via a fireball motion with a kick button. Hitting a kick button immediately after the first kick lands triggers a second kick, which varies depending on the button used. One kick will launch him up and over like Guile’s flash kick, another performs a fast kick, another triggers an overhead attack that hits low-blocking players.

El Fuerte is a cook by day and a lucha libre fighter by night. Or maybe that’s the other way around. Either way, this little guy has a Rey Mysterio-like look to him and man, he can move. He’s already speedy, but his main special move is a run–a quarter-circle forward with a punch starts him running forward, a quarter-circle back with punch makes him run away. Once El Fuerte is running, there are a number of moves you can do from there, like feints or a jumping cross body that can end with a throw if it hits.

While all of this sounds good to me, the most important thing about Street Fighter IV is that it feels right. It’s not identical to the existing Street Fighter games–some of the timing feels a little different, projectiles seem like they move a little slower, and the ability to tap down to get up quickly after an attack gives players two stand-up speeds, which is a little tricky. But the hits land with authority, and the controls are extremely responsive. It feels like a proper sequel to Street Fighter II.

Of course, there are the game’s visuals, which probably still rub a few purists the wrong way. But the polygonal models look great and are nicely expressive, too. When one character pops off an ultra, the other one sort of freaks out with a jaw-dropping, eye-bulging look that says “oh crap, this is probably going to hurt.” The backgrounds and music also seem to fit right in with the action.

It seems like Capcom can only muster the strength to release a full Street Fighter sequel once a decade or something. Last time around, the game didn’t really do anything for me. I felt alienated. Alone. By comparison, Street Fighter IV feels like a warm handshake from an old friend. It’ll be hitting arcades (well, what’s left of them, anyway) in the near future, but we probably won’t see it at home until early next year.