Super Street Fighter IV Hands-On

It's not going to hit shelves until next year, but it looks like work on Super Street Fighter IV is progressing nicely. I recently got the chance to head down to Capcom and take a look at the three characters who have been confirmed to appear in this SFIV update, and though it's still a little early to tell how the whole package is going to come together, Juri feels like an interesting addition, and the returning duo of Dee Jay and T.Hawk feel about how you'd expect.

Right off the bat, Juri feels like a more exciting character than any of the four that were introduced in Street Fighter IV. That's probably just my personal style talking, but I never found myself too interested in C.Viper, Rufus, Abel, or El Fuerte. Well, maybe a little Abel here and there. Anyway, Juri's a fast-moving character with a built-in counter move, as well as a delayed fireball that starts with a little kick animation, but the projectile doesn't actually appear until you release the kick button. Like some of the other projectiles in SFIV, Juri's comes at you differently depending on which kick button is used to perform the attack. This lets her throw them low, high, or at an upward angle. The projectiles don't live long enough to make it across the entire screen, but they don't move very quickly, making them a bit of a lingering threat. Juri also has a spin kick, and a mid-air dive kick, both of which can be spotted in the gameplay footage Capcom has released. Here's a look at Juri and Dee Jay.
    
Yes, that's a new announcer. He sounds like some kind of out-of-control robot that just says crazier and crazier things as the fight goes on.

Dee Jay, of course, first appeared in Super Street Fighter II, where I did my best to basically pretend he didn't exist. Let's be honest here: Fei Long and Cammy were the real stars out of the "New Challengers" added back then. But most of his action remains intact here. Dee Jay continues to be a charge character, throwing projectiles and offering a couple of charge kicks. The machine gun upper is currently done by pounding on punch buttons, much like Honda's slap, and the EX version of it absorbs fireballs. T. Hawk returns with the same moves, including the devastating typhoon, his version of the spinning pile-driver. I was left with the impression that a lot of the gameplay specifics and properties of the different moves was still up in the air, so it seems like any of this stuff is still subject to change before release.

There will, of course, be more characters in the final product, but those three are all that anyone's talking about right now. The full roster of SFIV characters will also be available in some sort of updated and/or rebalanced form, and the publisher is currently committing to "about eight" new characters. There will also be an "enhanced Ultra Combo system."

All of this will come with a redesigned online mode that will offer some additional options, like a team battle mode that matches up to eight players together for a group throwdown, a quarter match-style mode where the winner stays on while other players rotate through, and a "replay channel" that lets players watch and discuss other matches. Bonus stages, where players bash apart a car or beat up barrels will also be added.

All told, this sounds like a really substantial update to the original Street Fighter IV, but a lot of that will depend on the quality of the characters that have yet to be announced and the specifics of whatever changes are made to the existing characters. With plenty of those left to announce, you can probably count on a very slow drip of information out of Capcom between now and the game's release this Spring.