EX Special

An EX Special (エクス スペシャル, Ekusu Supesharu) is a powered-up version of a special attack. Usually signified by the character in question flashing yellow, the EX Special version gains additional properties. These properties can include Super Armor, knockdown, altered movement (such as greater distance covered), greater damage, less start-up, fireball evasion and more.

Variations
EX Special attacks have appeared in the series since Street Fighter III, with different mechanics in each appearence.

Street Fighter III series
In the Street Fighter III series, the number of EX Specials a given character can store up depends on the number of bars in the Super Gauge of that character's chosen Super Art, and the size of those bars. For example, if Alex chooses the Hyper Bomb Super Art, he will have one bar in the Super Gauge; if he chooses the Boomerang Raid Super Art however, he will have two. These two bars will also be shorter. This means that the choice of Super Art determines how many EX Specials can be stored.

Street Fighter IV series
In the Street Fighter IV series, an EX Special usually uses up one segment of the Super Gauge. Every character has four segments. This means that for the most part (with few exceptions), a character can store up to four EX Specials at a time.

Examples

 * In Street Fighter IV, M. Bison's Head Stomp does 120 damage . However, when he uses the EX Special version, the EX Head Stomp does 200 damage, moves faster and knocks the opponent down when it hits.
 * Also in Street Fighter IV, Balrog's Dash Straight does 120 damage whether in the normal version or the EX version, but the EX version has Super Armor during the dash.
 * Fei-Long's standard Rekkukyaku cannot go through projectiles, whereas his EX version of the attack can.
 * In Street Fighter III and Street Fighter IV, Ryu's Hadoken hits once, whilst his EX version is able to hit falling opponents and hits twice.