Street Fighter IV



Street Fighter IV is a fighting game and the next installment in Capcom's long-running Street Fighter series. Although Capcom USA owns the rights to Street Fighter, development has been contracted to an internal studio at Capcom of Japan.

Gameplay
While Street Fighter IV will feature 3D rendered characters and backgrounds, the game will still play in traditional 2D, thus creating a "2.5D" effect. While more concrete details on the game's gameplay have yet to be revealed, producer Ono has stated that he wants to keep the game closer to Street Fighter II than to its sequels, and as such the "parry system" from Street Fighter III has been dropped. A new system temporarily called "Saving" has been introduced, as well as Ultra moves. The traditional six-button control scheme will return, with new features and special moves integrated into the input system, mixing classic gameplay with additional innovations. On December 30, 2007, a gameplay trailer showed how typical gameplay worked, with the 2D plane of fighting shifting and rotating, characters reacting facially to particularly hard blows.

The game has the same feel as Super Street Fighter II Turbo, with several features from Street Fighter III 3rd Strike.[10] 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.

It is intended that the car-smashing bonus rounds from earlier Street Fighter games will return. Ono has claimed, "They'll be in there if I have to program them myself!" although he noted that there may be problems if the game's vehicles resemble models by real-life manufacturers.

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, is a new system that is being introduced in SFIV. The system features a four-segment "Revenge" gauge that builds up as the character takes damage. A player can use one segment of the gauge in combat by simultaneously pressing both medium punch and medium kick to unleash a special attack that will deal instant damage and render the opponent immobile for a short time. The buttons can also be held down and charged to unleash a devastating unblockable attack at the cost of 3/4s of the full "Revenge" gauge. The gauge can also be used to fuel EX Specials—stronger versions of regular special moves—at the cost of one stock of the gauge. Both the Saving/Focus move and EX Specials can be "canceled" by dashing towards the opponent (the move will still be performed and will still do damage however), this dash can again be "canceled" by performing another EX Special or Saving/Focus move, this however will require pinpoint timing so that only skilled players may execute this kind of combo.

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." The system aims to make ground attacks as viable a way of approaching opponents as jumping was in previous games. The saving system is a core part of Street Fighter IV's gameplay and will continue to evolve as the game is developed.

Super and Ultra Moves
Super moves will return in Street Fighter IV, however, the team is still undecided on how to implement them. Currently, the team is considering three options, the first being similar to Super Street Fighter II Turbo where each character has one set super (this is the option the game is currently using), the second is based on the Street Fighter Alpha series where characters have multiple supers (but without the Alpha series' multilevel chargeable supers) and the third follows Street Fighter III where the players choose which super they want to use for their character before the match.

In addition to the series staple Super Moves (since Super Street Fighter II Turbo), the game will also feature Ultra Moves. Ultra Moves are performed by performing a character's Super move but executing it with 2 attack buttons (much like an EX Special move). The Ultra is a long and cinematic move featuring a lengthy combination of punches, kicks, etc. Along with the regular Super moves, the Ultra will be the only time wherein the camera will break from its normal fixed position to offer a more dynamic, cinematic view of the action.

Online
Street Fighter IV will feature online gaming and is the fifth game in the series to do so (the first four being 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′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting and the latest being Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3). Unlike other games such as Virtua Fighter 5 or Tekken 6, Street Fighter IV will reportedly not feature any item collection or customization. Producer Ono is also looking into the possibility of utilizing microtransactions for future downloadable content updates which might include new characters and stages, however, he stated that the final decision for that would be up to Capcom as a whole.

Story
It was revealed in the January 2008 issue of EGM that the game will take place in between Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III making it (storywise) an interquel.

During AOU 2008 event held in Japan, a brief description of Street Fighter IV's was revealed on one of the arcade flyers. A rough translation of the description is as follows...

"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 frienship and betrayal. Now, the curtain rises and a new fight begins."

Development
Before producer Yoshinori Ono pitched the idea to Capcom R&D head Keiji Inafune, the prevailing attitude around Capcom was one where a new numeric entry to the Street Fighter series would not have been 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 clamor as well as the positive reaction to Street Fighter II': Hyper Fighting on Xbox Live Arcade, Ono's perseverance finally paid off when Inafune gave the greenlight to the project. This would be Ono's first take on a new entry of the Street Fighter series.

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 Viewlix cabinet, 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. Location tests are also being carried out in selected Japanese arcades.

Graphics
The characters and environments will be rendered in 3D computer graphics and appear to use a stylized cel-shading effect to lend the characters and environments a hand-drawn look. The gameplay video featured a full 3D, cel-shaded environment and characters, fighting on a 2D plane that shifted and rotated. The version of the game shown to EGM ran at consistent 60 frames per second.

The character designs will stay true to the Street Fighter II style, though Akiman no longer works for Capcom. The art director and character designer for Street Fighter IV is Daigo Ikeno