Keeping up to date with all things Street Fighter and with Evo 2011 just around the corner, we begin a succession of articles in the run up to said event by looking at Street Fighters past, present and future as we well and truly get our SF-hype on in anticipation!
We begin by turning our attention to what Ono himself has dubbed ‘Super Street Fighter IV 2012’ and his twitter witterings of the last few weeks in order to glean some kind of idea about what might be coming up in the future.
But first, some perspective. In case you had missed it, both the DLC and disc versions of SSFIV Arcade Edition have landed and depending on your perspective, opinions seem to be mixed. Whether you expected more backgrounds, characters and general content, or are unhappy about the perceived over-powered nature of the twins, or perhaps are raising an eyebrow to the nerfing and buffing of the current cast, it seems that there’s plenty to be said of this update! But, even though a life long partners crowing can begin to grind the nerves after 20 or so years, we must stand by our game for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, till RROD do us part! Whether the recent updates lop-sided balance has sickened you to your core and have you hoofing the disc out the door, or you are renewing your vows after loving the improvements to your main character, Street Fighter head-honcho Ono has been listening to what people have had to say. Let’s take a butchers at some of the info of most significance…
SSFIV AE 2012 rebalance hopes – FIFA, COD, Pro Evo. What do they all have in common? Yes, they are all getting worse, but thats not what I’m getting at. The answer is, they are all updated yearly. Well not to be one to be left out, Ono has seemingly been toying with the notion of yearly updates himself! According to recent tweets, and as a response to complaints about AE’s imbalance, Ono sounds to be considering seriously the prospect of a patch-shaped Street Fighter tinker at the least, seemingly after SF x Tekken work has finished. While a little tweaking here and there would surely be appreciated it unfortunately looks like we’re in for the long haul on this one again since that game isn’t even going to be out till next year. The chance of people still being interested by then? Not very likely, and Ono has acknowledged this himself. Could it spur him to action sooner? Oh, and there’s still nothing on new characters to fill those two slots on the AE character select screen. Come on Capcom!
Next to put it’s head on the Grig Orig chopping block is Street Fighter x Tekken. This is a title seeming to be hitting it’s developmental stride in the past few months with teasers, trailers and location tests all revealing more and more about the content that we’ll be getting next year. Let’s take a look at a few standout, or just recurring points!
Poison: Probably the most mentioned character in Ono’s tweets, so much so that it would be kinda strange if she/he wasn’t in the game. But at the same time, it would be weird if she was considering she’s never actually been playable in a Street Fighter game before, even though she was included in the unreleased Capcom Fighting Jam. One things for sure, all those new-half fans out there are certainly pestering Ono, and while answering them could be just another part of his trolling shenanigans, he’s at least acknowledging the request! The jury is still out on this one. But talking of juries…
Juri mention: While speaking recently SFxTekken and refering to popular characters, Ono dropped Juri’s name into the mix. This is really nothing to go on, but the seemingly random mention has been speculated on as possibly having some significance. Only time will tell.. but I grigging hope so!
Life bar changes: After what feels like many, many requests, Ono has mentioned that the energy bars as we’ve come to know them so far are not ticking the fans boxes and therefore will be getting a redesign. Community wins! Unless they make them worse…
Comic Con: Common knowledge really this one, but Ono has confirmed that they have readied a new trailer for Comic Con. The sly fella has also tweeted out a li’l sneaky pic showing King seemingly tagging out an as yet unknown partner. Hmm?
Dhalsim Teaser: C’mon people! It’s ‘Sim for sure! A new character teaser has broken in the last few days and shows what appears to be Dhalsims yellow shorts, flame motif, and background from Sf2. Id love to see that stage in SFIV-flavoured 3D so I’m hoping its in there! Off the topic of that particular is it/isn’t it SRK 200+ comment row, it looks like the trend of all SF characters being lifted from the SF4 series has yet to be broken. When we gonna get someone else we haven’t already seen in 3D?
That piece of red carpet is from Dhalsims classic SF2 stage… or is it?
Alt costumes: A given really, and you can bet we won’t be getting them for free, but when quizzed about whether we will be getting them, Ono replied ‘Hehehe You can count on it.’
Lastly, we have Street Fighter 3 Third Strike Online Edition. As has been bandied about muchly, this new filter-enhanced edition has GGPO netcode at it’s heart that should ensure some of the finest online fighting that the genre has yet seen! But there’s more my Grigs! For as has been revealed more recently…
Trial modes: The good fellows at Capcom are never ones to shy away from helping their loyal customers get their Street Fightin’ game on -unless it’s the new characters in AE coz they couldn’t be bothered – and have included some trial mode goodness to the SF3 mix! From combo lessons and blocking tasks, to a trial replicating the infamous Chun Li Super Special parry as pulled off by Daigo on Justin Wong, there’s plenty of help on hand bringing the SF3 experience to players new and old!
YouTube: Ever been worried about a bad performance being plastered all over the net by someone? Well Capcom are streamlining the public humiliation process by having a direct upload of replays from within the game itself! Truly the wheat and chaff could be harder to separate as a glut of rubbish is surely likely to flood YouTube. Nice idea though!
Achievements: In the same vein as SSFIV AE before it, a list of achievmo’s have hit the net prompting ideas of what we can expect. The only real surprises look like they will be from the trials and YouTube upload features rather than new characters or gameplay enhancements.
Release date: Still nothing on this front of solidarity, only that it will be before the end of the summer. Could a date possibly be unveiled at Comic Con? The chances are good!
Well, that’s a brief overview of some of the goings on in the future world of Street Fighter, but stay tuned old school fans coz we got a SF2 retrospective of mammoth proportions coming up for your delectation soon!
I’m still keeping an eye out for AE on the deal of the week, not holding my breath obviously. such a rip off
anyhoo, i still think sf x tekken might actually be good. How’s that marvel vs capcom doing 3 doing?
Can’t say I’ve been playing it. In fact last time was when you tried it out! But apparently there’s gonna be some MvC3 news at Comic Con which might be some new DLC characters or something. If it’s interesting it may draw me back to it so I won’t count it out just yet!