Super Street Fighter III... IV

Following the fan-favorite yet critical failure of the Street Fighter III series, the gods of Capcom took nearly 10 years to contemplate what went wrong with one of their flagship series. The result of this extensive period of meditation, (which I imagine involved countless Dragon Punches under a waterfall) was Street Fighter IV, a rebalanced, reimagined game utilizing the engine from the SFIII series. As a street fighter fan, SFIV is fighting game perfection; every character is playable and balanced in their own right with an array of difficulties depending on the player's preferred character.

Excluding Ryu, Ken and later Chun-Li and Gouki the original fighters of the franchise felt the sting of neglect among an entire roster of fresh-faced fighters during the SFIII series. Fans of the original cast, (myself being one such fan) couldn't conceive of a Street Fighter game without a more full selection of series staples, but were compelled to enjoy the charm of the flavorful new cast, beautifully updated character models and levels, and new fighting system. For the following installment Capcom decided to forgo rebalancing the cast of SF3 rookies in favor of reviving the tried and true roster of the original cast, with some new characters and fan favorites mixed in. However the gods of Capcom decided this wasn't enough, proclaiming: "the fans have been loyal to us so we'll give them more of what they want!" And how.

Until recently SFIII fans felt neglect similar to mine with the exclusion of the entire SFIII cast in SFIV. It may have taken a year to come around but if SFIV has taught us anything, it's that Capcom doesn't neglect its fans. The final three fighters for the second SFIV installment were announced to be Makoto, Dudley and Ibuki in addition to the already hefty bonus roster. Although the new video only showcases a precious few seconds of each returning SFIII character, their fighting styles appear to be mostly unchanged and only given minor tweaks to accommodate the new SFIV fighting systems.

As a late bloomer and untalented member of the Street Fighter III fanbase, within the few moments of this new video my apetite for Street Fighter has been reignited like pouring napalm over a match. Suddenly the wait until April 27th seems like an eternity.