Super Street Fighter IV

Super Street Fighter IV
American box art for Super Street Fighter IV
Developer(s)	Dimps/Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Producer(s)	Yoshinori Ono
Designer(s)	Hirotoshi Shiozaki
Artist(s)	Daigo Ikeno
Composer(s)	Hideyuki Fukasawa
Series	Street Fighter
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Arcade, Nintendo 3DS
Release	PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 Arcade Nintendo 3DS
Genre(s)	Fighting
Mode(s)	Single-player, Competitive multiplayer
Arcade system	Taito Type X2

Super Street Fighter IV (スーパーストリートファイター IV, Sūpā Sutorīto Faitā Fō) is a 2010 fighting game produced by Capcom. It is an updated version of Street Fighter IV and has been said to mark the definitive end of the fourth installment of the Street Fighter series. Having been deemed as too large an update to be deployed as DLC, the game was made into a stand-alone title, but given a lower price than that of a full retail game. It was released on April 27, 2010 in North America, April 28, 2010 in Japan, and April 30, 2010 in Europe for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Super Street Fighter IV is stated to be released as one of the launch titles for the Nintendo 3DS, with 3D functionality.

Gameplay

See also: Gameplay in Street Fighter IV

Much like Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV features 3D backgrounds and characters played on a 2D plane. Exclusive additions like "Focus Attacks" and separate meters for both "Super" and "Ultra" combos make a return. The "Ultra Combo" gauge and moves has been left unchanged since Street Fighter IV but players will be able to choose between two Ultra Combos available for both existing and new characters.

The goal is to exhaust the opponent's health meter before the time runs out. The player wins a round if they deplete their opponent's health meter, or have more health than their opponent when time runs out. If both players deplete their meters at the same time or contain the same amount when the round timer ends, it will result in either a "double KO" or a draw giving both players a round win. If there isn't a clear winner by the final match, it will result in a "draw game." (During online play, both players will lose battle points,and player points, in the result of a draw game)

Similar to past entries, Super Street Fighter IV is played using an eight-way directional system giving players the ability to jump, crouch, and move towards and away from opponents. Generally there are six attack buttons for both punch and kick commands with three from each category differing in strength and speed. Similar to the latter two games from the Street Fighter III series, players can perform grabs and "personal actions" by simultaneously pressing the light and heavy punch and kick buttons respectively.

When playing through the single-player mode, if toggled on, there are additional "bonus stages" allowing a chance to receive additional points, similar to the ones found in Street Fighter II. The first challenge involves breaking a car while the second has players break as many barrels as they can.

Characters

See also: List of Street Fighter characters

One of Super Street Fighter 4's newest characters, Makoto, performing her Tanden Renki on Dan Hibiki.

Super Street Fighter IV includes all the original 25 characters from the home version of Street Fighter IV, as well as ten new characters, all of which are unlocked at the start of the game. After the game's release, Ono also showed interest in making additional characters available in the future as downloadable content (DLC).

Among the added characters are Dee Jay and T. Hawk from Super Street Fighter II, who were initially intended for the original Street Fighter IV but later dropped. Adon from the original Street Fighter and Cody and Guy from Final Fight are available, based on their iterations in the Street Fighter Alpha series. Additionally, Dudley, Ibuki, and Makoto return from the Street Fighter III series.

The first among the two new characters is Juri, a young South Korean female Taekwondo fighter, who works for Seth's organization, S.I.N. Juri has an energy-boosting device implanted inside her left eye called the "Feng Shui Engine", which provides her with time-warping abilities. The second fighter, Hakan, is a Turkish oil wrestler who seeks to prove that Turkish oil wrestling is the greatest fighting style on Earth.

The arcade version of Super Street Fighter IV also features Yun and Yang from Street Fighter III. Producer Yoshinori Ono is currently trying to get approval to release the characters as downloadable content for the console versions.

In Super Street Fighter IV, all characters feature at least two Ultra Combos. However, only one Ultra can be selected at a time in a way similar to the Super Arts system in Street Fighter III.

Each returning character from the original version of Street Fighter IV features an additional third costume, whereas newly introduced characters have only two available. Old costumes from the original Street Fighter IV can be used after purchasing DLC costume packs from Xbox Live or PlayStation Network. These costumes are automatically loaded in the Super version.

Game modes

The game features a few additional online modes, including Team Battle with up to 8 players. Replay Channel allows players to view and save replays from around the world, Endless Battle has the winner playing against a rotating group of up to 8 players, and a tournament mode (DLC) is featured as well. The game also sees the return of the car and barrels bonus stages from Final Fight, Street Fighter II and Street Fighter EX, and rival battles, where a dialogue sequence is played when a certain pair of characters face each other. However, Survival and Time Attack modes were removed from the original.

Development

Capcom officially hinted at the game in early September 2009 when they opened a teaser site in their official Japanese website. An official announcement was made on September 28, 2009 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with the arcade release initially only considered a possibility depending on fan support. On April 4, 2010, an arcade release was confirmed by Ono during the finals of the Japanese Street Fighter IV nationals. Super Street Fighter IV for the PC is unlikely, but not ruled out, due to rampant piracy Street Fighter IV suffered on the platform, requiring a better piracy solution before considering such a release.

Downloadable content

In Asia, a downloadable voucher for a Super Street Fighter IV movie featuring Juri was given in the Collector's Edition of the Xbox 360 version. The 40-minute feature serves as an origin story to Juri and a canonical precursor to the game. Although having been fully dubbed in English, the movie has not made it outside of Asia due to copyright issues.

As with its previous incarnation, Super Street Fighter IV will be offering optional alternate costumes for each of the characters through paid DLC. Sold in packs, the first bundle was made available on April 27, 2010, featuring new costumes for Dee Jay, Makoto, Hakan, Guy, and Dudley. The second bundle, Super Shoryuken Pack, was made available on May 11, 2010, featuring new costumes for Ryu, Ken, Akuma/Gouki, Gouken and Dan. The third bundle, Super Femme Fatale Pack, was made available on May 25, 2010, featuring new costumes for Chun-Li, Cammy, Sakura, C. Viper and Rose. The Super Classic Pack which features new costumes for Fei Long, Guile, Gen, Blanka and Dhalsim was available as a pre-order bonus in some regions. It is now available as downloadable content.

Owners of the original Street Fighter IV costume DLC packs are able to access their previously purchased DLC packs in the new game, as well as having 2 extra colors unlocked which are only available upon detecting a save from that game.

A downloadable Tournament Mode was released on June 15, 2010.

Starting on October 27, 2010 to early 2011, players can purchase another set of optional alternate costumes through paid DLC packs.

Versions

Arcade version

The Japanese arcade version of Super Street Fighter IV was announced on April 4, 2010 on the stage after the grand finals of Japan's official SF4 national tournament ended. The first wave of the location test took place between July 23 and August 8 in 3 different places in Japan. The second wave started on August 13.

Same as the previous game, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition utilizes an NESYS Card system which allows arcade players to keep and track their BP and PP statistics. The pre-match screen will now show a national rank and a prefectural rank as well as an introduction message up to 30 characters long.

The Arcade update adds Yun and Yang from Street Fighter III as playable characters, along with Evil Ryu and the new character Oni as secret bosses. In addition, several characters have received various tweaks, ranging from character balancing to new EX moves.

Recent leaked video footage revealed that Evil Ryu and Oni can be unlocked in both CPU-controlled and playable forms by access codes Capcom provides to arcade owners. According to strong rumours, as of January 2011 two more characters are yet to be revealed and unlocked in a similar fashion.

Nintendo 3DS version

At E3 2010, Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition was announced for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS. It will take advantage of its features such as autostereoscopic 3D and improved wireless features, such as Wi-Fi. In an interview with Famitsu, Yoshinori Ono stated that the gameplay will be the same as Super Street Fighter IV. Ono hopes that they can put all the gameplay modes from the console release on the game, plus original content, and they are looking to the possibility of including arranged costumes. Famitsu stated that all the 35 console characters, plus all the systems, will be on the 3DS release. The game has been called "exactly the same" as its HD counterparts by Capcom. The game features two control schemes, Light and Pro. Light mode allows players to set up to four hotkeys for moves and combos on the touchscreen, with each character having a custom loadout. For Pro players, combos have to be performed manually, but hotkeys can be assigned to certain commands to compensate for the 3DS's control layout.

The game can played either in the traditional 2D viewpoint, or in an optional over the shoulder 3D view. Also announced was the ability to swap "trophies" using "StreetPass" and the ability to launch into battles when in proximity to another Street Fighter IV player. The game will also feature Download Play, allowing two local players who have downloaded the game from another player to play against each other without a copy of the game.

Reception

Super Street Fighter IV

Review scores

Publication	Score
1Up.com	A
Computer and Video Games	9.5
Eurogamer	10
Famitsu	35/40
Game Informer	9
GamePro
GameSpot	9.0
GameTrailers	9.3
IGN	9.0
VideoGamer.com	9
X-Play	5/5
Giantbomb
GamingUnion. net	9.0

IGN gave the game a 9.0 and an Editor's Choice award, calling it "a superior version of one of the best fighting games around... with a far more developed online mode compared to the original version". GameTrailers gave the game 9.3, praising it for its improvements over the original. Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann gave the game 5/5 saying "Super Street Fighter IV adds enough great new content to justify skipping over the 'Champion Edition' and 'Hyper Fighting' steps in the Street Fighter upgrade path." play³ gave the game 95%, as they had done with its predecessor.

External links

• Super Street Fighter IV Official Website
• Super Street Fighter IV Official Website Template:Ja
• Super Street Fighter IV Official Blog Template:Ja
• Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition
• Analysis Super Street Fighter IV Template:Es