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Information about Street Fighter IV

Street Fighter IV is a 2009 (last year) fighting game produced by Capcom. It is the first numbered Street Fighter game released by Capcom for the arcades since 1999 (11 years ago). The coin-operated arcade game was released in Japan on Jul. 18, 2008 (2 years ago) with North American arcades importing the machines by August. The console versions for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were released on Feb. 12, 2009 (last year) in Japan, and were sold in North American stores as early as Feb. 16, with a Feb. 18 intended release date. The official European release was on Feb. 20. A Windows version was released on Jul. 2, 2009 (last year) in Japan, Jul. 3, 2009 (last year) in Europe and Jul. 7, 2009 (last year) in the US. As of Mar. 31, 2009 (last year), Street Fighter IV had sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide. An updated version, Super Street Fighter IV, is scheduled to be released as a standalone title in Spring 2010 (this year).

Trailer

Gameplay

While Street Fighter IV features models and backgrounds rendered in 3D, the gameplay remains on a traditional 2D plane, with the camera having freedom to move in 3D at certain times during fights, for dramatic effect. Producer Yoshinori Ono has stated that he wanted to keep the game closer to Street Fighter II. A new system called "Focus Attacks" ("Saving Attack" for the Japanese version) has been introduced, as well as Ultra moves. The traditional six-button control scheme returns, with new features and special moves integrated into the input system, mixing classic gameplay with additional innovations.

Stephen Kleckner of 1UP.com has stated the game has a similar feel to Super Street Fighter II Turbo, but also has a few features from Street Fighter III 3rd Strike. Pressing both light attack buttons is still for throwing, and both heavy attack buttons are for the personal action or taunts. Pressing both medium attack buttons makes your character perform the focus strike. Dashes and quick standing are also in the game. C.Viper is the only character who can perform a high jump.

It was intended that bonus rounds such as the car-smashing stage from earlier Street Fighter games would return. Ono later stated that the bonus stages would not be in the arcade game, citing the reason to be that the time players spend on bonus stages is time during which they have no chance of losing, which ultimately takes money from arcade operators.

Visuals

All the characters and environments in Street Fighter IV are rendered as 3D models with polygons, similar to the Street Fighter EX sub-series Capcom produced with Arika. However, there are a couple of key differences. Art director and character designer Daigo Ikeno, who previously worked on Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, added cel-shading to give them a hand-drawn look, with visual effects accented in calligraphic strokes, ink smudges and ink sprays during the fights.

Focus Attacks

Focus Attacks, known as "Saving System" in the Japanese version, is a new system introduced in Street Fighter IV. The focus attack is a move that allows the player to absorb an attack and launch a counter attack, and it is performed by pressing the medium punch and kick buttons simultaneously. There are two phases to the attack. In the first phase, the player will shift into a new stance, at which point he or she is able to absorb a single hit from the opponent. The second phase is the counter attack. The longer the player holds down the medium punch and kick buttons, the more powerful the attack will be. If the buttons are held for long enough the attack will be unblockable and cause the opponent to crumple slowly to the ground, allowing the player to follow up with a free hit. Attacks that were absorbed during the first phase of a focus attack still cause damage to the player; however, life lost from the opponent's attack will be quickly regenerated afterward. In addition, during the first phase of the focus attack the player may perform a dash either forward or backward to cancel the focus attack. Finally, at the cost of half the super combo gauge, many special moves can be canceled into a focus attack. By executing a focus attack during the special move, the animation of the move will be cut short and go instantly into the focus attack animation. This allows players with precise timing to cancel special moves into focus attacks, and in turn cancel focus attacks into the forward dash, resulting in new combo possibilities. If a special move is blocked by the opponent, the new system allows players to cancel the blocked move with a focus attack, and then cancel the focus attack by dashing backward safely away from the opponent.

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 or she starts moving... We haven't forgotten about combos and linked moves, but focus 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 focus system is a core part of Street Fighter IV's gameplay.

Ultra Combos

In addition to the powered-up versions of special moves introduced in previous Street Fighter games such as Super Combos and EX Special Moves, the game also introduces a new type of powered-up special move officially dubbed the Ultra Combo. Ultra Combos are long and cinematic moves featuring a lengthy combination of punches, kicks and other fighting techniques. Just as there is a Super Combo gauge, there is also an Ultra Combo gauge (officially known as the "Revenge Gauge" or "Revenge Meter"), but whereas the Super Combo gauge fills up when the player hits their opponent or performs a special move , the Revenge Gauge fills when one takes damage from their opponent (similar to the K Groove featured in Capcom vs. SNK 2). Along with the Super Combos, Ultra Combos are one of the only times the camera breaks from its normal fixed position to show a more dynamic, cinematic view of the gameplay.

Characters

Chronologically set between the Street Fighter II sub-series and the Street Fighter III sub-series, the playable character roster of the arcade version includes the cast of the original Street Fighter II (all twelve characters, including the four Shadaloo Grand Masters) and four new characters. Akuma from Super Street Fighter II Turbo also appears as a hidden playable character, as well as a secret opponent, for a total 17 playable characters. Additionally, the game includes two CPU-only characters: Seth as the game's standard final boss, and Gouken as a secret opponent, which makes for a total of 19 characters.

Returning characters in the arcade version:
Ryu
Ken
Chun-Li
E. Honda
Blanka
Zangief
Guile
Dhalsim
Balrog (M. Bison in Japan)
Vega (Balrog in Japan)
Sagat
M. Bison (Vega in Japan)

New characters:
Abel, a French mixed martial artist. He is described as an amnesiac, a "man with no past" looking to defeat surviving members of Shadaloo.
Crimson Viper, a female American spy wearing sunglasses, leather gloves and a form-fitting suit.
Rufus, an overweight Kung Fu fighter, who seeks to fight Ken to prove himself as the best fighter in the United States.
El Fuerte (Spanish for "The Strong One"), a Mexican luchador and aspiring gourmet chef.

Bosses and hidden characters:
Seth, also known as "The Puppet Master", is the new boss character. He is the Chief Executive Officer of S.I.N., a weapons manufacturer. His body has been modified using advanced technology. His Special Moves are techniques used by other characters.
Akuma (Gouki in Japan), a recurring hidden character, appears in the arcade version as a secret final boss in the single-player mode, as well as a secret time-release playable character available.
Gouken, the elder brother of Akuma, and Ryu and Ken's master, appears in the arcade version as a secret computer-controlled challenger in the end of the single-player mode, making his debut as a fighter in the Street Fighter series.

Development

Before producer Yoshinori Ono pitched the idea to Capcom R&D head Keiji Inafune, the prevailing attitude around Capcom was that a new numeric entry to the Street Fighter series would not be made. Initially, there was much resistance to Ono's pitch for a new Street Fighter game so many years after the original. However, in light of fan demand plus the positive reaction to Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting on Xbox Live Arcade, Inafune eventually allowed the project to begin. This was Ono's first take on a new entry for the Street Fighter series as a producer, although he had previously worked on Street Fighter III 3rd Strike as a "sound management director" and previously produced Capcom Fighting Jam. The experience provided by Super Street Fighter II Turbo became the main influence for the Street Fighter IV development team.

The game runs on the Taito Type X2 arcade board inside a Taito Vewlix cabinet and takes advantage of the Type X2's network capabilities and allows players in separate machines within the same LAN to fight each other.

Reception

Both the arcade and home versions of Street Fighter IV have received critical acclaim. The game received an aggregated score of 94 from Metacritic for its PlayStation 3 version and 93 for its Xbox 360 version.

The arcade version of Street Fighter IV was voted Best Game of 2008 (2 years ago) in Japan by the editorial staff of Arcadia magazine in the Feb. 2009 (last year) issue of the publication. The game also won in the categories of "Best Graphics", "Best Production", and the "Reader's Choice Award". The character Ryu took the No. 1 spot in the magazine's "Top 20 Characters of 2008" in the same issue. The Feb. 2009 (last year) issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine has rated the game 5/5, while the Feb. 2009 (last year) issue of the Official Xbox Magazine has given Street Fighter IV a score of 9.5/10. IGN gave the game a 9.3/10, calling it an "irrevocably deep fighting game", but said that the anime cutscenes are "so poorly animated and tell you almost nothing about the story or the context for each character's participation in the tournament."

Giant Bomb gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. Eurogamer gave the game 10/10 stating that "after over a month of playing Street Fighter IV almost daily, what has become quite clear is that it manages to appeal to a huge range of abilities and tastes without ever compromising its fidelity". Planet Xbox 360 was similar in its praise for the game, awarding it 9.1/10 and only finding fault with the Xbox 360's controller. Strategy Informer gave the game 9/10 saying "[Street Fighter IV] is truly one spectacular fighting game that proves Capcom's focal point — Street Fighter is back!".

Some critics however criticize the difficulty of the final boss Seth, with Official Xbox Magazine UK calling him "cheap" at times, even on the easiest difficulty, and being "something of an anticlimax". GameTrailers also expressed a complaint over the lack of game modes, although due to the gameplay felt it was "more than enough variety to meet your expectations".

According to Capcom, the console versions of the game sold out on its first day of release in Japan, with over 86,000 copies sold. Within one week of Street Fighter IV's North American release, Capcom has announced that the game has shipped 2 million copies to retailers.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

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