Street Fighter IV Message Board

I’ve button-mashed many a fighting game character just to watch them die, but recently I’ve been trying roll my fighting game knowledge-train a little further down the line. As reported by Wired, the Street Fighter IV Combo Trainer looks like a good way of doing that. It’s a fan-created mod that helps you practice the timing of combo attacks.(more…)

I think I know what hell will be like. It will be someone demanding you put all the Street Fighter games in order on a shelf. The latest entry to the entirely garbled series will be Ultra Street Fighter IV, come August next year. It evolves to the next level!

(more…)

Digital artist Phuwadon Thongnoum uses a terrific, dynamic style in his Street Fighter fan art gallery. Reminds me of the Samurai Jack animated series. Here's Dhalsim, Blanka and Adon. There's more over at his Behancé profile.Read more...

The update to Street Fighter IV that spilled out yesterday now has a name: it's going to be sold as Ultra Street Fighter IV, a pack that adds five new fighters to the game, along with a range of tweaks. Four the five fighters have been announced. They're Rolento, Poison, Hugo and Elena. You can find the details of the tweaks to existing characters here. All the updates will be available as DLC for existing SFIV owners for $15; anyone jumping in for the first time can grab the "Ultra Street Fighter IV" disc for $40. From a splash screen grabbed by SRK, looks like it'll be available for at least the 360, PS3 and PC. [video: Capcom Fighters TV]

Capcom has revealed a new version of Street Fighter 4 at Evo 2013

From EVO 2013 comes news that Street Fighter IV's next update will deliver four new characters—and a fifth never before seen in the series. Rolento, Elena, Hugo and Poison will join the roster, plus an unnanounced fifth fighter. The characters, plus six stages and the usual complement of adjustments and balances, will come to PS3, Xbox 360 and PC for $15. This package will not release until early next year. Rod Breslau of GameSpot first reported the new characters via Twitter, adding that Capcom will announce the name of the update and show a new trailer before the EVO finals tomorrow. (The update will not be called Street Fighter Arcade Edition V. 2013.) [via Shoryuken]

Unless you grew up with it, or were born with the mechanical aptitude to quickly adapt to the rigorous timing and dexterity required, getting into Street Fighter can seem daunting. Try as they might, Capcom haven't been able to do a good enough job teaching players themselves via tutorials, so it's left to helpful souls like Matt Sciar here to take you by the hand and lead you gently into the land of fireballs. Beyond Technical: Tutorial for Street Fighter beginners [Cross Counter TV]

#cosplay As far as Street Fighter characters go, Juri Han is unique. She's the first Korean Street Fighter character and the sole Taekwondo fighter. She's also tough, evil, and very cool looking. More »

#watchthis Pipoca, the Brazilian animator who brought us First-Person Bomberman, now delivers this concept of Street Fighter IV's bonus stage, fought first-person style. It's a great take, but if the combos are based on your point of view, I'm now completely messed up on how to throw a hadouken. What's forward? Up? More »

If there was a fighting game being promoted by Capcom, Killian was somewhere nearby.

If you’ve been following Capcom fighting games since Street Fighter IV was announced, you know who Seth Killian is. The enthusiastic "special advisor" has been the public face of Capcom’s premiere genre nearly as much as the Blanka-toting Yoshinori Ono.

Just a few months after the release of Street Fighter X Tekken (and coincidentally the same date the stinker that is Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor has been released) Killian is moving on from Capcom.

Killian published a farewell letter on the Capcom Unity blog but did not mention where he’s going.

"I have chosen a new path which will let me embrace a new dream, but to everyone that ever believed in this dream we shared together, let me say this final thanks,” said Killian. “I will leave as I began--a Capcom fan for life, looking forward to all the great games still to come.”

The producer went on to thank various friends within Capcom who helped him along the way.

It’s worth your time to read the entire letter, but this passage directed at the fighting game community stood out:

“In no uncertain terms, you have been my reason for everything,” he said. “A game can be incredible, but it's the players and where they take it that elevate it into legend. Both as individuals and as a group, you have taught me more than I could have ever thought possible. Every hour on the road and every air mile towards my first million doesn't begin to repay the debt I feel to all of you. You are a family to me. Today, the community is strong, and growing stronger. We fight, we make mistakes, we argue, and we compete but in the end we have each other. To you, I can only say "thank you." You continue to electrify the world and show the power not just of a game, but of a living, breathing community. Strive to be your best selves, to share our magic with the next generation, and above all else, take care of each other. We are a family.”

This coming Friday, June 22, is Killian's last day at Capcom.

#yoshinoriono Popular Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinoro Ono says even after he worked himself to the point of exhaustion and took a terrifying trip to the hospital several months ago, Capcom put him back to work at breakneck speed. More »

Yoshinori Ono is more than the Blanka-toting, smiling face of the Street Fighter series - he's its savior. After Street Fighter III: Third Strike in 1999, Capcom was all too happy to abandon the series, which had seen flagging sales. And Ono always felt responsible for having some hand in its demise, having worked on the last game in the series.

He held onto that guilt for years, and after being promoted to the role of producer, pitched a design document for Street Fighter IV. "I was working on Onimusha 4 and during that time I repeatedly submitted my proposal for a new Street Fighter," he told Eurogamer. "The company kept telling me: 'It's a dead franchise. It doesn't make any money. We have series that make money like Resident Evil and Onimusha. Why bother with a dead franchise?'"

"Eventually I was given a small budget to create a prototype," Ono revealed. But it wasn't a result of his "pestering" the management that eventually brought the game to fruition - the journalists and fans "started making a lot of noise and pressuring Capcom," even though Ono admitted he told them to do that. "Journalists and fans have the power to move Capcom - not producers. With so many voices crying out for a Street Fighter game Capcom could no longer ignore it any more and so they gave the green light for a prototype and they asked me to create it. It's a miracle that happened after a decade..."

But as romantic as all of this is, Ono's account of work-life at Capcom is anything but. After taking a step back from the Street Fighter spotlight following a health scare, Ono spoke candidly about his employer - one he accuses of overworking him and failing to recognize his health woes related to overworking.

"Nobody told me to take a rest. When I returned to work, Capcom didn't even acknowledge that I had been in hospital. There was no change in my schedule. I was at home for an entire week before the doctors allowed me to return to work. When I returned to my desk there was a ticket to Rome waiting for me. There's no mercy. Everyone in the company says: 'Ono-san we've been so worried about you.' Then they hand me a timetable and it's completely filled with things to do."

Ono recalled a previous project in his first days at Capcom, when he had a short timetable to retrofit the soundtrack for Street Fighter Alpha to be compatible with a less advanced arcade chipset. "Capcom was very good at squeezing people to the last drop of their blood to get work done."

In regards to what's next, Ono isn't talking - but there's no way he'll leave fighting games behind. "There have been rumours saying Ono is dead or retiring. None of that's true. I want to support the next generation of fighting game. It's my job. It's my calling."

#streetfighter Xiao Zhao became her country's first female Street Fighter champion after coming out on top at a Super Street Fighter IV: AE v2012 tournament. Playing as Dhalsim, she defeated her competition at the Nanning Mario Arcade Center in Guangxi last month. More »

Asura's Wrath is an anime-inspired take on Buddhist stories, but some new DLC announced in Japan will add a legendary character from another tradition. A single screen of new DLC released by Capcom shows Asura facing off against a distinctly Street Fighter IV-looking Ryu, complete with SFIV-style HUD elements and the traditional side view. Even the background imitates a familiar Street Fighter backdrop while simultaneously making sense in Asura's world.

Capcom didn't offer any more details about the DLC beyond that one screenshot -- no date, no price, nothing. But that teaser is enough to guarantee we'll be paying attention.

Yoshinori Ono has been the face of Capcom fighting games since Street Fighter IV.

Between Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, there have been plenty of fighting games from Capcom in the last few years. Street Fighter X Tekken will join that lineup later this year, a game Brad and Jeff were happily surprised by. Too much, too soon?

Our latest look at the game had the always-energetic producer Yoshinori Ono nearby, and as the demo wrapped up, I had a chance to ask a few questions. There wasn’t enough material to produce a full story, and I’m not interested in running four tiny stories, so I figured you should just go ahead and read everything.

Giant Bomb: With the gem system, why not allow users to filter out players, based on whether or not they are using gems?

Yoshinori Ono: When we were putting together all the concepts, we realized this would be the most ambitious fighting game that we’ve ever put together. Definitely, the gem system was part of that. If we made it so players could filter out players without gems and things like that, I mean, it’d be one way to play the game, but when we put together our initial vision of how it played, that was a very important part. Yeah, you can go into battle without gems--you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to--but we really think it’s a shame because we really think it makes the game better. As a whole, it’s a very important part of the game.

Giant Bomb: Fighting games were a massive hit in the 90s...until they weren’t. With several games now under your belt, how do you avoid falling into the same complexity pit that alienated so many players all over again?

Ono: As you mentioned, once fighting games had that boom in the 90s, basically the market was flooded with all sorts of different fighting games. Like we mentioned, they were kind of made for the arcade setting, so while there was a lot of them, they were actually really simple at heart. Some of them got kind of complicated--Third Strike had parries and stuff. For Street Fighter X Tekken, what we wanted to do, it all comes down to balance. You wanted to be able to appeal to the casual audience, while having enough stuff in there for hardcore fans to play, research and do their thing in the training mode. What we tried to do with Street Fighter X Tekken was to put in aspects that would appeal to all users, things like cross rush, the tag battles--these are the things that the casual user can really enjoy really easily, while it also has some merit for the hardcore players. It’s definitely really hard, but we tried our best with Street Fighter X Tekken to keep everyone in mind and make something that everyone can enjoy.

One more thing that wasn’t available in the 90s was online play, and that’s something that we put a huge focus on this game. All the modes in this game can be played online, and you can do online, offline, [and a] mix of human/CPU. We wanted to give players as many options as possible. The great thing about fighting games is that it’s like one-versus-one, and you’re trying to compete against the other guy in that kind of arcade setting. With online, we’ve been able to do is bring that kind of arcade setting onto the Internet, so you can do it, even though arcades don’t really do well these days, it’s still the kind of experience you can get if you’re playing the game online. We want players to foster that human network, human interaction--going back-and-forth with ideas and strategies. We think that Street Fighter X Tekken, [with] the new net code and things like that, will help them really enjoy the online.

Giant Bomb: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned from working with another developer’s set of characters?

Ono: We thought King was a tiger. He’s not! He’s a lion. [laughs] He has spots...he looks like a tiger, but, actually, he’s not a tiger.

Through this collaboration with Namco Bandai, we’ve been able to see, basically, what their philosophies were when they were making fighting games, and we learn. Although every developer has a different way of expressing it, it all comes back to having tournaments and supporting the community--the tournament scene. Namco Bandai are also big players in the community of fighting games, and through our collaboration with them, it’s [clear it's] really important to help foster the community. So for future titles as well, we want to keep putting our support with the community, helping them out in any way that we can, so that they can continue to have big tournaments and really grow the genre.

Giant Bomb: When you think about fighting games in 10, 20 years, what do they look like?

Ono: For me, the key word is customization. With Street Fighter X Tekken, this was a big challenge. It was the first time we’ve done anything like this with the gem system, but I think fighting games would really benefit from having a little bit more of that personal touch. How am I, as a player, approaching that particular character? In 10, 20 years, if fighting games can get to that point where everyone has their own little personality within their own character, I think that would really benefit the genre. It’s something that I’m really working hard towards.

If we come up with Street Fighter 5, Street Fighter 6 or Street Fighter 7, I’d like to have players be able to say “Oh, you know, Jason’s Ryu in Street Fighter 6 was so good!” That guy’s character, not that character, not “Oh, Ying & Yang are so broken!” If I’m still working for Capcom in the next 20 years and they haven’t fired me yet [laughs], that’s the goal that I’d want to work towards.

#fanart Japanese artist Kei Suwabe created profiles for characters that don't exist in Street Fighter IV, but Japanese pop culture. More »

#film For years, fighting game fans in the New York City area gathered at Chinatown Fair, to hone their skills at the location's stand-up machines. That all ended earlier this year to the dismay of many. Chinatown Fair's legacy lives on across the river in Brooklyn's Next Level but you can relive the glory of days past in a new documentary. Directed by Calvin Theobald, King of Chinatown features competitive gamers Justin Wong and Daigo Umehara, too, and shows the pivotal role Chinatown Fair played in their relationship. It's been out for a while but you can get it on iTunes this week. If you miss Chinatown Fair or love fighting games, give the film a look. More »

#review Square Enix's first two Street Fighter IV figures, based on series "heroes" Ryu and Chun-Li, have just hit shelves. Part of the company's Play Arts line, they're big, they're detailed and they're a little on the expensive side. More »

#streetfighter At a New York University conference about game design this past weekend, a conversation about misogyny broke out. More »

My choice of feckless, work-dodging pursuit while a student (due to being too poor to afford a PC at the time) was PlayStation man-thumper Tekken, specifically 2 and 3 in the series. While I haven’t explored its strange lands of fighting bears and suicidal undead samaurai for many years, a certain nostalgia tickles at my childlike soul upon news that Namco’s longstanding brawler is to make its first foray onto PC.

In a manner of speaking, at least – the upcoming console licence mash-up Street Fighter x Tekken had its Windows version confirmed by Capcom over the weekend. No details yet, simply that the PC edition “just began development.” Rather surprising, to be honest, but it’s always heartening to see the platform tyrannies of the past slowly dissipate. It rather suggests the PC versions of Street Fighter IV’s assorted flavours did quite well, too.

In what basically amounts to a 3-hit news shoryuken, LG and Capcom have announced that a mobile version of Street Fighter IV will fight its way onto Google's Android OS sometime in Q4 (Hit 1), and that the title will be exclusive to an upcoming LG smartphone (Hit 2), but only for the first three months (KO!).

No pricing or release information has been given beyond the Q4 window, and LG has yet to announce which of its smartphones will receive the title. The press release refers to the manufacturer's "first HD Android smartphone," however, pegging the LU6200 as the prime suspect. No word on whether or not this is a direct port of the iOS version of Street Fighter IV, but the LU6200's slate form factor would easily facilitate the title.

Once we know more about Street Fighter IV's system requirements, we'll have a better idea of which phones will be able to run the fighter once the exclusivity agreement has run its course. For now though, all we can do is cross our fingers and think button-y thoughts.

Shinsuke Shimada, one of Japan's most famous comedians, retired from the entertainment industry this week after yakuza connections were revealed. Shimada was also an advisor at Dimps, the game developer behind Street Fighter IV, stepping down earlier this week. [Sanspo] More »

#film Filmmaker Jon Rafman made about arcade fighting games, childhood, junk food, and the tragedy of beating a video. There's a lot of big ideas here, and Codes of Honor is worth a watch. More »

#streetfighter Jonathan Drake (aka Animatronic Ackbar) is putting together a documentary on the competitive fighting game scene. It's looking good! More »

Street fighting is serious business, but even the single-minded Ryu can't be serious all the time. This is especially true when he's made out of vinyl and absolutely adorable. Just look at Dhalsim and his cute little Yoga Fire!

Standing at 3 inches tall, all twelve of the original Street Fighter 2 characters are represented in the Kidrobot collection, including some alternate costume colors. You can check out more images at the Kidrobot website. While you're there, see if you can avoid hitting that big, friendly "buy" button.

#guesteditorial Competitive gaming and eSports are not a new phenomenon. More »

#streetfighteriv Can't get enough Street Fighter? Love making a positive impact in the world? Then today's your lucky day. More »

#watchthis Here's a look at Finalroundbats, a Tokyo-based fighting game tournament. If you've ever wondered what the fighting game scene looks like in Japan, this is a window in. More »

#chchchchanges Besides being a model and a TV personality, Kayo Satoh is one of Japan's top Street Fighter players, more than holding her own against the likes of legendary player Daigo Umehara. More »

Capcom has a sale running on four of its iOS titles. The discounted list includes Street Fighter 4, Resident Evil Mercenaries Vs, Dead Rising Mobile and Devil May Cry 4 Refrain. If you've been waiting to pick any of these up, you can snag them now for just $0.99 each.