Fighting games are a very strict niche, either you like 'em or you hate 'em. Me? I love them! The very first game I ever bought with my own hard earned cash was Mortal Kombat 1 for the Genesis. I can remember playing that game so much that the actual cartridge [over time] melted on the lower right hand side of it. Without a doubt the MK series holds a near and dear place in my heart and of course is my all time favorite fighting series, however there are two other fighting titles that over the years have come close to dethroning the power house known as Mortal Kombat. I'm talking about non other than the Samurai Showdown series for the Neo Geo (most notably Samurai Showdown 2) and the other being what some may say is the greatest fighting series of all time (and it has the fan base and longevity to prove it) the Street Fighter Series!
Since I'm not here to re-live my past I am going to focus on Street Fighter, more precisely Street Fighter 4; Capcom's latest installment for the kingpin series. The game is due out in Arcades June of this year in Japan and has now just officially been announced, via Capcom's latest press event, that the game will be coming state side (duhh). However, the big news was seeped into the fine lines of their press event, Capcom speaker Hideyou Kojime explained "Street Fighter 4 will be hitting all major next gen gaming consoles...except for the Wii." I laughed at that last part. The roster will of course be filled to the brim with past characters like (my fav) Sagat, Blanka, Chun Li, Ryu, Ken, Vega, E-Honda...the list goes on. Oh yeah, there's going to be 4 new playable characters that you all can sink your meat hooks into.
The great thing about this game is they have reverted back to "traditional" 2D
gameplay mechanics with a "back" focus on 3Dfunctionality. In layman's terms: they are catering to the hardcore fans of past. The backgrounds and ambient surroundings will all be in 3D, however, the game play itself will be on a 2D plane which will incorporate some 3D animations when doing a "finishing move." Confused? Don't be...the creators have stated multiple times at events that this game will be accessible to newbies alike but also garner a well respected love from the hardcore players. Thank God!
Ok, so enough with the dates and all that formal jargon...Lets see some footage right? I've supplied the latest 3 videos featuring some of our favorite characters from past Street Fighter installments...
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