GDC: Street Fighter IV

By Tom Bramwell Published 21 February, 2008

Hyper fighting hype.

Full disclosure: this hands-on preview appears with dinky PS3 and 360 icons next to it, but we haven't played those versions. In fact, Capcom refuses to confirm whether or not they even exist, despite admitting that it would be "pretty surprising" if Street Fighter IV failed to make the transition from arcade to home console. Still, it's worth pointing this out so that the PRs don't wake me up with a phone call at 2am PST to complain. I need my beauty sleep. As you'll know if you've ever seen my face.

Street Fighter IV ought to be a relic, but it seriously isn't. It's not a complicated mess of ideas dragged together from the disparate SF games, either. It's a very beautiful, accessible distillation of the best characters' best moments, brought together with some intuitive new systems. All your old friends are back - Ryu, Ken, E. Honda, Dhalsim, Zangief, Chun-Li, Guile and Blanka - and will be joined by new recruits Abel and Crimson Viper, and contests are still decided as best-of-three rounds with a time limit on individual bouts and a big old health bar running across the top of the screen. There are still six attack buttons - light, medium and hard of both punch and kick. Being KO'ed without landing a blow is still depressing, and people still refuse to ever play you again once they beat you. Even at GDC. Tossers.

Looking around the screen, you also notice a Super meter along the bottom. This builds up when you connect with an attack, or whenever you perform a special, even if it doesn't connect. The amount of specials a character has will vary, and the fighters draw their moves and characteristics from the likes of the Alpha and Third Strike games as well as raw SF II. Making sure it's instantly familiar seems to have been a very deliberate choice, and it works: picking Ken initially (I'm a sucker for blondes), I proceeded to land a flying hard-kick, punch and dragon-punch three-hitter repeatedly on a hapless US journo's C.Viper, before rocking out with a double quarter-circle-forward and punch Super attack finale. KO.

'GDC: Street Fighter IV' Screenshot 1

Sometimes the camera shifts perspective a bit to frame a particularly fancy move.

Another obvious element of the screen furniture is the Revenge meter - a little C-shape at the end of your health bar - which fills up in segments as you take damage from enemies. This obviously isn't great news, but the benefit of it is that it enables you to perform Ultra attacks rather than just Supers; Ultras are far more punishing and spectacular, and activate by pressing two attack buttons instead of one at the end of the Super joystick sequence. Ken's Ultra is a fireball and spinning flaming dragon-punch attack that made me laugh so hard that I then lost the bout, which is pretty impressive considering how decisive an Ultra's meant to be. Super and Revenge meters both reset at the start of each bout, so there's no pointing saving things up.

Less obvious but perhaps more important are the new Focus Attacks, also available to every character. To perform one of these, you use the medium punch and kick buttons together. Tapping them performs a sort of slap, while charging it up offers two additional levels of power, the third of which is actually unblockable. While you build up to the level-three version of this attack, you're fragile, but you can absorb one attack (although it will hurt). Unleash it and connect, though, and you will floor your opponent and get the chance to whack them again while they're going down. Be quick.

Anyway, we got bored of Ken, so we switched to Chun-Li, who is also a lot of fun (just don't mention her paunch). Spinning bird kick is still down for two seconds then up and kick, and her projectile is back for two seconds then forward and punch. Chunners can also still jump up to the side of the screen and spring off it again to come down from a greater height, and do her lightning kick.

We also saw the new characters, Abel and C.Viper, up close. The latter speaks into a mobile phone in her introductory attract sequence while posing a bit, and has absurd breasts with a black tie running suggestively between them. She can pound the floor on her side of the screen to injure her opponent from distance, and has some impressively fiery kicks, which are perhaps why we've seen so many fire engines in San Francisco this week. Abel, meanwhile, is a burly Frenchie oui oui, who is hard but also quite nimble. We were rubbish with him, but our PR minder successfully demonstrated that he is useful and distinctive by demolishing our one-note Ken combinations in a few swift showpiece attacks.

There are a lot of other familiar elements making a comforting return, too. Birds still spin around your head when you're dizzied, Japanese shouting fills the air, and then there are other eye-catchers like Guile's airstrip level - now with GIs standing around reacting to the action, and a military transport plane being towed across the background.

'GDC: Street Fighter IV' Screenshot 2

The Street Fighter II Animated Movie is the best videogame film ever. Discuss.

Those backgrounds in general are rich with detail, and nice and colourful, although we only saw a few. And since we're on the graphics, the mixture of faintly outlined 3D characters with slightly dumpy environments and NPCs is a winner. Thighs and muscles may be a bit disproportionate, but they're consistently disproportionate in the sort of way that looks correct overall, and backed up by terrific collision detection and flashy effects and camera spins for specials and particularly Supers and Ultras. Throws look great, and there are some nice animation flourishes, like Chun-Li spinning her legs around like a helicopter in the split-second before she springs back to her feet once downed. A smooth 60 frames-per-second, too. We can't imagine anybody looking at the game in person and not finding it a bit dazzling.

At the end of our hour in Capcom's company, fighting round the world, we were told that the current code is only around 50-60 percent complete, and that a lot has yet to be revealed. We've already had hints of super-cancels (no idea either, if we're honest - apparently you cancel a special with a Super), but that's the least of it: our minders hinted at some properly interesting stuff lurking below the surface. We haven't seen our old friends the bosses yet, either, and our PR friend was adamant that "a lot" is still being tweaked, despite the game's very promising state. Look out for more on SF IV in the next few weeks, hopefully. (I.e. Capcom: can we come round to your house again and play?)

Street Fighter IV has currently only been confirmed for the arcades, but if it isn't coming out on PS3 and 360 we will eat so many hats that we'll be sick.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (46) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Benno #1 4 years ago

    classic

  • trav #2 4 years ago

    "The Street Fighter II Animated Movie is the best videogame film ever. Discuss."

    I agree. No other videogame film can ever top the Chun Li vs. Vega fight in that film.

  • sailesh #3 4 years ago

    I concur with that statement in the last screenie. Tis pretty awesome.

  • killest #4 4 years ago

    Shinku....... HADOOOOKEN!!!!!!!

  • JHuxley #5 4 years ago

    No other videogame film can ever top the Chun Li vs. Vega fight in that film.

    "My beautiful face is RUINED!"

    I hope she can throw a couch in this one.

  • projectmayhem #6 4 years ago

    this is one of my most anticipated games of the year.

    ...if it comes out on consoles of course. you never know :D

  • sanctusmortis #7 4 years ago

    I'd say Alpha was at least a very close second.

  • DDevil #8 4 years ago

    A super cancel...

    Normally when doing a special move such as a fireball or hadoken has a "warm up" and "warm down" animation. For example you're vunerable a split second before the fireball as Ryu brings his hands together, then after the fireball as he regains his normal pose. During this time you cannot enter another move command.

    However, a super cancel would cancel the warm down animation straight into the super move animation. The effect being that in the fireball's case, you would unleash the fireball and instead of Ryu straightening up again, he would go straight into the animation for his super.

  • viper_h #9 4 years ago

    lol SFII:TAM had some great dialogue. "You worthless pile of excrement!"

    Also Chun-Li's tits.

  • DB2k #10 4 years ago

    you perverts just like the bit when shes naked in the shower in that cartoon.
    I think I preferred Fist of the Northstar.. although I have no idea nor any care if the movie came first or the game

  • Muddtallica #11 4 years ago

    "The Street Fighter II Animated Movie is the best videogame film ever. Discuss."

    Probably true, but that's not saying all that much. It's a handsome-looking film with a great artstyle, excellent animation and fight choreography (Chun-Li vs. Vega, Ryu vs. Fei Long, Cammy's assassination attempt) and a pleasing reverence for its source material, but it's severely hamstrung by somewhat dodgy storytelling; the filmmakers clearly had a lot of trouble figuring out how to satisfyingly juggle that many main characters, so what you end up with is a film that lacks narrative focus, with characters and story strands phasing in and out of prominence with annoyingly little fanfare. Add to that a farcical non-sequitur cliffhanger ending (BISON COMES BACK DRIVING A BIG TRUCK!!!1), and you end up with a stylish and well-intentioned film, but one that felt a little hollow to me. Oh, and you see Chun-Li's pants and knockers in it.

    As for this game, I'm excited; it looks like a welcome throwback to the glory days. I'll be interested to see more characters (where's Bison?), though, and more than this one stage. My main reservation is the artstyle, which makes everyone look a bit too chunky; I know Ryu, Ken, Guile etc were always fairly thick-set, but isn't Chun-Li meant to be lithe and slender? She looks like she's been on an intense pie and steroid diet, here...then again, I guess she is Chinese, so she's probably prepping for the Olympics.

    EDIT - Oh, looks like others beat me to mentioning the whole "Chun-Li's jugs" issue. Well, they were pretty damn big, so I guess it's worth mentioning them again.
    Edited by 1 at 21/02/08 @ 15:03

  • JHuxley #12 4 years ago

    It's a handsome-looking film with a great artstyle, excellent animation and fight choreography (Chun-Li vs. Vega, Ryu vs. Fei Long, Cammy's assassination attempt) and a pleasing reverence for its source material

    But isn't that all you'd ever ask of a Street Fighter movie? It's not as if the source material has much depth outside of the fight mechanics, anyway. You basically want them to kick the shit out of each other, and that film does it beautifully.

  • mcwildcard #13 4 years ago

    'Focus Attack' eh?
    That part seems lifted from the KOF series, although that's far from being a bad thing.
    I'm looking forward to this, it'd be great to see a Streetfighter renaissance.

  • Muddtallica #14 4 years ago

    JHuxley: That's all I'd ask from a Street Fighter GAME, but I judge films on rather different criteria; I can accept convoluted, incoherent plotting in a game, where story isn't really the point, but not in a film, where it really is. It's a shame, really, because the film was very pleasing as a bit of fanservice (they even used Chun-Li's original stage music at one point in the Japanese dub), and had commendable production values; with a bit more clarity and focus in the plot it would have been a very decent sci-fi actioner.

  • Ranger101 #15 4 years ago

    I love you Eurogamer for covering this.

    MWAH!

    "The Street Fighter II Animated Movie is the best videogame film ever. Discuss." - Agreed.

    The MP+MK thing seems VERY interesting as a replacement to Parrying. (I guess this also puts SF3 Overheads out of the question, seeing as they were the same command). I still wish it had parrying. Eurogamer people, next time you get an audience with Capcom, please press this Parrying issue!

    Also guys, do we know if Throwing is Foward+Fierce like in SF2 or the superior LK+lP like in sf3?
    Edited by 2 at 21/02/08 @ 15:41

  • Madafunkola #16 4 years ago

    Your PR friend was Adam Ant!?!? WOW! He's fallen on hard times/on the up.

  • bad09 #17 4 years ago

    Wicked!!

    As for "The Street Fighter II Animated Movie is the best videogame film ever. Discuss."

    Good, but not a patch on Van Dammes movie! He should have got an oscar for that!
    Edited by 1 at 21/02/08 @ 15:56

  • JHuxley #18 4 years ago

    I can accept convoluted, incoherent plotting in a game, where story isn't really the point, but not in a film, where it really is.

    Well, using that criteria, Ong-Bak is an absolutely appauling mess of a film. Which is true in terms of story and structure...but that would be overlooking other aspects (namely someone willing to set their leg on fire and knee a car door for our entertainment) that impact on your enjoyment of the film. You watch it expecting some good fights, lots of broken bones and a few stunts. Story is a distant last place.

    But, you know, to each their own and all that :)

  • legendmir #19 4 years ago

    the music in the vega chun-li fight rocked too!

  • deaner #20 4 years ago

    "The Street Fighter II Animated Movie is the best videogame film ever. Discuss."

    No discussion. Fact.

    It's also the best animated movie ever. Even better than Transformers: The Movie - even though that had TWO Stan Bush songs on the soundtrack!

    None of this is opinion. And if you disagree, or are not looking forward to this game more than your next sexual encounter (woman, man or inflatable) - then you are some sort of heathen and should be burned atop a mountain of Panasonic 3DO's.

    This also applies if you own the version of this film without the gratuitous Chun-Li boob shot, which is the best videogame-related 'friction-material' since the conception of Lara Croft.

  • Ryze #21 4 years ago

    Is there a Japanese version of the Street Fighter II Animated Movie with English subtitles available anywhere?

    The English (American) dialogue reeks of cheese.

  • Nallen #22 4 years ago

    Spinning crotch shot!

    If SFII:TAM is the best game to movie tie in ever, Street Fighter The Movie must be the worst.

    Also, as a Tekken fan you have no idea how gutting it was to watch SFII:TAM and then Tekken:TAM. Jesus imagine if Tekken the Movie (2009) is the same step down. I'll claw out my own eyes.

    Also, I think this game looks great, wonderful style. Might want to reign those hands in a bit though, esp Chun Li's thumb as someone else said!

  • Razorus #23 4 years ago

    I actually don't mind the American dubbing for the animated movie. It's suitably cheesy without being annoying. Plus Bison sounds badass. The best line is Guile's: "Bison! I'll rip your fucking heart out!"

    Or when Ryu speaks to the Indian policeman who has some next Californian accent. Great.

  • convercide #24 4 years ago

    @ Ryze

    Yes there is. The Special Collectors Edition.

  • Pablo2k5 #25 4 years ago

    This looks awesome!

  • Feanor #26 4 years ago

    "I actually don't mind the American dubbing for the animated movie."

    Do they call Ryu "rye-oo"?

  • Muddtallica #27 4 years ago

    JHuxley: Don't get me wrong there, I appreciate that story isn't always the most important thing, and in action films in particular, it's pretty damn low down the list. I'm not saying that I demand any film I watch to excel in all departments, but even the "unimportant" aspects of a film should be at least functional. No-one's going to be dishing out Oscars to SFII for its dialogue and acting, for example, but I didn't have a problem with them, because I felt they did their job; the story, on the other hand, left me feeling confused as to who characters were, who I was rooting for, which direction the film was supposed to be going, and which scenes and characters were important, which means, for, me, that it failed at a very basic level. In that kind of film, I would have been happy with the most simplistic of "goodies vs. baddies" cliches; instead, they decided to include about fifty different convoluted plotlines at once, and then only bothered to offer any closure on about three. Even the Van Damme movie offered a more functional plotline than that...

    Still, like you said, to each their own! :p And it at least beats out the US Street Fighter cartoon. Oh, yes indeed. :D
    Edited by 1 at 21/02/08 @ 18:08

  • caligari #28 4 years ago

    Hmmm - I was horrified when I saw the first screenshots a few months ago, but now I seem to be getting rather excited.

    At least it's another good reason to buy one of those lovely Hori arcade sticks.

  • dom6918 #29 4 years ago

    WHAT ABOUT THE MUSIC!!!!!

    The music made SSF2T..it was amazing..and ive lost the CDROM so cant listen to those amazing tracks!!

    Capcom...please use the origional songs!

  • HairyArse #30 4 years ago

    I concur with everything Brambles said having spent 40 minutes with it this morning. It really is awesome, though Chun Li's forearms are freakishly man-like.

  • NewYork #31 4 years ago

    They can make her thighs like tree trunks, if they want. RAWR!

    But yeah, don't mess with her arms. Or her freakishly large hands.

  • Xinch #32 4 years ago

    I didn't see her hands and neither should you have. I also know why the testers missed it too.

  • patchbox360 #33 4 years ago



    "The Street Fighter II Animated Movie is the best videogame film ever. Discuss."

    especially the inclusion of Akuma which no one seems to spot - watch the film again CLOSELY

  • Bangaioh #34 4 years ago

    looks shit?! how sad...
    Edited by 1 at 22/02/08 @ 00:27

  • p00ntang #35 4 years ago

    I think that Dawn of the Dead, based on Dead Rising is the best videogame film ;)
    Edited by 1 at 22/02/08 @ 01:01

  • Zuiyo #36 4 years ago

    I haven't been as excited for a game since Gradius V came out. Oh happy day... :D

  • Zuiyo #37 4 years ago

    The comment about the character's muscularity seems spot on. From screenshots, that's what it looks like, overall balanced but a bit on the too-chunky side. I wish they tweaked that before release. Other than that... I'm sold. My Hori joystick is sold too.

  • 7creature #38 4 years ago

    Hmm, is there any reason not to release PC version? I guess it should be (relatively) easy to do it, considering it is primary designed for arcade, isn't it? I mean - seems like arcade is basically "common" PC nowadays...

  • That_Happy_Cat #39 4 years ago

    "Fightin' round the world!"

    [link url=http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=BDMiiWdDneo
    ]http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=BDMiiWdDneo
    [/link]

  • Zaelsius #40 4 years ago

    @7creature: Money is on the consoles right now. A PC version would mean more people pirating that one instead of buying the 360/PS3 version.

  • TRUTH #41 4 years ago

    Is this 2D or 3D ?...I prefer 2D fighting games myself personally.

  • Remy #42 4 years ago

    Ranger101:
    "The MP+MK thing seems VERY interesting as a replacement to Parrying. (I guess this also puts SF3 Overheads out of the question, seeing as they were the same command). I still wish it had parrying. Eurogamer people, next time you get an audience with Capcom, please press this Parrying issue!

    Also guys, do we know if Throwing is Foward+Fierce like in SF2 or the superior LK+lP like in sf3? "

    All reports so far are that parrying is out and certainly won't be returning as they felt like it slanted the game too much towards defensive techniques - and at very high levels of play, I'd tend to agree.

    Again, all reports have said throwing is LP+LK ala SF3. Much better I agree.

  • Saii #43 4 years ago

    "The Street Fighter II Animated Movie is the best videogame film ever. Discuss."
    I second the agreement with this statement.
    This film was so good it had a positive influence on later SF games (case in point: SF: Alpha/Zero).

    If only I could get a copy of the amazing soundtrack.

  • 7creature #44 4 years ago

    TRUTH: 2.5D :-) So basically 3D (visually) "enhanced" 2D I guess.

  • VMerken #45 4 years ago

    The 13-year-old inside me is stirring. Yet --

  • izak #46 4 years ago

    So how do you map six attack buttons onto a controller with four face buttons? For those of us who don't purchase separate peripherals to play our fighting games...
    Edited by 1 at 26/02/08 @ 13:07