Those sly devils over at Capcom are pretty notorious at milking their successful franchises by re-releasing games with only minor tweaks and upgrades. For example, before they released Street Fighter III we saw Street Fighter II – The World Warrior, SFII – Championship Edition, SFII – Hyper Fighting, SFII – The New Challengers, Super SFII Turbo and finally Hyper Street Fighter II – Anniversary Edition. each offering only a slightly different experience over the one that came before it. So you’ll have to forgive me if I met the announcement of Super Street Fighter IV, and the fact that it wasn’t going to be DLC, with a little bit of skepticism. Well, I have to admit that Capcom is slowly bringing me around; Super Street Fighter IV is starting to look more and more like a full blown follow-up and not just an incremental update.
Of course, the big news earlier this week that three new fighters would be joining the three previously announced additions (T. Hawk, Dee Jay and Juri), bringing the total of new combatants up to six so far, is a pretty big factor in winning me over. That and the the fact that they’re bringing back the classic car and barrel destroying Bonus Stages from SFII.
The three new fighters – Adon, Cody and Guy – were revealed in this week’s issue of Famitsu. Adon will be familiar to those that played the Street Fighter Alpha games: he is a Muay Thai fighter and former pupil of Sagat (and those with really long memories might remember that he was also in the oft-forgotten original Street Fighter). Cody and Guy also appeared in the Alpha series, but they also starred in their own side-scrolling beat em’ up, 1989′s Final Fight and subsequent sequels.
Super Street Fighter IV is set to be released in March on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC so Capcom likely still has a few more surprises in store for us before it comes out. With at least six new fighters, bonus stages, new modes and other gameplay and balancing tweaks it’s already looking like Street Fighter fans will at least be getting a whole lot for their money when they upgrade to Super. Let’s just hope Capcom saves enough content to make Street Fighter IV Turbo, Hyper Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter IV Championship Punching Edition and on and on…
