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Published January 10, 2008

Thursday = new blog post time, so here we go!

With all of the hype and information flowing out of 1up and EGM about Street Fighter 4, I’ve found myself in a familiar position, one in which I haven’t been in in a fairly long time. That’s right, I got that craving to beat the crap out of something – it’s time to play a fighting game.

sf-anniversary.jpgSo I’ve been searching recently for a copy of Street Fighter: Anniversary Collection, which contains two games: Hyper Street Fighter II, and Street Fighter III: Third Strike. For those who don’t know, Hyper Street Fighter II is an old school world warrior’s wet dream; it lets you pit any version of any character against any version of any other character from any of the multiple releases of Street Fighter II. You think SFII: Championship edition’s M. Bison was cheaper than the Super SFII Turbo version? Or that Street Fighter Turbo’s Ryu did more damage than the original SFII’s Chun Li? Here’s your chance to prove it! Every character retains their original properties, move sets, and sound effects from their respective games, so you can literally play as any version of any Street Fighter II character you want. That’s pretty awesome.

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Pick your version of SFII

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And be whatever ugly version of Guile you want!

street-fighter-3-third-strike-characters.jpgStreet Fighter III: Third Strike, however, seems to be a bit of a reset on the entire series. Featuring a large, but almost completely different cast of characters than Street Fighter II (except for Ryu, Ken, Akuma, and Chun Li) and adding an amazingly deep but equally rewarding “Perry” system (in which you can tap forward at the time of impact of an opponent’s attack in order to block the move and take no damage), Third Strike is the 3rd version of the 3rd installment of a series that has seen way too many refinements. But besides that, SF III: Third Strike is absolutely gorgeous. Anyone who talks about 2D fighters, (or 2D games in general) definitely needs to pay homage to this incredibly detailed, beautiful game.

The gorgeous, yet largely unknown cast of Street Fighter III

SF fans worldwide have been clamoring for other canonical Street Fighter game for a long time now – and they’re finally getting one. SFIV, according to producer Yoshinori Ono, is only about 2 percent complete, yet shows potential to be one of the most ambitious fighting games ever created. There’s already screen shots and videos available depicting Ryu and Ken doing what they do best: beating the living crap out of each other, all for the sake of the fight. But there’s a couple of very interesting things to note about the project besides the fact that the character models are now 3d:

-The gameplay is strictly 2D in nature. No sidestepping, no weird camera angles unless it’s a knock-out hit or Super combo

-There’s a new “revenge” system in place. Think Samurai Shodown, but ten times more in depth.

-The game takes place between SFII and SFIII, which allows Capcom to bring back several familiar characters from SFII and reconnect with fans

-The game is being actively developed to take advantage of online play (this means my free time is going to be COMPLETELY GONE)

(For more information on game details, check out the SFIV Feature at 1up.com or pick up the January Issue of EGM)

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The uber-exciting SFIV…波動券!(Hadouken!)

Am I excited? Absolutely. Ono’s said that there were a lot of people at Capcom that were perfectly happy with Street Fighter dying. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they went that route. SFII was a phenomenon that’s just really hard to follow up, despite how gorgeous 2d sprites have become. But I’m glad he pushed ahead to get the project going; Street Fighter is part of my child hood, it brought me really close with one of my best friends, showed me utter frustration (see Zangief taking off half your life in the original SFII with one pile-driver) and taught me that a whole lot of practice makes for some sweet, competitive goodness. It was my first experience with the amazing people at Capcom, the launch pad for my interest in Japanese, and the first time I ever felt confident that I was pretty damn good at a video game. Ono-san, 大好きなゲームを助けて、又素晴らしい経験うを受けさせてくださってどうもありがとうございました!God help me if I ever forget how to do a Shouryuken.

So if any of you are feeling nostalgic, or would like to hone in on your skills, see if you can find a copy of Street Fighter Anniversary. I personally missed out on all of the magic that was Street Fighter III, and I’m itching to get back onto the streets. Also be on the lookout for Street Fighter Alpha, which is rumored to hit the PSN sometime soon. (Featuring the original team-up mode, where two players, as Ryu and Ken, could fight against one computer controlled, super-powerd M.Bison…soooo sweet.)

In the meantime, I’m outta here. I’ll catch ya’ll next time – it’s gonna burn some MUSCLE!

(Oh, and please give me feedback, I love it!)

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