Street Fighter IV was quite successful, but Capcom thinks they can make it even better. They’re hard at work on Super Street Fighter IV, which will add new characters, new music, various balance tweaks, and more. Seth Killian from Capcom joins us to share some info about what we can expect in this upgrade. Also, some readers sent along their own questions and the more common and interesting ones were included, so read on to see if yours was answered.
Jim Cook, Gamers Daily News: One new feature is the ability to choose which Ultra attack your character uses, similar to Street Fighter III: Third Strike and its selectable Super attacks. Yet Third Strike had several cases where one Super was universally better than any others a character had. How will Capcom prevent this from happening in Super SF IV?
Seth Killian, Capcom: The idea with most of the new Ultras was to try and create a move that would let you play your character in a new way. So for instance, while most of the Ultras in SFIV were what we call “direct damage” moves (basically a very damaging special move), the new Super SFIV Ultras try and give players a choice about how they play the character. So to cite a few examples, Balrog gets a command grab for the first time, which turns him into a kind of fast-moving Zangief, and creates a whole new set of options. Juri has an Ultra that does no damage on its own, but puts her into a “custom combo” mode where all of her moves combo into one another, Rose gets a set of swirling energy orbs that can be used to attack or on defense, and other characters have “counter” Ultras, which are basically an uber-damaging way to counter your opponent if you can predict their next move. So while you can still choose Ultras that do a bunch of direct damage, a lot of the new Ultras give you options that let you play the characters in totally different ways.
Ultimately the choice of Ultra is up to the players, of course, but I think there’s a genuine choice between them that can help you find a move to complement your personal play style.
GDN: Many of the new characters are return appearances from previous Street Fighter games. Is it fair to assume that they won’t have their engine features from those titles? For example, assuming that Dudley, Makoto, and Ibuki won’t have parrying from Street Fighter III, while Cody, Guy, and Adon won’t have -Ism modes or custom combos from the Street Fighter Alpha series?
Capcom: That’s correct—no parries, etc. in Super SFIV. That said, the essential gameplay of all those characters has remained intact. I was actually surprised how elegantly their designs fit within the Super SFIV engine. Not only are they not handicapped by the adjustment, I think they’re actually some of the most powerful characters in the game.
GDN: The latest trailer showed some interesting things. For example, Dudley now has what appears to be some kind of diving overhead punch that he did not have in Street Fighter III. Can you tell us more about these kinds of changes and additions? Not just with Dudley, but any other character that has some interesting, all-new tricks or changes in Super Street Fighter IV?
Capcom: Generally the approach is to try and let the players discover these kind of smaller changes on their own. The sense of discovery is one of the best things about a deep fighting game, so we’re hesitant to spoil it, but every returning character has undergone revisions, and even things that look like familiar moves may have some new properties that open up a whole new set of opportunities.
