Guess who else is joining Ryu and Ken? 

Street Fighter IV seems to be shaping up to become a rebirth of the original SF2 classic, at least that's what many are being lead to believe with the recent reveal of more classic World Warriors. My guess is that even game development isn't safe from Hollywood insisting on doing reboots for anything and everything under the sun; but I digress. Earlier this week, Capcom revealed that Guile, Chun Li, Dhalsim, Blanka and Zangief will be making a return in the highly anticipated release.

We also know that there's word of some newer characters (i.e. Crimson Viper) which seem inspired by the SNK style which could totally change the dynamic veterans are used to. Judgment will be reserved until more players stateside have the chance to finally get some hand-on time with the arcade build. As for the story, well, the little which we know of it — a recent Gamespot interview with the producer Yoshinori Ono and Capcom's Director of Communications Chris Kramer hints that the alleged reason behind the classic characters returning might have something to do with a time parallel. No, I am serious and here's an excerpt of the proof from the "Street Fighter IV Q&A - Familiar Faces article…

"GS: When is the game's story set in Street Fighter chronology?

YO: Well, the [sequel] number has indeed ticked up one unit, but the story and time period is actually not after SFIII. This game actually takes place after SFII. Is it before SFIII? Does it represent some parallel timeline? I guess you'll have to wait and see…"

(Let's all do a collective "WTF?" God please no time parallels, that just sounds so cheesy)… 

Moving on, it looks like Famitsu has beat the rest of the general Japanese public and media to the punch as evidenced by new shots featured on their website. Below is just a small taste of what you'll find there including several close-up shots of the game played in a cabinet and (cleaner) official artwork scans of the aforementioned cast. Additional screens can be also found here.

Update: Gamespot has larger "high-res" screenshots available. Check them out here.

Be on the lookout for more reports to trickle out next week as the AOU 2008 kicks off on February 15 at the Makuhari Messe just outside Tokyo.

Oh, and if you're curious about what the Famitsu report says, a Shoryuken.com member was generous enough to translate the information as posted below. Thanks a mil, and thank YOU Shin Mikhal for spreading the good work over at TNL…

Introducing newly revealed characters! In addition, gameplay reports!!
Being confirmed to appear at the AOU 2008 Amusement Expo, concrete information about Street Fighter IV is starting to appear. We caught the latest information and thought we'd report about it! Street Fighter IV is the first installment in almost 10 years for the super famous "Street Fighter" series, which needs no further introduction. SF4 is planned for a nationwide release in the summer of 2008. The game runs on the high-tech, high-performance TAITO Type X-2 hardware, and characters, backgrounds, and so on are all drawn in beautiful 3D graphics. Despite its 3D appearance, the game is a traditional 2D fighter. Today, we're introducing the newly introduced characters and systems, and we'll also give our impressions of the game!
(The basis for this article was a playtest that took place on January 18th)

The warriors are back!
In our last article, we introduced the hero Ryu, his rival Ken, and the mysterious new character Crimson Viper. This time, we can confirm that Chun-Li, Zangief, Dhalsim and the others from Street Fighter II will once again join the battle! Along with illustrations and screenshots we received, we will present our commentary.

Divine Beautiful Kick Technique [lit. god, leg, beauty, technique; not sure how to translate it to make sense in English]
CHUN-LI
The Interpol agent with magnificent kick techniques. To search for her missing father, she became a police officer at the age of 18. Despite having driven Shadaloo to destruction, she can still feel its shadow loom, so she starts a new investigation together with Guile.

Check!!

We can confirm the inclusion of Chun-Li's 3 basic special moves, the Spinning Bird Kick, Hyakuretsu Kyaku, and Kikouken. We got the impression that her normal attacks were pretty close her 3rd Strike version. However, the cancel window on her crouching MK did not seem as long. By the way, when failing an air throw, a whiff animation comes out. Further, her win poses were the same as in SF2, so old fans will probably be happy.

Vacuum Blade
GUILE

Soldier in the US Air Force. He swore vengeance after his close friend Nash was killed by Vega. Guile uses martial arts, infused with original techniques said to tear up everything in their path. Suspecting Shadaloo to still be operating in secret, he joins Chun-Li to challenge them.

Check!!

We can confirm that Guile's special attacks, Sonic Boom and Somersault Kick are both in the game. The two seem to be as simple as ever. And as you can see from the pictures, the effects for the attacks look really awesome! As for normal moves, the F+LK Knee Bazooka, the long-reaching MK, the air throw and the rest all seem to be the same as in ST. Of course, his trademark crouching MK still has great reach and is easy to use. With these attacks at his disposal, will he again be able to maintain an impregnable defense?

Deep Bust Ascetic [?? some kind of reference to his fire-breathing I'm guessing...]
DHALSIM
The ascetic master Yogi from India. Though he always hesitates to harm others, to save his family's village, Dhalsim's flames will burn once more.

Check!!

Dhalsim's special moves, Yoga Fire, Yoga Flame, Yoga Blast and Yoga Teleport (possible in air) are the same as always. His normal attacks are just like in ST; using the stick it's possible to use short-range or long-range attacks at will. It seems his extending limbs move a little bit slower than in SF2 though. A bit more like CvS2 perhaps? Other points of interest were a few new techniques that he had received. [Unable to translate the rest, but there's something about weird motions and his forward dash]

Hot-Blooded Sumo Wrestler Visit[?]
EDMOND HONDA

Like no-one before him, Honda is the popular sumo wrestler who always gets everyone's attention. He's ranked as Haridashi-Yokozuna [denoting, as far as I understand it, that he is just outside Yokozuna status], but it's known that Honda is a Yokozuna-class sumo wrestler. In order to promote Sumo world-wide, Honda sets off for a Sumo world tour.

Check!!

The special moves we were able to confirm were the Super Headbutt and Hundred Hand Slap from ST. As for normals, the gottsan chops, Sumo Press and the rest all seem intact. He had a couple of moves that were accompanied by an intense camera angle, and he seemed much cooler than you'd expect(?).

Burning Red Body
ZANGIEF
Pro-wrestler from Russia known as "The Red Cyclone". Hot blood and patriotism is always pumping in his burly body. To honour the promises to children who adore him, Zangief throws himself into the fray to prove he is the strongest.

Check!!

Zangief's special moves, the Screw Piledriver, Double Lariat and the others we're used to are in the game. His throws are as destructive as ever, and his Double Lariat is still a great anti-air. Pressuring the opponent with normal attacks and forcing them to eat an SPD still works without problems. Observant readers probably already noticed, but if you look at the screenshots, you can see that his moves seem to have some influence from the Zero series. By the way, Zangief's forward dash has really short range… (cries)

Jungle Warrior
BLANKA

After surviving a plane crash as a child, Blanka was raised in the jungle as a wild animal. He developed his unique movement style as a way of avoiding being captured. To become a son his mother can be proud of, Blanka begins his journey.

Check!!

In Capcom vs SNK 2, Blanka was the strongest character. In SF4, he retains his various Rolling Attacks, Electrical Thunder, Surprise Forward (and Back), and everything else you'd expect. We were very surprised by the Electrical Thunder, the effect looked surprisingly realistic. Blanka's normal attacks are just like in ST. Oh, and of course, straight jumping HP is still a great anti-air.

What did the characters we introduced last time play like?

New Character
CRIMSON VIPER
Our first impression was that Crimson Viper is a type of character we've never seen in Street Fighter before. With electrically charged punches and fiery kicks that set things ablaze, she's easy to use, and we saw some quite flashy special attacks as well. Her basic strategy seems to be driving the enemy into the corner with her easy-to-use special attacks, and using her built-up super meter to super cancel into a super combo.

Ryu
SF4's Ryu feels like a mix between ST and 3rd Strike. Of course, his Shoryuken, Hadouken and Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku were all confirmed.　As for his sweeps, he can cancel off of a hard sweep, like in ST [?]. Of course, his Super Combo is the Shinkuu Hadouken!

Ken
Ken feels more like in SF3 than ST. Just like Ryu, he uses his Shoryuken, Hadouken and Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku. Among these, we were quite surprised by how flashy his flaming Shoryuken looked. It seems like his standing kick attacks were based on SF3. By the way, his Super Combo is the Shoryu Reppa.

New System: Saving Attack
"Parries" that can fend off your opponent's attacks, "Custom Combos" made by freely stringing together normal and special attacks… the Street Fighter series has introduced a number of epoch-making game systems like these. In the long-awaited SF4, the new system is called "Saving Attack". The Saving Attack can be used defensively as well as offensively. By pressing MP and MK simultaneously, your character will go into a special stance (the stance will put you in a special guard state, where you can block attacks. You can still be thrown however). After leaving the stance, you can attack your opponent. In other words, you can enter the stance to deflect an attack, and then counterattack. However, that doesn't mean you can alter your counterattack based on your opponent's attack[?].

These pictures show Ryu using Saving Attack to deflect Ken's Hadouken and then counterattacking. In the test version we played, after using the Saving Attack counter attack, the opponent went into a crumble state and slowly fell down, leaving them vulnerable for a moment. You can cancel the Saving Attack with a forward or backward dash, so skilled players should be able to string something together… By the way, when deflecting a weak attack, the counterattack was too slow to hit the opponent before they recovered.

New System: Ultra Combo
The Super Combo far exceeds the usual special move in terms of power. Even stronger is the strongest of special techniques, the "Ultra Combo"! This time, we received pictures of Ryu's Ultra Combo. Looks like a stronger version of the Hadouken, presented in a very flashy way. Notice how it takes away half the life bar in one go!

There's a couple of special conditions you need to meet to be able to perform the Ultra Combo. Of course, they look even more destructive than Super Combos!