The Street Fighter IV Magazine

THE STREET FIGHTER BLOG PRESENTS

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T E E R ST TER H G I F PLUS ER C U OD IAN R P TH H KILL I W S ET W S E I D V R N INTE I ONO A R O N I SH

YO

ISSUE #0 OF THE STREET FIGHTER MANGA ISSUE 01

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FEB 2009

The Street Fighter Magazine

The Cronicles of Street Fighter

Street Fighter 4 Yoshinori Ono Interview The Focus Attack Seth Killian Interview

The History of Street Fighter Anime

Historian’s Corner

Strategy

Reviews

Street Fighter: The Manga #0

letter from the editor

Welcome fellow readers to the first issue of the Street Fighter Magazine!

What is the Street Fighter Magazine you may ask? The Street Fighter Magazine will be your one and only magazine about everything Street Fighter! News, Exclusive Interviews, Reviews, sneak peeks.

The Street Fighter magazine is for everyone: Are you a newcomer to the street Fighter world and not sure how to make your place within the pros? we got you covered. Our Strategy section will tell you everything you need to know every useful move and combo to stand your chance without defeating sheng long (pun intended).

If you are a pro Street Fighter gamer we got you covered as well, with extensive coverages of the main Street Fighter Pro tournaments you will feel as if you are participating in the events.

Street Fighter Magazine, is a long overdue idea that will revolutionize the Street Fighter World. This Magazine would have never been a reality wthout the AWESOME SF mag team: Ian Saiki, David Hall, Mike Heritage,Vasili10 and last but bu no means least the amazint manga artist Philip Wright. Thank you very much for your support and awesome job each one of you has done.

I would like also to address a special BIG Thanx to Capcom and especially Seth Killian for all his help and support.

Also, a special thanx to Matt Moylan from Udon for his help and advice throughout the project.

And to all of you fellow readers: Sit tight, Buckle up, and Enjoy the Street Fighter Magazine rollercoaster ride!

Nabil Elmjati aka Strugler

Disclaimer The Street Fighter franchise with all its characters are a property of CAPCOM

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The Street Fighter Magazine THE STREET FIGHTER MAGAZINE STAFF

IAN SAIKI Graphic Designer “I remember playing the very first Street Fighter in the arcades. My brother and I would get chairs to stand on so we could reach the controls and just start hitting those oversized buttons as hard as we could.

We would come back to my parents all sweaty and out of breath. It was the best workout you could get for a quarter.”

STRUGLER Editor-in-Chief “I still remember when my eyes first glanced on the beauty, I saw a karate man with a red headband fighting a green monster and all I could think of was ‘whoa, is that a cartoon or a game?’ the graphics were surreal to me, and then I saw people shooting fireballs and all kinds of crazy stuff, I knew this would be the best game ever made, and boy was I right!”

DAVID HALL Strategist “I have been into fighting games ever since a wee boy, when my family traveled out west and I got to play with the big boys in Street Fighter 2, ever since then I always played them and analyzed every second. I got really into the scene during freshman year of high school and have been a part of the scene ever since.”

VASILI10 Historian “I got into SF with the release of World Warrior for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. I started out with using Guile because the charging concept clicked with me easier than any other did at the time, and I also liked his sonic booms for their lack of recovery times.”

“FIRE-TISANE” WRIGHT Manga Artist “I remember one day walking into Funcoland (anyone remember those?) and seeing an SNES cartridge with Honda on the front of it. And for some unknown reason, this was the game I wanted. It didn’t even come with an instruction manual so I had to figure out all the special moves by trial and error.”

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MICHAEL HERITAGE Writer “I first got into Street Fighter for a couple of reasons primarily the Daigo vs Justin Wong Evo moment.

It doesn’t need explaining and some of you who now hate it don’t want me too and David Sirlin with his mindset in words: Playing to Win was a big eye opener.”

The Street Fighter Magazine

THE CHRONICLES OF STREET FIGHTER

BY MICHAEL HERITAGE

Its so hard to believe that Street Fighter has been around for 22 years, especially with the many changes and characters throughout its time. From a scar less Sagat, the phenomenon of Street Fighter 2 and the reinvention of Street Fighter 3 we’ve continued to be inthralled by the series. As the journey continues into Street Fighter 4 I would like to share with you a synopsis of the previous entries in the series. From mechanics to your favourite characters the lead up to Street Fighter 4 begins.

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The Street Fighter Magazine Ah, Street Fighter II. The beginning of an era would be a fine way to sum up this game. Not only did the title exceed its predecessor in every department, but it helped pave the way for mass production in the fighting game franchise. Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct and King of Fighters just being a few that would follow in its wake. It was also the catalyst in an arcade boom with people travelling to and from to

It all starts in 1987 with the consoles of their time; the arcades.

The first fighting game and Street Fighter in the series is released

by Capcom to a reception far away from the hype we’ve come to expect today. Regardless of its popularity Street Fighter was at the time of release revolutionary even then for it came with a control scheme which nowadays we take for granted. The scheme I speak of

Street Fighter character list. (From left to right) Japan: Retsu, Geki, Ryu. United States: Joe, Mike, Ken. China: Lee, Gen (Featured in Alpha/Zero 2 & 3 and Street Fighter 4). England: Birdie: (Featured in Alpha/Zero 1, 2 & 3) Eagle: (Featured in Capcom Vs SNK 2 and Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX). Thailand: Adon (Featured in: Alpha/Zero 1, 2 & 3) Sagat (Featured in Street Fighter 2, Alpha/Zero 1, 2 & 3, spin-offs and Street Fighter 4).

slot their coins in the arcades and compete against friends. So what changes sparked all this?

is the fabled six buttons consisting of Jab, Strong, Fierce punches and Short, Forward, Roundhouse kicks. This became a stable of future Capcom titles and many others followed suit. Introduced alongside this control scheme was special moves and more importantly the special move commands. These commands would again become a necessity to future fighting titles and would also turn out to be a lot easier to execute than with this 1st entry.

The biggest change was character selection. Whereas previously you only controlled one character (aesthetics aside) now you had access to eight playable characters all with different playing styles and sprites. From the turtling Indian Dhalism to the grappling Russian called Zangief, players had a choice not bestowed upon them before.

So what was Street Fighter about? This will be hard to believe, but it was in fact about a martial artist named Ryu competing in an international martial arts tournament, travelling to different countries and ultimately striving to be the best.

Sound familiar? It should. Whilst the future titles have more over the top back story and special moves the general plot has stayed the same and this was no different with the 1st game. Ryu has not changed much either (beyond his red hair).

His special moves are exactly the same apart from the name of one: White Fire (Hadoken) D, DF, F + any punch / Dragon Punch (Shoryuken) F, D, DF + any punch / Hurricane Kick (Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku) D, DB, B + any kick. Ken (who is playable in versus) also sports exactly the same moves and looks. There are many other characters featured, although they are not playable half of the cast would make a return in the future.

With this came many new special move inputs such as charges and the seemingly impossible (back then maybe) 360. Included with all this were the addition of combos (cancels) and throws, which again paved the way for future fighting titles and was perhaps the key behind competitive play in the franchise.

Whilst this set out the franchise, it certainly did not make the series. That would be job of its subsequent sequel the aptly named: Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.

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The Street Fighter Magazine The game played very similar to its prequel in regards to fighting in different countries/opponents as you made your way to the top.

This time however it introduced more mini-games and four bosses (which would later become playable). The plot didn’t change much for the most part at least in the beginning, but as time went on back stories for each character began to appear and instead of M.Bison (Vega) being a mere military commander he became the leader of a terrorist organisation known as Shadoloo. All of which would be heavily covered by the later films, mangas and comics spawned by this game.

The World Warrior was just part one of Street Fighter II. Starting out in 1991 the latest instalment was in fact only last year under the name Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Over the years, it has been ported from arcade to console and all instalments came with changes and additions much to the joy of fans, but not so much for their pockets. The first re-release (1992) came in the form of the Champion Edition (Street Fighter II’ ie Dash in Japan).

The Champion Edition’s main change came in the form of four new playable characters – the four bosses in The World Warrior – but with this came other changes such as mirror matches, outfit colours and character balance tweaks. Later in the same year Street Fighter II’ – Hyper Fighting (Street Fighter II’ Dash Turbo in Japan) was released which increased game speed and added new special moves for certain characters. The expansions or new content – as one might call them today – didn’t stop there for Street Fighter II was to turn Super.

Combo, juggling and throw damage reduction. Least we forget the introduction of Akuma (Gouki) and his Shun Goku Satsu on M.Bison.

This version more than any other paved the beginning of a more story inspired Street Fighter, which would become far more apparent the following year. Now we come to the final iteration – released on the arcades at least – which came practically ten years after (2003).

Hyper Street Fighter II – The Anniversary Edition funnily enough was a commemorative version bringing all the old and new character versions together for the first time. Beyond this fundamental not much changed however.

Just under a year later (1993 - yes I can count) Super Street Fighter II – The New Challengers hit the arcades, which would become the biggest update in the franchise at this point. New hardware was used (CPS to CPS2) and with this came brand new audio, graphics and animations, but not only for the mainstay fighters.

With Super Street Fighter II came four new characters, plus a plethora of new colour schemes. Next in line under the Super title would be Super Street Fighter II Turbo (1994 - Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge in Japan), which would bring about the biggest change to match play out of all the versions – the Super

Street Fighter II was and will probably forever be the stable in fighting video games. It had and still has everything. Fantastic character design, great graphics (stylised outweighs realism), easy to pick up/ hard to master, superb music/sound and most importantly; its incredibly fun to play. Even after so many years it still stands the test of time as HD Remix has quite rightly proved.

After Super Turbo there was to be a rather long pause in the Street Fighter II franchise for a very good reason. A brand new Street Fighter was to hit the scene. Dubbed as Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior’s Dreams (Zero in Japan) and released in 1995, Capcom set out on going backwards, at least in terms of the series time line. Featuring younger versions of Street Fighter II characters along with Street Fighter I returning characters and even franchise cross overs. The changes didn’t stop there either.

The art style of Alpha was the beginning in the more cartoon/manga inspired look of Street Fighter games. Taking Sagat as an example – tall, lanky kickboxer in Street Fighter II to a tall, built like a brick shit house in Alpha. Rehashed themes of returning characters were made, plus brand new sounds and game play. Game play being the most notable.

Super Combos were revamped with Alpha. Instead of just one gauge you had three levels of gauge. Level 1 versions of the Super were performed by inputting the command followed by one of the corresponding buttons. The higher the level the more buttons were required; for level 2 two punch or kick buttons and add one more for the level 3 variation. There was also the first counter move included appropriately titled the

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The Street Fighter Magazine over the usual selection of Ryu. The game was built on the latest CPS III hardware, which allowed better 2D graphics and the games mechanics would receive some heavy hitting additions.

Alpha Counter (Zero Counter), which could be used after blocking your opponents attack, but at the cost of a gauge. Other features were included such as playing styles – normal and auto – air blocking, chain combos and fall breaking.

Dashing - taken from another Capcom title – was included along with high jumps and leap attacks, but the most crucial mechanics were the Super Art gauge and Parrying. The Super Art gauge was a variation of the Super Combo system used before. Once a character is selected you are given the choice between three different Super Arts, which have varying degrees of use. The amount of gauge differed depending on the Super Art and the character. These were beautifully over the top specials, which resulted in high damage and even more visual pleasure. The most controversial of additions came in the form of the Parrying system. Regarded by many as a hardcore system, Parrying enabled a player to Parry an incoming attack by correctly timing the forward motion. Not just one incoming attack however.

Entire Super Arts could be Parried providing a brand new form of mind game to the Street Fighter series, along with reflexes and anticipation. These fundamental changes would give Street Fighter III a cult status for a number of years.

As far as the single player portion of the game, it played almost identically to Street Fighter II. Fighting a selection of random fighters gradually making your way to the final boss. The boss in this instance differing depending on your character of choice, plus two hidden fighters. There was however a secret feature to be found in the form of the Dramatic Battle, which pitted Ryu and Ken versus M.Bison much to the delight of fans of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.

Later ports to consoles would feature Dramatic Battle mode as a menu selection, along with the first Training Mode to feature in a Street Fighter game. This would not be the only port of a Street Fighter Alpha game though.

Much like Street Fighter II Capcom released various renditions of the Alpha series. Beginning with Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Zero 2) in 1996. This version introduced new game mechanics such as the Custom Combo system which allowed the player to choose between a Super Combo or activating the Custom Combo. Activating the Custom Combo would enable the character the ability to string together any series of basic or special attacks until the gauge timer had run out. This mechanic came at the expense of Chain Combos for the most part. Along with game play changes came a new character roster featuring once again Street Fighter II, Street Fighter I and cross over character/s. Graphics were redone too, namely stages, cut-scenes and endings. So as to keep to the Capcom Street Fighter standard the Alpha series didn’t stop at this point.

By 1998 Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Zero 3) was released. Alpha 3 was a much bigger instalment than Alpha in comparison to the changes made. Alpha 3 started by stripping the game of Normal/Auto modes and replacing them with three playing styles titled ‘isms’: A-ism (Z-ism), X-ism and V-ism. X-ism was the equivalent of Super Street Fighter II Turbo’s play style. A-ism was Alpha’s Super Combo gauge standard and V-ism was Alpha 2’s Custom Combo system. A Power Guard Gauge was also added, which made the player vulnerable to attack if caught blocking too much. As always Alpha 3 came bundled with new graphics and characters with the portable versions carrying even more.

Alpha must have been one of the toughest follow up games to make, with the legacy of Street Fighter II looming over it. Regardless of that shadow the Alpha series was still very successful, although not on the same scale. It did however bring in many new fans with its more in-depth back stories, cut-scenes and rivals, which helped add a dimension of the world never seen before. Alpha maintained the past and tinkered with the new. This was something that would be thrown out the window with the then first true sequel to Street Fighter II: Street Fighter III. Street Fighter III: New Generation was released in 1997 and was dubbed the sequel to Street Fighter II. The New Generation subtitle was used to reflect the character direction. In the case of New Generation only two characters from the previous games returned – Ryu and Ken – every other character was new to the series. This was a bold move on Capcom’s part. They even went as far as to have one of their new characters take the role of the lead protagonist

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The Street Fighter Magazine

Alex, Dudley, Elena, Ken, Necro, Oro, Ryu, Sean, Yang, Yun, Gill (Only playable in console por ts) Akuma/Gouki (2nd Impact onwards) Hugo (2nd Impact onwards) Urien (2nd Impact onwards) Chun-Li (Third Strike) Makoto (Third Strike) Q (Third Strike) Remy (Third Strike) Twelve (Third Strike)

words). Grab defence did exactly what it said on the tin, although it worked differently in that it flat out stopped you being thrown if you executed at the correct moment, rather than taking less damage like in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. The personal action whilst more of a in game thrash talking also had its uses. For certain characters threw projectiles via their personal actions which counted as a hit on the opponent. They also provided differing boosted attributes based on the character and in some cases the taunt of the character. These boosts ranged from increased damage on the next attack to more life. By this stage fans were still having mixed feelings about Street Fighter III. The third and final entry in the Street Fighter III series was to make up the minds of the players almost indefinitely in what could be described as the marmite of the Street Fighter games.

Street Fighter III: Third Strike came out in 1999 and beyond the additional characters and art changes it did not add much that would anyone would deem game changing. Red Parry being the only mechanical inclusion, which allowed the player to parry out of a blocking state. Instead of the game changing to any great degree, it refined what it already had and the Street Fighter III community took care of the rest. Regarded by many as one of the most balanced and advanced fighters ever Third Strike was hailed and in no small part to the players. The Japanese set out their stall and were the inventors of the series. The juggling of Genei Jin and the Aegis Reflector setups were just a sample of the sheer scope and invention at the hands of the professional players. Parrying was to become the most famous of features in a fighting game with the fabled Daigo full parry of Justin Wong’s Chun Li Super Art. So whilst Street Fighter III started slow there’s no putting a good game down and nobody does that better than Capcom.

Much like the other Street Fighter titles, the arcade mode ran you through a random selection of foes until you meet the antagonist (which was not Bison for the first time) and beyond a few changes – rival fights and opponent selection – this stayed the same for the most part throughout the Street Fighter III series. Within the same year of release New Generation was preceded by the first instalment for Street Fighter III called Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact.

With it came four new playable characters, graphics, sound and the idea of the classic mini-game in the form of Parry the Ball. The Super Art also received a change to how it could be used as EX Specials were added. These EX Specials were upgraded versions of your standard Special Moves giving different characteristics to the attack such as extra hits, longer range etc. Two other mechanics made it into the game: grab defence and personal action (taunt in other

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The Street Fighter Magazine

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The Street Fighter Magazine

SFIV. As I said, nothing has been decided for the next version of SFIV at all, so I’d like to see how users play and enjoy SFIV online first. Then, if any requests come up from them, I’d like to include those requests on a plan for the next version of SFIV. TSFM: According to a previous interview with Play Magazine, you had admitted that SF4 was intended to be more or less Super Street Fighter 2 X/Turbo II from the beginning, stressing that it would be placed between SF2 and SF3. With this intention in mind, were T. Hawk and Dee Jay planned to be in SF4 along with Cammy and FeiLong, and in the end they just didn’t make the cut for various reasons?

YO: Yes, both T. Hawk and Dee Jay were on the additional character list until almost the end of the development stage.

However, they have been removed since they didn’t physically fit on the character select screen… just kidding. SFIV was developed for as many users as possible, and to remind gamers that a fighting game is fun. At the beginning of the dev. stage, I thought that fans would be happy to have as many characters as possible in SFIV, but when I went back to the origin of the SFIV concept, I realized that it’s not the appropriate way to make fans happy. The main reason was because too many characters would cause a complicated rulebook for its game play. After balancing the characters between, from Alpha series and ST series, also diagrams, controls, popularity etc., we made a decision to not include T. Hawk and Dee Jay this time. This is the actual background of why those two characters from the ST series didn’t make the cut for SFIV.

The Street Fighter Magazine: Ono-san, thank you for this great opportunity, and thank you for bringing SF back to us after such a long wait. I would like to start first by asking you, how do you feel about the release of Street Fighter IV being just around the corner, and that now after such a long wait, fans around the world will finally be able to get their hands on the game?

Yoshinori Ono: Yes, it’s definitely a long wait! This is what I’d like to tell all the fans around the world. It’s been almost 12 years after the SFIII series came out and 17 or 18 years after SFII came out.

Again, thank you SOOOO much for supporting the SF brand for over 20 years! It had kept being sent to CAPCOM, the voices from fans, which are about the next SF sequel SFIV, and that’s supported me a lot to start the project and development of SFIV. Finally, its release date is just around the corner! All the team staffs tried to meet all the demands from fans on SFIV, and I’m personally confident that SFIV provides all users simple game plays as well as deep strategic fighting tweaks. Please enjoy the best masterpiece of the SF numbered sequel SFIV devotedly!

TSFM: When the final roster was revealed and confirmed by Capcom, many fans have expressed disappointment that no Street Fighter 3 Characters have made it to IV. Is there any particular reason as to why we won’t see SF3 fighters in Street Fighter IV and is there a chance we might see some of them in future titles?

TSFM: Street Fighter was always known for multiple versions of the same game, like Street Fighter II, 2 Turbo, Super Turbo, etc.

Will Street Fighter IV follow the same formula and if so, is there a chance for the next version of Street Fighter IV to be a massive downloadable patch that includes new characters, stages, tweaks, etc. ?

YO: I received the fans’ disappointment even in Japan. Also, CAPCOM received the message from the Japanese SFIII fans who were disappointed and would expect that “It’s not true, but Ibuki and Dudley would show up as hidden characters. I hope…”

As I answered in several interviews, SFIV’s positioning is the sequel of Super Street Fighter II T, and that’s the main concept of SFIV. It’s not only the reason of simplifying the rulebook, but also of expecting SF fans before SFIII to enjoy and replay a fighting game, and to reconfirm that it’s fun to rebuild their community once again. So, that’s why the characters from SFIII didn’t make the cut for SFIV. As I answered in previous questions, I haven’t decided anything about the next version

YO: Unfortunately, I can’t say anything about future projects at this stage since nothing has been decided so far. However, enthusiastic Japanese fans have already started requesting CAPCOM for the next version of SFIV, and their numbers have reached the several thousands. If we would also receive such voices from North American fans, it may become more realistic, and I hope I’ll receive a phone call from the upper management of CAPCOM for the next version of

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The Street Fighter Magazine on those two platforms this time. (PC specs will be announced in the near future.)

TSFM: The addition of anime prologues and endings to Street Fighter IV was very well received among the fans worldwide and made us all very happy; can we expect this reaction to finally give Capcom the initiative to make a new Street Fighter anime TV series?

YO: I’m so happy to receive this positive reaction.

Especially, the full-length animation directed by Koji Morimoto and created by Studio 4C has been well accepted by Japanese users as well, and it makes us happy including CAPCOM dev. staffs and Studio 4C animation crews. It’s definitely possible to feature and create SF animation in several media formats since typically UDON and some others arranged SF in several situations and characteristics, while it’s also a difficulty to create an animation since fans have their own solid character designs. So, it has been difficult to proceed with creating animes so far, but I’m personally confident that working with Studio 4C gets rid of the difficulties by receiving the positive reactions from fans in regards to the in-game and the full-length SFIV animation. When the SFIV project settles, I hope that I’d like to proceed in collaborating with other media for SF franchises.

TSFM: What is next for the Street Fighter franchise?

YO: Currently, I’m focusing on making SFIV a success worldwide and providing a stable network environment for SFIV online game play, so I think it’s too early to think about a next sequel or expanding SF franchises. When something’s ready to go, I’ll definitely let you know as an earliest official message from myself!

TSFM: Ono-san, on behalf of the Street Fighter Magazine staff we thank you very much for this great opportunity, and we wish you success with your future titles.

of SFIV. If the original SFIV is well accepted by many users and influences a fighting game boom and community activation, it may be considerable that characters from SFIII would be featured in the next version of SFIV.

The Story of Street Fighter 4 The following year after the so-called legendary World Fighting Championship, they silently began. The questionable incidents following in succession, amidst a secretly maneuvering mysterious organization. Chasers and those followed, within a blend of fellowship and treachery, now, the curtain rises on a new struggle!

TSFM: Are there any chances for a handheld version of Street Fighter IV for PSP and DS? YO: Currently, it’s not planned. The main reason is that it’s pretty difficult to express its graphics on handheld platforms. Considering in terms of its game concept, game system, it’s just a fighting game, so it’s not impossible to see SFIV on handheld platforms.

It’s been a year since SF2, and despite the apparent peace that’s settled in since then, fighters are on the prowl once more. A new shady tournament sponsor Seth has apparently emerged onto the fighting scene, drawing in old and new faces alike. A special agent mom, an amnesiac raised by mercenaries, a passionate wrestler slash mostly cook, and a self-absorbed bigmouth not to mention big everything else all jump into the fray of justice fighters, old friends, resurfaced villains and venerable battle masters. They go to meet the mightiest! Will the title of “mightiest” be appropriately bestowed, or will extraordinary events befall the tournament’s outcome as it had before? Welcome at last to Street Fighter 4!!!

However, some of the concepts of the SFIV development are “original point” and “reunion”, so it’s definitely important for us to make fans impressed to the point that there’s no difference between their memories and advanced technology, and that those are nicely combined with respect to the graphics. Thus, the XBOX 360 and the PS3 are the most appropriate platforms to express the graphics’ concepts based on their specifications, so we decided to work mainly

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The Street Fighter Magazine Application So now you know how to use the focus attack; however, knowing when and where to use it is even more important. First off, a focus attack is a great move but it’s not something you can just mash out during a match. In fact your opponent can hit you out of them with multiple hits. Characters even have one of their special moves with the property to take you right out of your focus attack. Second, it’s important to realize that not every character’s focus attack has the same range. So spacing your character at the right distance is quite the key. This ties into when you dash out of your focus attack, not all characters have the same dash so they may not be at a distance that is favorable to you. Last, is punishing your opponent’s mistake, not just when they miss a shoryuken. Through the correct timing you can manage to take characters right out of risky jump attacks, for example Zangief ’s jumping roundhouse, if just thrown at the opponent can pose some major repercussions. You can even do a focus attack and dash out of it, scaring your opponent or maybe he tried to punish your saving attack but acted too hastily. This brings me to the next and most important aspect, advanced strategy.

Explanation With the press of mid punch and mid kick together a devastating focus attack is released on your opponent. The focus attack, also known as the saving attack in Japan, is the core element in Street Fighter 4. The focus attack has three levels: level 1 is just a button press and can cause crumble on a perfect counter hit, level 2 is a charge till a white flash and has will cause crumble on hit, and level 3, which is automatically released after holding focus attack, is an unblockable hit that crumbles the opponent on impact. While the opponent is in this brief state of crumbling to the ground, this is the perfect opportunity to land massive damage. Another main use of the focus attack is to absorb one hit your opponent launches at you, for example, a hadouken. You can even dash forward or backward during the focus attack. Dashing is done by, holding the mid punch and mid kick, double tapping forward or backward, and releasing the mid punch and mid kick. Pretty simple, and if you get good enough this can be done just with in a split second. Finally and perhaps the most important concept to the focus attack is canceling. For just the cost of 1/2 your super bar, you can cancel out of a special move by pressing the focus attack and dashing either direction, executed the same as the dash. This may be a lot to learn, and some application of the focus may involve some a good amount of practice to really be able to apply this technique fully.

Devastation Street Fighter 4 is all about forcing the opponent to play in your ballpark, making him have to think quickly or tread carefully. Baiting is perfect example of this and is a perfect strategy against characters with projectiles. If you constantly absorb all the fireballs and avoid any EX moves, you force the opponent to take a different approach, at times even causing him to be a little risky. This includes executing a focus attack briefly, dashing out, and putting yourself on the offensive or in some cases the defensive. The saving attack rewards those who save super meters as well, because it allows you to get very aggressive against characters. An example of this would be shoto characters or characters with an anti air special they can cancel right into an ultra. However, the real scare factor is that these characters have the given ability to cancel on a block thanks to the focus attack. They could dash right out of a blocked shoryuken and go straight for a throw. I have even seen players go for another shoryuken, right after a focus canceled one. This allows for all kinds of mind games because it forces your opponent to think quickly about what action to take.

“Should I block? Should I try and tech throw? Do I have any options?”

I could go on for hours about all the little tricks, cancels, and gimmicks of focus attacks. But my suggestion to readers is to come up with your own game plan for focus attacks and forcing your opponents to think twice about questioning your Street Fighter 4 abilities.

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The Street Fighter Magazine

you’d pay just to play SFIV even one time in the arcade. We didn’t want to do extra characters or anything that would affect the core gameplay as DLC, because we were committed to giving people the full experience out of the box, but the costumes are a fun addition for big fans.

TSFM: Street Fighter was known for having Character individual stages which for the first time is not the case in Street Fighter IV, what was the reason behind this decision and will it be possible to have new Stages as DLC content ?

The Street Fighter Magazine: I would first to thank you Seth for this great Opportunity. After years of speculations, planning and then hard working, Street Fighter IV is finally around the corner, how are you feeling about it?

SK: Our focus was not on simply having as many stages as possible, but rather on making the best backgrounds we could (quality over quantity), and SFIV’s backgrounds are the most detailed and interactive in Street Fighter history. No plans for new stages as DLC right now.

Seth Killian: Honestly, I’m super excited. It’s been really gratifying to see the game come from character concepts and gameplay systems into a living, breathing reality, and I can’t wait to see it in the hands of players.

TSFM: We already know that Ono san have said on numerous occasions that Capcom Does not want to offer Downloadbale characters for Street Fighter IV, can a big demand for dlc characters from the public change capcom’s mind on this subject?

TSFM: What was the process you guys went through to choose which character will be on the game and which one will not ?

SK: We were committed to reconnecting with the SFII roots, so the original world warriors were in the plan from the start. We also had the new characters sketched out, but from there, a lot of the decisions were made directly based on interest from the fans.

Of course we did the poll on Capcom Unity, as well as tracking the forum comments there and around the net. The chronology and storyline of the game put a few restrictions on who we would include, but I’m very happy the fans were able to have such a major voice in the decisions.

SK: Of course the fans would always like to see more characters.

We could have left a few off of the current 25-character roster, and then offered them as DLC, but we really wanted to give the core package our “all” and make sure that everyone had the chance to play as, or play against, all the same characters as their friends and other fans around the world. If SFIV finds the success we’re hoping for, there may be other opportunities to bring more fan-favorite characters back into the fight going forward.

TSFM: The Street Fighter franchise is now owned by Capcom USA, yet Street Fighter IV was devolopped by Capcom Japan, What was the process for working with Capcom Japan on Street Fighter 4? And how much input did the USA team have on the game during development?

TSFM: Any chance we get to see a making of movie of the Street Fighter IV game SK: Unfortunately there isn’t a “making of ” movie about the SFIV development process. Those things can be fun (though frankly a lot of them are pretty tedious), but given the translation difficulties and time it takes away from development itself, we wanted to keep 100% of the focus on making the game great.

SK: It was an organic process that was less defined by “Capcom USA” or “Capcom Japan” than “who are the best people we can get on the project?” Some of us work out of different offices, but we’re all on the same team, and there were great ideas from all directions. I personally feel very lucky to have been involved in so many aspects of the SFIV production—it’s really a lifelong SF-fan’s dream.

TSFM: Street Fighter IV, while not the first SF game to offer competitive online play, will be the frst to offer DLC, what have you guys planned in this area ?

SK: First off we’ll be making the Championship Mode Expansion available post-launch. That’s completely free, and includes enhanced matchmaking, new battle point scoring, and the beautiful new replay mode. We’ve also got the alternate costumes available in packs, so the cost for each costume ends up being really low—far less than

TSFM: Street Fighter IV is really turning up to be huge, with great reviews as well as rumors of the game getting sold out even before it’s release, will this push capcom to release the game on more platforms like the PSP, DS and Wii ?

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The Street Fighter Magazine

SK: These are all ideas that have been floated at different times, but from the outset, the core concept was to take advantage of the most powerful commercial technology to make the game a graphical standout.

Of course the core mechanics are possible on a lot of different platforms, so we’ll consider taking SFIV other places if we can find technical solutions that can capture the great SFIV experience.

TSFM: With the success of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix is there a chance to see another Street Fighter game get the “remix” treatment?

SK: We’re very happy with the response to SF HD Remix, although it was a much more challenging project than anyone had anticipated at the outset.

Recreating all of those classic 2D, hand-drawn sprites turned out to be very resource intensive and hard to get right. We learned a lot with SF HD Remix, but a lot of the same basic challenges would remain for any title getting a “Remix”—it’s a tall order. Overall there’s definitely a chance of another such project, but no firm plans right now.

Tiers and Tears Street Fighter 4 does have its Tiers list, but it’s something people need to really understand before they assume their characters are only fan garbage. Characters like Sagat seem to sit on top because of their easy ability to combo into ultra combo, and their ability to land some hefty damage relatively easily, all while playing it safe. But that’s not saying the other characters aren’t threats; in fact even characters below him pose just as much of a threat due to some great pokes and abilities to play offence/defense well. If you ask me it is still way too early to throw a tier list together, especially since Dhalsim, a supposed underdog came in first at the SF4 championships in Japan.

Even characters like Claw (Vega), whom people feel is at the bottom of this list mainly because of his terrible damage scaling, have a chance to win in the right hands.

TSFM: A new Street Fighter live action movie is just around the Corner, have you already seen it? if so what do you think of it and how different will this one be from the 1994 Van Damme Movie ?

SK: I have a soft spot in my heart for the Van Damme film. It’s no “Rashomon,” but it’s a lot of campy fun from my youth. I haven’t seen more than clips of the new film so far, but I do hope to be able to make it out for the premier.

TSFM: We know that you and the Final Boss of SFIV share the same name and skills. Is this giving you any ideas about moving on from video games and starting an underground syndicate? Maybe switching out your body for a prosthetic one?

The Japanese provide these charts showing match-ups, and the odds. Yes, some are an upward battle that happens to favor towards one. Yet, looking at these charts this game has accomplished something by creating characters that are all potentially and effectively good when used correctly. Even Street Fighter III 3rd Strike is amongst a long list of many fighting games which suffer from a lineup of characters that are just simply going to have to do the impossible to win. If you like a character enough, you should be motivated enough to figure out ways to prove that he or she is the best.

SK: I was actually trained as a bioengineer as an undergraduate, but I think Seth’s technology is pretty far beyond anything I’ve seen.

My first steps towards following in his footsteps will be to sketch a big yin-yang on my stomach and practice sucking opponents inside. I’m happy to report that I have been successful in my early attempts on some burritos.

TSFM: On behalf of the Street Fighter Magazine team, we thank very much you for this great opportunity and we are looking forward to facing against you on the Online arena of Street Fighter IV SK: Thank you, it’s always my pleasure, and I’ll see you online.

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The Street Fighter Magazine

THE HISTORY OF STREET FIGHTER ANIME The Street Fighter series has been around for 20 years now, so it is only logical that the series has inspired a bunch of animation shows and movies that have been released throughout the years. In this article we will walk you through the different street Fighter animated features and tell you which ones you must check and which ones you must avoid like the black plague.

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The Street Fighter Magazine

The Street Fighter II Animated Movie (1994)

To this date, Street Fighter II the movie is still considered the best video game to anime movie and still holds a special place within the hearts of the Street Fighter fan Community. The Uncensored version of the movie can be found at major DVD retailer for less than 15 bucks. Final Verdict: A MUST HAVE!!!

The first Street Fighter animated feature was released in 1994, same year as the great Super Street Fighter II Turbo.

The Anime was a motion picture that was released in theatres in Japan under the title Street Fighter II Movie. The anime was written by Kenichi Imaii and directed by Gisaburo Sugii. The, then, famous Studio Group TAC handled the animation.

Street Fighter the American Cartoon Series (1995) During the same years within which the abomination called Street Fighter live action movie starring Jean Claude Van Damme as Guile was released, the Street Fighter Franchise reached its peak in popularity. A multitude of Street Fighter games and countless toys inspired the people at Invision entertainment to create an animated Saturday cartoon morning series featuring the street fighter characters in a plot that follows the storyline of the live action movie.

The Story follows Ryu who scarred Sagat during the beginning of the movie, and now walks the earth looking for a strong opponent. Our lone hero caught the attention of Bison, also known as Vega in Japan, who is looking for strong fighters that he can abduct and make them into mindless warriors for his to command. Chun-li and Guile also play a big role in the movie as they join forces to put an end to Bison whose organization, Shadaloo, is involved in all types of crimes.

As in the live action movie Guile was the hero of the series. A hero soldier who forms a team of street fighters to fight crime and injustice a-la justice league and x-men, which is quite enough to prove how mediocre the whole idea behind the series was.

Numerous characters from street fighter II and Street Fighter alpha appeared during the two seasons of the show which was cancelled in 1997 due to extremely poor ratings.

Funny enough, the series used some story ideas due to known mistranslation errors made by Capcom USA, like Cammy and Bison being ex-lovers.

All in all this series was a flop and an embarrassment to all things Street Fighter, but if you still want to watch it, a 2 set DVD collection was released and can easily be found on Amazon and other online retailers. Final Verdict: Avoid it like the plague. I am serious, if you see this series anywhere just run for your life.

Bison is not alone though, he has on his side the 3 Shadaloo lords, Sagat, Balrog and Vega, the latter will prove to be more than a challenge for Interpol officer and sexy fan favorite Chun-li.

All the sixteen characters from Super Street Fighter II Turbo appear at some point during the movie even Akuma has a brief cameo in the anime.

Street Fighter II V Anime Series (1996) During the same year where people were suffering due to the American Street Fighter Cartoon series, Group Tac was working on a new anime Series titled Street Fighter II V (V stands for Victory). The series was directed by famed director Gisaburo Sugii who was the same person that directed the excellent Street Fighter II Animated Movie.

While the story is very generic, what makes this move THE best Street Fighter Anime is the superb quality of animation.

The animation is superior to most anime movies ever released since, and while the characters do use their game moves such as the Hadoken, Kikoken and Sonic booms, the fights themselves are very realistic and this was, in part, due to the fact that they were choreographed by K-1 founder and professional fighter Kazuyoshi Ishii and the late Andy Hug.

The series followed a young Ryu and Ken, whom after getting beaten by Guile in a bar, decided to travel around the world to meet strong Fighters and learn from them. Their journey will lead them to befriend a young Chun-li (who here works as tourist guide), Fei long and other Street Fighter Characters.

The Street Fighter II movie was localized outside of Japan during the same year by Manga Ent. Unfortunately the US version suffered some censorship, notably not showing Chun-li naked during her now famous shower scene as well as having less blood during the scarring of Sagat. This was later fixed with the uncensored DVD release that the anime had in 2007.

While travelling, the duo will cross the path with the crime organization Shadaloo and its leader Bison, who takes interest in Ryu and his Hado power.

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The Street Fighter Magazine Upon its release, the movie received mixed reviews. While most loved the animation and design of the anime some have criticized the story of the anime which revolved around the Shun character more than it should have, and I couldn’t agree more.

With the Help of Chun-li’s dad and Guile, the dynamic duo (I can’t believe I just called Ryu and Ken a dynamic duo) will prevail and defeat the psycho power wielder Bison.

The design of the characters within the series was very different from its game counterpart. A fact that alienated the audiences, who got used to the way their favorite characters look in the game. For example, Ryu does not wear a head band at all and has spiky hair very reminiscent of Joe Higashi from the Fatal Fury franchise. Chun-li does not wear her trademark costume until the last 3 episodes and she does not have her traditional hair buns.

The characters also had different roles than their game counterpart, like Dhalsim being the person who thought Ryu the Hadoken, Balrog is not a boxer but a politician and Cammy is a religious assassin.

Street Fighter Alpha the movie was released on DVD worldwide and can be found at any major DVD retail store. While not faithful to its game counterpart, Street Fighter Alpha is still a fun-to-watch anime for every Street Fighter Fan. Final Verdict: I hate Shun!!! Other than that check it out if you haven’t done so yet it is worth the money.

All these differences would have been forgiven if the animation was well made and smooth, which unfortunately was not. The series had a lot of Re used and rehashed animation during the whole series which made the viewers question its budget.

From the seventeen characters of the Super Street Fighter II turbo game only Honda, Blanka, Dee jay and T-hawk did not appear on the show.

Due to poor ratings and reviews, Street Fighter II V got cancelled after 29 episodes lasting only one season. The Series was dubbed and released in different countries, such as the US, France and UK. A four DVD set containing the full series can still be found at some Walmarts for no more than 20 bucks.

Personally I find the street fighter II v an entertaining series that took somewhat of a realistic take on the Street Fighter Mythos. The different characters design sure did ruin a bit of the series for me but I still pop in the dvds from time to time to watch few episodes. Final Verdict: Good enough to watch it at least once

Street Fighter Alpha Generations (2005) Six Years after Street Fighter Alpha the movie, Studio A.P.P.P came up with an original story to animate that has no relation with the previous animes nor games. The anime was titled Street Fighter Alpha: Generations.

Street Fighter Alpha The Movie (1999) The Street Fighter Alpha games series is a spin off series of SFII that stars characters in their early years as well as new comers to the franchise. The games were very popular in the late nineties making it only a matter of time before the alpha universe got animated.

“Street Fighter Alpha: Generations” is a 50 min long anime that revolves around Ryu training with an old man so that he can be ready to fight Gouki/ Akuma and avenge his master’s death.

The story tells more about Gouki than it does about Ryu, as it shows how Gouki chose the dark path and murdered his own master. Another plot segment that bothered most Street Fighter fans was the fact that the movie hinted towards its end that Gouki is Ryu’s father, which is not the case in the Street Fighter games.

In 1999 Group Tac takes on Street Fighter once again with the Street Fighter Alpha movie. Originally released as a two part OVA in Japan, it was then compiled into one movie for its worldwide release.

The Story follows Ryu as he struggles to overcome the power of the Satsui no Hado (Dark hadou) and to find a reason as to why he continue on fighting. Several characters from the alpha series appear during the movie some of whom had major roles, like Ken, Chun-li and Sakura. Others just had brief cameos, like Birdie, Akuma, Guy, Dan, Vega and others. The big baddie for the Street Fighter Alpha movie is an original character called Doctor Sadler who organizes tournaments and kidnaps the strongest fighters to extract fighting data from them.

Another original character created only for the movie is Shun, who introduces himself as Ryu’s younger lost brother.

Only four characters from the games appear during the movie: Ryu, Ken, Sakura, and Gouki. Both Ken and Sakura had very minor roles.

The character designs were close to

The Animation and Designs were very well made (although not as good as the Street Fighter II Animated movie). The Anime had a fair amount of well choreographed fights and display of Special moves such as Hadokens and Shoryukens.

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The Street Fighter Magazine and success. For example Street fighter alpha movie had great animation and designs, but its story was rather weak (who is Shun?) compared to Street Fighter 2v series, which ironically did not have good animation nor good designs but a somewhat decent story.

their games counterparts, though the drawing had a messy feeling to it and did not please most of its viewers.

The movie received mainly negative reviews, IGN gave the movie a 5/10. The animation style was the most criticized aspect of the movie. Still most reviewers praised the good flow of the movie with some calling it the only good aspect of the anime.

We hope Capcom will consider story elements or full stories from Masahiko Nakahira’s street fighter mangas as they were easily the best when it comes to story telling. Udon SF storyline is also a GREAT source material for such a project.

Street Fighter Alpha Generations was never released in Japan, making it the only street fighter anime to be made specifically for the western audience. Final Verdict: A somewhat enjoyable 50 min movie that leaves a lot to be desired. Worth a rent

The last point I want to make is the character’s design. Street fighter characters needs to have the look they have in the games.

People need to see Ryu in the anime and say right away “hey it’s Ryu from Street Fighter”. As I mentioned above Street Fighter 2v had a good story (not very street fighter like but still good) but the characters design were somewhat different (Ryu who in this case looks like Joe Higashi comes to mind).

Street Fighter IV (2009) With the release of Street Fighter IV, Capcom will be offering a new Street Fighter IV anime with the collector’s edition of the game.

The anime was made by the talented team of “Studio 4C” a Japanese Anime studio known for the high quality of its movies.

The epic Street Fighter II movie had great designs, fluid animation and a decent story and that is why it is still considered as the best Street Fighter anime to date.

A Japanese trailer of the Anime was screened during the Capcom Captivate 08 event showing glimpses of the various characters that will be featured in the anime, including Ryu, Ken , Chunli, Cammy, C.Viper and others.

At the time when this Article is been written we still don’t have access to the anime to tell you what we think about it, rest assured though a full fetched review of the Street Fighter IV anime will be published next month within the pages of the Street Fighter Magazine second Issue. Final Verdict: Check The Street Fighter Magazine #2 next month!

Future Street Fighter Anime? Will there be more Street Fighter anime in the future?

A lot of fans hope so including myself. I personally believe it is time for Capcom to give us a long running good anime series based on the Street Fighter franchise.

I guess you can easily have 100 to 150 + episodes for a street fighter anime series. Too much potential there, I hope Capcom will invest in it and give us the best SF anime series to date.

Anime series like Naruto, bleach and others have brought the fighting anime genre back to life. A well made street fighter series will have both gamer and non gamer followers.

We would like also to mention that the storyline of the series will play a great role in its survival

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historian’s corner by vasili10

Hello readers! And welcome to the Street Fighter Historian’s Corner!

I’m vasili10, whom you may have heard about in conjunction with Tiamat’s online SF plot guide. These articles will try their best to give you a bird’s eye view of the extensive and long-lasting universe devised by Capcom Japan (not Capcom USA or anyone else for the most part) through its SF fighting game saga.

Being a 20+ year old saga, a considerable amount of info has been released from CJ about the universe of SF, and new info is of course prone to overwrite old info. This has been done, but not as much as one would initially believe.

In fact, CJ prefers to follow a fill-in-theblank format when it comes to providing new information rather than outright rewriting what they stated through older sources. Thus, characters and events mentioned in older sources despite never being brought up again in newer sources are still valid, if nothing has been stated later on to directly conflict with the existence of that character or event. To put this in another way, ignorance doesn’t equate to denial. Just because someone or something has been “forgotten” doesn’t mean that someone or something no longer exists. The universe’s creator ought to “force” it to no longer exist, if it’s no longer intended to exist.

For a more complete treatment you are advised to check out the latest version of the plot guide found at Gamefaqs.com under my name or Tiamat’s.

As this is the first of a series of articles in the new Street Fighter Magazine, I’d like to begin with laying down a couple of guidelines for understanding SF canon in general, and conclude with the start of a few points about the non-playable cast of SF1. So for those who don’t care to learn or simply don’t believe, want to or not for any erroneous reason, that Capcom Japan simply doesn’t have nor cares for an over-arching yet flexible authentic history concerning its popular fighting game saga, you can stop reading here, move on to other sections or whatever else floats your boat.

SF’s authentic history, seishi, or canon, may surface through various means, but every component contributing to it has CJ’s seal of official approval. By far the majority of means have been through sourcebooks detailing aspects related to the fighting cast, such as backstories, profiles and physical statistics, personal stage anecdotes and so on. Sourcebooks and magazines have also included quoted interviews from various CJ staff members from time to time. Certain manga and animated features have also contributed to canon at different points in the saga’s history, however for the most part such materials as anime and comics are not seishi as overall works. There are exceptions but they’re few and far between compared to the overall plethora of info CJ has provided to the public.

And now to begin with SF1, the frustrating game that started it all LOL. Retsu and Geki hailing from Japan. Geki was the ninja with shurikens, a meager disappearing act and a claw that would later become Balrog’s losable weapon in SF2 and beyond, but not necessarily the same claw. Geki’s versed in ninjutsu, a dying breed in a world more suited to martial arts as a sport rather than a means of life and death. Retsu was another conflict to this change of times. He practiced and taught the more peace-oriented art of Shorinji kenpo but ended up using his fighting skills including a signature jump kick to quell personal strife, resulting in his excommunication. Geki and Retsu both entered SF1 to prove their skills to the world rather than for glory or a fighting thirst that other contenders had. Tune in next time for more Historian’s Corner, and thanks for reading!

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strategy

by David Hall

Sinsation: East Coast Sagat vs West Coast Balrog This tournament was a sensational - pun intended - tournament for me, and I got the feeling others felt the same way. A lot of new players came out to see what SF4 is all about, as well as a lot of pro players came to show off their skills. Out of an estimated 130 people there, around 60 players came to rumble in SF4.

It wasn’t just SF4 in fact there were a number of games running that day in Fairfax, VA (Feb 7th to Feb 8th.) In one room 3rd strike, TVC, and SF4. In another: HD remix, Guilty Gear, Soul Calibur 4, and even some other titles like Battle Fantasia were setup for fun. All the tournaments ran on time and the organizers did a fantastic job of keeping it all together. The venue was held at the Mariott Hotel, which was not only located near food outlets, but made sleeping arrangements - conveniently - easy. Some people complained SF4 took a very long time and to give them credit; it did. Yet people have to realize there is only 3 locations on the east coast to play SF4 in the arcade: Chinatown Fair, University Pinball, and Perfect Sins Cabinet in VA. In light of this, it was all handled extremely well.

I spoke with Eric V who wanted to stress the importance behind the tournament and the main event: “This concept of Sinsation was based off of doing a preview a week before SF4 to inspire newcomers and give a sense of direction to these players. I wanted to showcase high level play, while giving everyone a chance to learn from each other. This is exactly why I set up exhibition matches; like Iluvujoe and Phily player Demonhyo vs Cali’s Combofiend and Gootecks. I wanted the two best characters from each coast to clash and at the same time inspire.”

And boy was it an event worth watching. Joe managed to take his team to victory in the Team Battle. Justin Wong vs other contenders was another highlight in an event full of them. On a personal level; I had a lot of fun playing and watching the games on show, there was a lot to do between the two rooms. A big thanks to Eric Valencia, Ryan Bartlett (aka Perfect Sin) and Jet Phi, you all did a great job running the event. I hope to see another Sinsation in the future, you could call it Sin-console-ation, since we will all be on the console by that time.

Thanks again to everyone, practice up and be sure to head to Final Round at Atlanta GA, in March 2009.

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JW:I play every character in the game, but the reason for that is because I wanted to pick up every character so people could see how I play with those characters. I don’t even have a main character right now!

Joe: I’ve always liked Sagat! When I first played the game I picked Ken and Sagat. Even though I was better at Ken, I stuck with Sagat because I liked him more. I used him in Hyper, SVC chaos, CVS2, and any game he was in I thought he was the man. Well he wasn’t good in SVC Chaos and it’s not my fault he happened to be the best character so far in 4, he’s just so cool and so effective!!

TSFM: How do you see Street Fighter 4 in the next few months or even years after the game’s release? Do you feel the tier list will change? How about any game play changes?

JW:The tier list has been changing every month, and it will definitely shift with the new console characters. The tier list is very solid and right now, every character can really manage to win. There’s only one match up that’s 7- 3 (he didn’t say which match up). Game play wise it’s pretty much set, but I feel the new characters might change that. I really want to play Rose; I really like her after CES 09.

All the characters actually, in fact I think Dan is the coolest.

I had a chance to sit down with East Coast players Justin Wong and Long Island Joe during the Sinsation Tourney. Both of them are among the currently best players, and hold a lot of experience in the game. Here are some of the highlights of our conversations at the event.

Joe: Maybe at first because of the new characters on the home version. Maybe small tweaks, like Sagat doing less damage in the home version. It’s not significant and at CES he seemed to still be just as effective but you never know if that will have an effect. Who knows, maybe Rose will end up on top, I can’t really say.

The Street Fighter Magazine: How effective are the new characters Abel, Rufus, Viper, and Fuerte; in your opinion?

TSFM: Do you feel that US players have the chance to prove to Japanese players that they are the ‘new best’ around?

Justin Wong: In my opinion, all the new characters are more towards an offensive style. Rufus with his dive kicks, Abel has to try to stay close and be in your face with that command grab, C. Viper plays run away but at the same time tries to look for an opportunity to rush you down. El Fuerte is a crazy ass grappler that has to go crazy with his running and flips, he’s totally insane!

Joe: Wow, good question! Going to Japan with Justin and everyone, I’ve had the chance to see how they play. It’s quite different, and it’s part of their culture. It’s something acceptable. There are no rivals like here in America and certainly there’s no “I’m better then you.” You can’t win money over there; it’s about pride and honor, all about the game and improving your skills.

Long Island Joe: They stand up very well against the rest of the cast, especially since they’re brand new. I think they have an advantage because people won’t know exactly what they can and can’t do, although it doesn’t take much to break them down and figure out how to use them. Knowing the opponent is really the most important part in this game.

JW: *Laughs* Street fighter 4 is luckily a game that players can pick up very easily; it’s not like other games where there are a lot of technicalities or glitches that need to be learned. I think Japan is better currently because they have more of a quality and quantity of players. The gap is small and hopefully we could do really well and maybe even win at SBO.

TSFM: Do you think that SF4 has what it takes to be part of tournaments for many years to come, compared to games like SSF2 Turbo and 3rd Strike?

TSFM: What do you have to say for new players who are getting into SF4?

JW:I think SF4 will be here for a really long time. People might say they don’t like it; in fact I didn’t like it at first. However, the more I played it the more I grew to love it. I always like playing new fighting games, even from playing games like Super Turbo and Third Strike I feel I had lost the passion. I love playing new people, and I love the new blood on the scene.

Joe: I bring them in with open arms. I’ve been playing since I was 7 and now I’m 23, but we have players who are brand new up in NY. We are trying to get the ball rolling and get these players at a high level of play. Come join us in NYC anytime.

JW: Don’t get discouraged and keep playing. This really is a good game!

Joe: Don’t really know, seems like those games are endless. I mean, we still play these games right now and it feels like we have been playing them forever. Will it hold out as long? I’m going say no, but that may be because after they see the success of this game they may update the game or make a new SF that overshadows the others.

TSFM: Any last comments you’d like to put out there?

Joe: I’m going to go community related. If it’s something you’re interested in go all the way with it. Obviously keep your day job, but Street Fighter 4 is worth getting good at.

JW: If you all are getting on Xbox Live for SF4 Just find me online as Justinfob. I’ll be locked up in my house for a while with my buddy Jaggo, so we’ll be online for a lot of time trying to beat everyone up!

TSFM: So your character is _______ can you give us a quick breakdown about why you choose this character when you enter tournaments?

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video games

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix comics

Super Street Fighter Turbo #1 Super Street Fighter Turbo #2 Super Street Fighter Turbo #3 Street Fighter Legends: Chun-Li #1

reviews

SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2 TURBO HD REMIX PS3/XBOX 360

®

Super Street Fighter II Turbo has been in the lime light of the fighting game genre since its release in 1994. Clung together by its balance, simple game play and the community, it is still played in major and smaller tournaments across the world. So the announcement of a reworking of the classic title back in April 2007 would have certainly caused mixed feelings. New art, balance changes, new command inputs; was there any need to worry? Lets find out.

you!” etc. so what better way to satisfy that mentality than with an online scoreboard!

Featuring a personal rating, wins, losses and most importantly your position in the world of Street Fighters, except its bugged to hell and back. With reports from ranking resets - for no apparent reason - and disconnects being equated to losses, which ends in a let down for those of you with an electronic penis. From there are a few optional tweaks for older fans and for those that like to tinker. First up is the option to change audio and graphic settings. So if you like the classic Super Street Fighter II Turbo stage music then go right ahead and toggle it on. The same can be said for if you prefer the older character sprites as they return in their full glory, although no backgrounds unfortunately

Upon introduction to the game you are greeted with the much lauded theme of Ken, which is probably the perfect recipe to get you in the mood for Shoryukening some face. From this point you have multiple choices; your singe player venture including the classic Arcade mode and a Training mode for practising those renda-kara-cancelling combos. Followed by the multi-player menu containing Local, Scoreboard, Friendly and Tournament match up options. Before we get into the nitty gritty, let’s quickly go over the remaining features related to the game namely the scoreboards and further options.

For online players there will always be a willy waving aspect to gaming. “I owned

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which makes the older sprites look like cardboard cut outs when laid upon the new stage designs. Last we have the dip switch feature, which is in short; customization of certain bug fixes. That’s right you can choose to have bugs on or off. Just don’t think you’ll be able to give yourself an advantage online, because they don’t work there scrub! “What about the game?” I hear you say.

Well it sure is an HD Remix that’s a cert. In comparison; the new graphics are much bigger, louder and more exaggerated.

Muscles and colours are heavily defined, you sure wouldn’t miss these guys in a dark alley.

The effects have also had an up scaling. Fire particles from Dhalsim’s Yoga Fire and Flames sizzle as they hit and likewise with the fiery

legs of Fei Long. Projectiles explode upon contact and make for neat little fireworks, especially when a Hadouken and a Sonic Boom collide. All of the game’s music has been remixed providing a modern twist to the classic beats, which a part from the main menu music - I only say this, because hearing it repeatedly is beyond annoying - is extremely well done. Fei Long’s being the stand out remix. The stages themselves have had a makeover too, although less so than the rest of the game. In fact the stage element is the part that has been changed least. Whilst it has been updated the sprites and animations are effectively the same, its just the basic composition of the new style it follows. Which is good as this game is after all about the street fighting, not the street you’re fighting on. The street fighting hasn’t changed – beyond the finer details – and still provides that old school game play. Hadouken zone traps, following your jab Sonic Booms and even the things that scrubs hate; tick throws and throw loops. Its also made the game play easier for newer players to get into by changing hard to execute commands for certain characters, such as the Tiger Knee and the Spinning Pile Driver. ‘The finer details’ do however provide

a change in pace and how certain match ups play.

These changes came about when the designer and competitor David Sirlin took the helm of the HD Remix project. He set about balancing the match ups to provide the community with a Street Fighter II balance unseen before. Asking many other professional players feedback the rebalancing was a project in itself. Such as making

E.Honda better versus projectile characters, whilst in turning not giving him so much that the other characters he could beat were just child’s play. Fortunately the balancing has turned out to be very good overall. Guile received

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a buffed Roundhouse Flash Kick, which now flies across half the screen in turn beating out Vega’s slide, which was one of his bane’s in that match up. Sagat’s Tiger Shot recovery was tweaked for the better in regards to his Super Turbo version - worse in case of the fabled Old Sagat - but he retained his Old Sagat Tiger Uppercuts and a new juggling Tiger Knee. The only character who is widely considered to be broken – still – is Akuma who has out-of-this world good cross ups and Super - Shun Goku Satsu - setups.

Regardless of that the game has been given a fresh approach and added more fun to the mix, which fits well alongside its new looks and of course if you don’t want the fresh game play you have the choice of modes: Remix and Classic. In effect; you have two games in one.

The single player mode options have been extended in HD Remix. Not just in the Arcade mode’s character endings new

artwork, canon changes and difficulty settings, but also in its Training mode. The Training mode now features a hit box display option, along with the usual CPU settings and Super meter configurations. This display – believe it or not – shows the size and whereabouts of the characters hit boxes.

In blue where you can be hit and once a move is executed – red – to show you from when and where you can hit your opponent.

For someone looking to up their game this feature will come in very handy, especially if you’re just starting to or want to learn cross ups. Beyond these changes though there is nothing more for the single player, unless you own an X-Box 360 and wish to unlock the 12 achievements available. One must remember something about Street Fighter II and that is the fact that its a multi-player game. Now where is my next challenge.

friendly battle mode where you can create a room or be invited to one for continuous play against friends or competitors.

Having the choice between playing locally or online anybody can quickly find a multi-player game on HD Remix.

The local play does it exactly what it says on the tin providing once again the option of Classic and Remix modes.

The online section provides scoreboard battles, which add to win/loss and ranking ratios on the game’s official scoreboards. A

Lastly followed by a tournament option which creates an 8 player, invitational only tournament ladder. So, how does it play online? That entirely depends. You can get matches that play perfectly, but then other times you will hit problems even being able to connect. There are also some irritating bugs such as the health bar glitch where they turn red and only the left players health actually lowers when hit. In other cases you just get a blank screen, although funnily enough the time I got the blank screen bug I won a round even though I couldn’t see a thing. There is even some fundamental flaws in the coding of Start colour costumes, which provide a much higher rate of a disconnect and the character Vega, who has syncing problems. Ultimately it almost boils down to how lucky you are online and I don’t mean in terms of the match, but actually getting the match and for it to run smoothly, which is a shame as this was by far the most exciting feature of HD Remix. That aside; when it is good, its great.

Whilst HD Remix will be overshadowed by its new brother, it has played a vital role in building hype and bringing back a lot of the fun to the Street Fighter II franchise.

Depending on when and if HD Remix receives a patch is the key to its long term success, although you cannot overlook the short term records it has broken. All in all Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix brings old school back to the masses and with a new flavour of visual and game play design, which has been a delight to play.

Gameplay - 10/10 Graphics - 9/10 Sound - 8/10 Longevity - 9/10 TSFM Score - 9/10

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reviews

SUPER STREET FIGHTER TURBO #1 UDON COMICS

The Story: The Story for Issue 1 is more or less a re-introduction of the main cast of the series, we see Ryu fighting various people during some kind of street fights, Chun-li getting ready to to enter the street fighter tournament as she sees is the only way to get closer to Bison. We see Guile exploring military options to destroy bison, and then finally Ken who is training while worrying about his pregnant wife Eliza we also witness the four heavenly kings (bison and his 3 henchmen) reunite for the first time after quite some time.

After almost a year and a half of absence from the comic stores shelves, the Street Fighter comics made by Udon are now finally back!

Udon has started publishing Street Fighter II Turbo series which is the direct continuation of their main street fighter storyline that has left off when the various street fighters around the world received an invitation from Bison, himself, to participate in the second street fighter world tournament.

It is also worth mentioning that Street Fighter Turbo #1 is the first issue fully drawn by new comic artist Chamba Cruz. How does his art holds up against veterans like Alvin lee and Arnold Tsang? Keep reading to find out.

While the story in Issue 1 does not really move the overall storyline forward, it does help to set the mood for things to come. Ken Sui Chong, writer of the street fighter comic series since its debut, makes you feel right at home with the smart way of re-introducing the characters without using flashbacks of things that happened in the previous issues of the series. So many writers have tried interpreting the street fighter story into a book and only few of them have succeeded and Ken sui chong is really in top of the list with Masahiko Nakahira (writer of the street fighter alpha and Ryu final Mangas) The Art: As i previously Mentioned, This is the first issue fully drawn by Chamba Cruz.

Chamba’s art style is quite different from his predecessors and is, unfortunately, the only drawback i found in the issue. If you prefer the anime style Alving Lee and Arnold tsang used for the previous issues i am afraid you will be disappointed. Chamba’s style is a more of an artistic style, the panels looks

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more like oil paintings than comic book drawings.

While the action scenes are wonderfully drawn, the characters themselves do not look quite appealing, there is a lack of inking that i couldn’t help but notice. The backgrounds of the panels were the biggest problem as they were most of the time consisting of couple colors and really empty. I would not say that the art is horrible, not at all it is actually good, but in my opinion does not live up to Alvin lee and Arnold Tsang’s art style. Good news is his drawings seems to be improving as we will see with issue#2.

Closing Comment: The Street Fighter Comics are back and i cannot be happier, even if Chamba’s drawings are not as good as what we got used to from Udon the the Street Fighter 2 Turbo series does look very promising and this issue is a must have for any Street Fighter Fan. TSFM Score: 7.5/10

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SUPER STREET FIGHTER TURBO #2 UDON COMICS

Series) the last panel of the issue is great surprise but I will not spoil it for you, all I will say is that it marks the comic debut of a Street Fighter Alpha character.

the anime/Manga feel we have gotten used to from the previous Street Fighter Comic series made by udon and would have suited best for the Street Fighter 2 Turbo Series.

The story was really enjoyable and really sets the mood for the starting of the tournament. It was definitely better that last issue which was a re-introduction of the main characters. Still, nothing majored has happened during the issue. As For the backup story it is also well written but way too short, it was more of an appetizer for the upcoming Street Fighter IV comic series.

Street fighter 2 Turbo issue 2 came out last November, the comic is the first in the series to feature a back up story of Street Fighter IV’s new Comer Abel. How does the whole issue stands up against issue 1, lets find out (be advised: few spoilers ahead): Story: The Story picks up right where the last issue ends with The main cast getting ready for their grand fights. Ryu and Ken are on their way to enter the tournament, Chun-li is training with Yun and Yang to improve her skills that she will soon need to fight her way through the tournament.

It is also important to mention that this is the first Udon Comic to show bison’s true power and why he is a threat to the world, as he destroyed a whole island with his Psycho Drive just to announce the start of the tournament and shows how powerful it is. The issue ends with a big WTF moment (spoilers ahead) as Bison tells his 3 henchman to supervise the qualifying matches that will be held in Japan, China and …Metro city (home for the Final Fight

The Art: It is not unknown that I am not a big fan of Chamba’s style of drawing the street Fighter world. And if you read my review of the first issue, you will notice that it was the main drawback of Issue#1. If you happen to share the same opinion then I have a good news for you as I was very surprised when I read through the second issue, Chamba’s style has greatly improved, it is still not perfect but way better that issue 1, the lack of inking problem has been resolved, the backgrounds are not as empty as they were in the first issue, and character’s faces are now better (for the most part) I do hate though the way he draws chun-li, she looks too manly for our sexy big thighs lady and I hope that this will change with future issues.

Chamba’s style big Plus are the action scenes and he does deliver in this issue with an amazing looking fight between Evil Ryu and Ken where we see the Shoryu Reppa (ken’s super) for the first time in the Comic.

The back-up story was illustrated by Joe Ng (another new comer to the street fighter world). Joe Ng Style is so close to Alvin lee’s and Arnold Tsang’s style that if no one had told me it was Joe who drew the comic I would have thought that Alvin lee is back to finish what he started. Joe’s Style has

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Closing Comments: The Second Issue of Street Fighter 2 Turbo is with no doubt a page turner. With good writing from ken sui Chong, and more than decent art

By Chamba cruz as well as the welcome addition of the Street Fighter IV back-up stories illustrated by Joe Ng, Issue #2 is definitely better that #1 and is, indeed, A MUST buy for any Street Fighter fan.

Final Score: 8.5/10

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SUPER STREET FIGHTER TURBO #3 UDON COMICS

features quite a lot of story telling compared to the previous issues. The storyline is going forward faster than before and the fact that there are no more flashbacks of previous issues really helps with overall progression of the story.

have to say the same about Street Fighter II Turbo #3. Chamba is really improving with each new issue, its easily noticable that he is now paying more attention to details, backgrounds are not empty anymore and the fights action never looked this good.

This issue also features the fan favorite Cammy and gives us a hint to her future role in the Street Fighter Tournament which looks pretty interesting.

An exemple of how good Chamba is at drawing action sequences is the fight between Adon and Dhalsim, the way the fight is drawn makes you feel the different styles of the two fighters, you can feel Dhalsim fighing while being very calm while adon is irritated and enraged. It is difficult to express the feeling you get from that fight but if you get the chance to read the issue you will understand.

A fun thing to mention is the ammount of cameos Chamba has drawn in this issue, just to name a few: Rufus, Q, and Guy. Make sure to look in every crowd within the book to find them all ;-)

Street fighter 2 Turbo issue 3 was released last December, the comic features the continuation of the Street Fighter Storyline as well as a back up story featuring Street Fighter IV’s new lucha libre El fuerte.

How good is udon’s latest street fighter issue?, keep reading to find out (be advised: few spoilers ahead): Story: The Story of the udon’s Street Fighter series is really the highlight that made the book so popular and this issue is no exception, in fact this issue looks so far to be the best in the turbo series. The book starts by giving us a look at Fei-long’s movie star life as well as his origins, then goes on to the main tournament storyline where the tournament qualifiers are now taking place in Hong Kong. We are then treated to a great fight between Adon (yes he is back) and Dhalsim as well as a batlle royal featuring Fei long against a bunch of martial artist.

Although from my description the issue sounds more like an action one it really

The back up story is as usual drawn

by Joe Ng, the main artist of the upcoming Street Fighter IV mini series, and he really delivers again with this el fuerte back up story. Great drawings as well a great coloring makes this bonus story easily fit within the udon Street Fighter comics continuity.

As mentioned above, Street Fighter II Turbo #3 features a back up story of El fuerte. The story is four pages long but really fun to read. without spoiling anything let’s just say El fuerte has a connection to another street fighter character from ssf2 and that he is a fan of a street fighter alpha character.

The Art: If you have read my two previous reviews you would remember that i have mentioned that Chamba’s art has improved from issue 1 to 2. I would

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Closing Comments: The latest Issue of Street Fighter 2 Turbo is simply great. The story is moving forward and getting more interesting, Chamba’s art is on its way to be in level with Alvin lee and Arnold Tsang and the back up story is too much fun to read. If you have not picked up this issue yet i suggest you do so immediatly and let me know in the comments section what you think of it.

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STREET FIGHTER LEGENDS: CHUN-LI #1 UDON COMICS

underworld gangs lately. Dorai, Chun-li’s father is also introduced during this issue as a police high officer who agrees to put his daughter and her partner Po-li on the Shadaloo case. On the mean time, Go Hibiki and his Son Dan as are opening their Martial Arts dojo in China and are unwilling to pay protection money to Shadaloo, a fact that annoys Sagat, the crime boss of Hong Kong who takes his orders directly from Bison.

release couple years back. Omar Dogan does not disappoint, in fact I was very surprised to see how well the action parts were portrayed. Omar also does a great job in drawing rich and vivid back grounds and very detailed vehicles, the car chase segment of the comic feels like watching a high budget police action movie.

The Story in this first issue, while not very elaborate yet, does a great job introducing the characters and setting up the general mood of the miniseries. The story is as usual written by veteran Ken Sui Chong who does a great job re-introducing the characters; we all know and love, to both fans of the series and new readers.

that we got used to from Udon. A job Well done by Omar Dogan.

The characters are all very well drawn and the whole comic has the anime flair to it

January 2009 is the month where the first issue of Street Fighter Legends: Chun-li hits the comic book stands. The comic book is part of 4 issues bi monthly mini series that tells the story of fan favorite Chun-li’s early years as she gets to discover shadaloo for the first time in her life.

Chun-li is not the only character that will appear throughout the series, Bison, a scarless, two eyed Sagat as well as goofy Dan will all play a major role in the series. So how was the first issue of this promising mini series? keep reading to find out (Warning: Spoilers ahead).

Story: Street Fighter Legends: Chun-li #1 starts with the Sexy fan favorite Chun-li (who is a police officer) as she cleans the streets of Hong Kong from some car jackers with her partner Po-lin (a nod to Masaomi Kanzaki’s character from Street Fighter II manga). We then learn that the thiefs are members of Shadaloo, a crime organization that has been taking over Hong Kong ‘s

The Art: Street Fighter Legends: Chun-li is drawn by the talented Omar Dogan who was the same artist behind the “Street Fighter Legends: Sakura” mini series that was

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Closing Comment: With a good Story scripted by ken Sui chong and AWESOME art from Omar Dogan, Street Fighter Legends: Chun-li #1 is the best Street Fighter comic we got this season. If you still did not pick up the book yet, I suggest you do so now and let me know what you think of it.

Final Score: 10/10

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