SDCC 2008 Capcom

Street Fighter IV, Mega Man 9, Cosplay, Exclusives, SOTA, Udon, and Photo Gallery

While standing in the ridiculously long line for the Street Fighter IV panel, a girl walked by talking on her cell phone. She said, "I doubt this many people are in line for a videogame." Well, she was obviously dead wrong and after she said it, in response, a guy standing a few people in front of me said, "It's Street Fighter. It's not a videogame." The random Street Fighter fan spoke true. Street Fighter is far more than a mere game anymore and has crossed the line into it's own culture, now more so than ever with the impending release of Street Fighter IV.

"The Making of Street Fighter IV" panel was mis-named. The panel was less on the making of the game and more on its features and supreme awesomeness. Everyone who entered received a slick orange Street Fighter IV poster. The panel began with two trailers for the game. The second trailer featured the returning bosses, who were all named with their Japanese names, which left some people confused. Three of the bosses names, Vega, Balrog, and M. Bison, were switched when Street Fighter II originally arrived in the US. Amidst the crowd's cheers I overheard a guy explain to his friend the reason for the name switching. If you, fair reader, don't know, please check out the Wikipedia entry on the subject. The panelists were producer Yoshinoro Ono, community manager Seth Killian, and associate producer David Crislip. Yoshinoro spoke in Japanese with David expertly translating.

Although most of the people that attended the panel already knew the basics of the game, which was acknowledged by the panelists, they did a quick rundown of the basics anyway. The somewhat newer info they revealed was that the Shadaloo bosses would be selectable right from the start; they would not have to be unlocked. All the combos from SFII are in SFIV, which many fans cheered. According to Yoshinoro, Crimson Viper was born from American interest in the game. That sounds weird to me, because it seems that only Japan could come up with her style. Yoshinoro knows that the new characters have not reached much popularity with fans, but wants people to give them a fair chance. Seth revealed that he loves playing as fatty-fat Rufus.

The panelists then talked a little of the new focus attack system which utilizes the medium punch and medium kick buttons. They were aware of many people not taking a liking to the parry system from Street Fighter III, but the focus attacks are slightly similar, but new at the same time. You can press and charge them to deflect one attack from an opponent and then counter with your own combo. A video was shown with the focus attacks being utilized with hooting from the crowd for especially painful looking moves.

They then asked the crowd what characters they'd like to see and the shouting of Street Fighter names began. One guy mercilessly shouted Dan Hibiki over and over. They announced that Cammy won the new character poll from the Capcom Unity blog by a margin of 2:1. It's great to hear that Cammy will be returning, but I'm hoping they add at least another character besides just her. Yoshinoro joked that if they added too many characters they would end up with Street Fighter Alpha 3 again.

There were a few notable questions from the audience. One guy asked if the characters would have multiple super moves that you would select before fighting or if they would have only one. Each character will only have one super move, which fits in with the goal of keeping the game simple enough for anyone to play, but complex enough for the hardcore fans. Another asked about a stick for the console versions of the game. A quality stick, such as a Hori, well, that would be a wait and see thing.

Lastly, they debuted a brand new anime from Street Fighter IV in full English dub. It might have been the opening movie, I couldn't really tell, but there was a lot of screen time for Cammy. With all the screen time she had it seems odd that they would not have included her in the regular character line-up in the first place and placed her in a new character poll. For that reason alone they should include at least another new character. I vote Sakura. Or Dan.

As for Street Fighter IV itself, it was playable at the Capcom booth. Multiple arcade machines were set up with a nice little chair. Those that played received a red Ryu SFIV headband, which some fans wore around the convention floor. The playing time was limited to 3 minutes, which isn't much time, but with all the people waiting to play it, it had to suffice. Once I got my chance to play it my balls were blown clean off. The visuals were absolutely beautiful and my previous combos from the old days worked flawlessly. It's going to be a long, hard, ha-dou-ken-less wait until Street Fighter IV arrives on consoles.

As we all know, Mega Man 9 is a return to the old form. One kiosk at the Capcom booth had Mega Man 9 up and running and I was surprised it was only one. Mega Man 9 demands at least two kiosks. The visuals and music were gorgeous in their 8-bit glory. Two stages were available to play, but the bosses on the select screen were not named and you didn't even get to fight them if you were one of the lucky few that made to the end of the stage. I played it and oh man, Capcom wasn't kidding when they said they made it more difficult than any Mega Man game before. Mega Man 9 is so hard. One of them had the dreaded disappearing block puzzle, but fiercer and deadlier than ever. The disappearing blocks weren't limited to a few sections, but pretty much the entire second half of the stage. It was insane. Having played every other original Mega Man game, and a few of the X and ZX series, and with just playing this for a short time, I can safely say that Mega Man 9 is the hardest Mega Man game ever. Mega Man 9 will kick your ass.

Capcom did have their own Mega Man (new style, not old) and Bionic Commando at the show, but what happens when fans cosplay as Capcom characters and arrive at the Capcom booth at the same time? Utter chaos. I was poking around the Capcom booth because of the draw of so much pure awesome. Yoshinoro was talking some more at the booth about SFIV, answering some fan questions. I snapped a couple photos, turned the corner and from out of nowhere a horde of Capcom cosplayers descended on the booth. The walkway erupted into a picture fest of epic proportions. There were Ryus, Kens, Chun Lis (in SFII and SFAlpha forms), Cammy, Bison, Dudley, Yang, Rolento, Sodom, Sakura, Cody, a Bison doll, and a super-cute little girl dressed as a "player 2" Chun Li. Not only were there Street Fighter characters, but also Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield, and Albert Wesker from Resident Evil, Captain Commando (from Captain Commando) and super-busty Morrigan from Darkstalkers. These cosplayers were great and all their costumes were very well done.

The Capcom booth was also selling a number of exclusives at the show. The first was a SOTA's 10" Chun Li statue from Street Fighter IV. Of the 700 total statues, 400 were on-hand at the show for $100 each. A Chun Li statue would indeed be cool, but I have limited space and funds so I opted for the other Chun Li exclusive, a 4" figurine version of the statue for $10. The 4" version was limited to 3000 total pieces.

The best exclusive was the hardcover version of the Street Fighter Tribute art book. Udon compiled over 300 artists' Street Fighter art from around the world into a beautifully put together book. There were quite a few artists at the show, so I made it a limited mission to go around and have the artists sign their art in the book. From now on I will be bringing the book with me to other conventions in case more artists that I haven't had signed it yet are there. This was also available at the Udon booth along with other great Udon art books, Street Fighter prints, and comics.

Other Street Fighter exclusives were available at the SOTA Toys booth. SOTA had two Street Fighter action figure two-packs. One included a pink Mika with Zangief, while the other was a black E. Honda and dark Dhalsim. the Taos Toys booth had a blue Dhalsim figure. SOTA also had a 12" Sagat statue in his blue Turbo shorts. Heh, "turbo shorts."

Below is a gallery of Capcom cosplay, pictures from the Capcom booth, and SOTA figures. Enjoy them to their fullest.


Cammy toughs out the assault of photos without cannon spiking.	Dudley's expression pretty much sums up every guy that saw Morrigan.	The new Bionic Commando was getting grabby with the grabby hand.	Poor Sodom and Rolento didn't get as many photos ops as the others, but I salute their choice as secondary characters.


A slide from the Street Fighter IV panel show the return of the bosses.	Yoshinoro Ono and David Crislip discuss the awesomeness of Street Fighter IV.	A place in the Capcom booth that is calm. Hey why isn't anyone playing those Capcom mobile games? They're really good. Seriously.


Hey, wait little Chun Li, did you forget something?	Yeah, there they are; huge spiked wrist gauntlets. It's a super-cute Victory!	And now people demanded little Chun Li with Morrigan time.	There was a good Yang, but I didn't spot any Yun.


Pink Mika and green Zangief exclusives, plus the ass end of Sagat's Turbo shorts.	Dark Dhalsim and black outfit Honda exclusives.	The blue Dhalsim and Metal Zangief.


Captain Commando commands a new game for himself.	Chun Li's time in the circle of cameras.	This Chun Li was manning (or would that be womaning) the Udon booth.	These two Capcom booth babes were handing out cards for Capcom's awesome cell phone games.


Wesker, Jill Valentine, and Claire Redfield survive the outbreak of photo ops.	The non-tough looking Cody and Ken, but Captain Commando makes up for them.	Capcom characters mingling. Hey, Dudley isn't checking out Rolento now is he?


A scraggly Ryu and Alpha Chun Li.	Real Ryu meets Ken and alternate universe white Ryu.	Hey, Hunk really did survive.	This RPD cop and Jill look-a-like were quickley devoured by zombies.