Street Fighter IV Revealed

Ryu intensely trains to work off his morning wood.

The internets erupted into a ha-do-ken fueled fervor when the first screenshot of Street Fighter IV was revealed by 1up today. 1up also gave a little info on the game itself. Stet Fighter IV will have 2-D gameplay but full polygonal 3-D visuals. The returning characters are Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, and Dhalsim. The ol' stretch master is making a comeback, eh? That should please many fans. Those four are the only confirmed returnees so far, but I would love to see a bit older and more experienced Sakura. She would almost certainly need a different costume since she wouldn't be a school-girl anymore, but just imagine how her moves would have developed through the years. There are some others I would like to see return as well, but if Sakura is revealed the others won't matter so much.

As you can see from the pic to the right Ryu is mega-buff, has huge feet, and looks to be in Chun-Li's stage. What caused the most conversation, at least in my area, was whether Ryu was also sporting a firm package. It's not hard to see why someone would thing Ryu is sparring against naked chicks, hell I thought the same thing when I first saw it. Other people said that it's just the top of his outfit going underneath his belt, except it's nearly impossible to make out any other lines from the shirt that would signify that it is his shirt. I think he's just trying to work off his morning wood.

While the screenshot looks great, I kind of already miss the hand-drawn animated look Ryu. I'm sure I'll love it when I actually play it, though. More info about Street Fighter IV will be in the next issue of EGM (it'll have Ryu on the cover) and 1up will have Four Weeks of Street Fighter IV, which will reveal more info about the game bit by bit. However, Brazilian gaming blog Blogeek (via Kotaku) said that they have extra details. The details are that it will take place between Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter III, it will run 60 fps, have online play, and a canceling system instead of parrying. Blogeek also has two extra screenshots that show a fireball and hurricane kick. Most of this seems credible but it's odd because everyone thought this was 1up's exclusive. Ah well, I have a feeling the next EGM will sell more than usual and 1up's traffic will be higher next month.

- Shawn - 12/06/07

Update: I thought it was weird that Blogeek had two extra screenshots of Street Fighter IV, but it turns out it was illegal. Ziff Davis sought legal action against Blogeek and Kotaku posted about it and called ZD a bunch of jerks having a hissy fit. Well, EGM head editor and super cool dude Dan Hsu set Kotaku straight the hard way because Kotaku did something they sometimes do; they didn't try to check the facts and just ranted. They should also use spell check more often. I love Kotaku's up-to-the-minute gaming info, but they make some mistakes (Crecente seems pretty clean, though). Hey, it happens. Anyways, the guy who posted the pics is apparently an EGM-Brazil freelancer and stole the shots from Ziff Davis servers. Did he not think he would be caught trying to scoop his own company? This just shows that many gaming journalists need to step up their integrity. I'm glad ZD went full force on this, because a magazine needs some exclusives to survive these times of the internet. I've been a loyal EGM subscriber for over a decade or so because I do still enjoy holding and reading a magazine in my hands. Here's to the next issue of EGM with Street Fighter IV goodies. Cheers.