Here Come The New Challengers

OK, now I am SUPER excited. I was excited before but excitement level must be capped when the game you are looking forward to is not due out for months. It was pretty obvious that we’d be getting a new version of Street Fighter IV at some point but for the past couple of months I’ve been obsessively checking the RSS feeds I keep in my Street Fighter folder. It’s been rumour-tastic few months with rumours and leaked magazine scans followed by a corroborating press releases confirming what we hoped was true.

As much as I’d like to, I couldn’t very well torture you all with a blog every time a morsel of juicy information was released/leaked/scanned. However, this last week saw some of the most exciting rumours confirmed, firstly by a leaked magazine scan, then an official announcement. At the start of last week we had a few solid announcements and lots of teasing. Dee Jay and T.Hawk were confirmed as returning from the Super series as well as the new girl Juri being revealed.  This was all fine and dandy with me, Juri looks interesting (and slutty) and the Super duo are a welcome, if obvious, addition.

This last week was the week I was waiting for, this last week was Alpha week! I’ve always been a huge fan of the Street Fighter Alpha series, I once paid £90 for a day of release Japanese copy of Street Fighter Alpha 3 (known as Zero 3 in Japan) for the Playstation. The Alpha series tells us the back story to the Street Fighter games and four Alpha warriors were already added to the console version of Street Fighter IV. Rose, Sakura, Gen and the ever pathetic Dan were the chosen few. Good choices? Yeah I guess so but not my choice by a long shot. There are two Alpha fighters that have always been my favourites and their roots lie in another Capcom franchise, Final Fight. Now don’t be getting all up in my face with your Streets of Rage nonsense, Final Fight rocks hard. Why? you ask, two reasons… Cody and Guy. A ninja and a street brawler with a sexy girlfriend, the ultimate team (yeah and Hagar was there too, whatever). To say I was happy to hear that these two are now confirmed members of the Super Street Fighter IV roster is not entirely accurate, relief would be a more suitable word. Cody and Guy have been on the SSFIV rumour list since the day we heard there would be a follow-up to SFIV. I’d heard the rumors from several sources, some reliable, some questionable and one that was about as solid as I could have hoped for but these things are never truly set in stone till official announcements are made.

Once the Famitsu magazine scans were leaked I was satisfied, they were in. Awesome. But then dread, what if they were all wrong, what if… oh no, what if Capcom fucked them up? From the meagre scans of screenshots I could see that visually the Final Fight boys were intact but what if Guy wasn’t fast enough or, God forbid, if they gave Cody that awful redneck accent he had in one of the more questionable Street Fighter cartoons. I needed more and thankfully my need was sated by the following video:

[flv]http://ready-up.net/blogassets/dan/guy__cody__adon_trailer.flv[/flv]

So here I am, a happy bunny. Pleased as punch. Let’s not ignore Adon, he seems to be all about kicking Sagat’s head in, making him a more than worthy addition. All that is left to do now is sit back and wait for the game. Sure there are more characters to be announced. Most likely from Street Fighter III and that’s all good, the more the better. I think it’s a bit much to hope that my favourite SFIII fighter will make it in too. Ibuki, the ninja, she would be great… dashing, flipping, snapping necks, throwing her kunai knives all over the shop. Okay, I’m just playing it cool, there is more to this story. It wasn’t long after the Famitsu page scans were leaked that people saw it, I’m happy to say I was one of those people. The top right picture of Guy, he seemed to be blocking a projectile with a focus attack. A projectile, a kunai, that could only belong to one person!

Cody, Guy AND Ibuki* all confirmed in one week? Happy bunny doesn’t cover it. I can’t fucking wait!

*If this Ibuki thing is just a red herring, a joke, then hear this Capcom, I have purchased my own Kunai and I will take my revenge.