Despite formulating the completely excellent polygon scrapper Rival Schools, Capcom has always struggled to translate its premiere fighter franchise into 3D. The Street Fighter licence was farmed out to Arika for the Street Fighter EX series, a love-it or loathe-it side-step brand, hobbled out the gate in Europe thanks to lousy 50Hz conversions. Regardless, even on 60Hz import the results never touched contemporary 2D installments. After the wonderful, but undersubscribed, Street Fighter III series it seemed like Ryu et al were being abandoned to nostalgia prompts in big-budget franchise clashers. Woe was us!
The Street Fighter series unexpectedly bounced back in summer 2008 with the arcade release of Street Fighter IV, thanks to Yoshinori Ono and The Rumble Fish developer Dimps. Street Fighter IV ditched any pretense of arena roam play, instead sticking to 2D planes with 3D assets. The vast cast were rendered as chunky, colourful charm lumps, blessed with spectacular ultra move movies, and Looney Tune injury faces. Super Street Fighter IV is the third iteration of the IV series, with a fourth, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, on its way. The title heaves with features, from the re-introduction of Final Fight's bonus vandalism stages to minute frame tweaks for combo connects and a comprehensive suite of multiplayer matchmaking. It's an exhaustive package, designed for utter scrutiny, and maximum replayability.
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