Street Fighter IV

Street Fighter IV is the latest installment in Capcom's long-running series. Although Capcom USA owns the rights to Street Fighter, development was contracted to an internal studio at Capcom of Japan. The game was released on February 17, 2009 in North America, February 12, 2009 in Japan, and February 20, 2009 in Europe on the consoles. Street Fighter IV originally had 18 characters to roster from the arcade version, but eight characters were added to the console versions. Six new characters were created for this game. American spy, Crimson Viper, who uses technology in battle, Abel a French grappler with amnesia, El Fuerte a luchador and chef and Rufus an obese biker who studied various fighting styles round out the new playable fighters. Seth, one of M. Bison's many clones and Gouken, Ryu and Ken's master act as the game's bosses. Other characters include Ryu, Ken, Gen and Sagat from Street Fighter, Chun-Li, Zangief, Dhalsim, Blanka, E. Honda, M. Bison, Vega and Balrog from Street Fighter II, Cammy from Super Street Fighter II and Sakura, Dan and Rose from Street Fighter Alpha.

While Street Fighter IV features 3D rendered characters and backgrounds, the game still plays in traditional 2D, thus creating a "2.5D" effect. Producer Ono has stated that he wanted to keep the game closer to Street Fighter II than to its sequels, and the "parry system" from Street Fighter III has been dropped. A new system temporarily called "Saving" has been introduced, as well as Ultra moves. The traditional six-button control scheme will return, with new features and special moves integrated into the input system, mixing classic gameplay with additional innovations. On December 30, 2007, a gameplay trailer showed how typical gameplay worked, with the 2D plane of fighting shifting and rotating, characters reacting facially to particularly hard blows.