GAMING BLOG: Street Fighter IV

I've been waiting quite a lot for this game to come out. Just 1 day away from release my excitement is going over the top now !

Capcom showed off a near-final version of Street Fighter IV's arcade version at its recent Las Vegas press event. The game showed off the full roster of fighters, which includes the original world warriors, four bosses, and four new characters. Most importantly, the game featured the latest round of tweaks from the development team, which has been fine-tuning the game for the past few months. We tried out the single-player and multiplayer Versus mode to see if the game was continuing to deliver on the promise of its initial showing in February.

Based on what we played, Street Fighter IV is shaping up fantastically. The game looks and moves great. The detailed characters and smooth animations give combat a pleasing fluidity. Veteran players should enjoy digging into the combat, which is an accessible and challenging experience. The technical aspects of fighting may require vets to make some adjustments to their fighting styles with some characters, and the new characters don't quite fit in with the old-school fighters. We're not totally sold on the action being that accessible to newcomers to the series, but if Capcom can find a way to ease new combatants into the action, the game may have a widespread appeal. The only downside to all the news is that we're not officially getting the arcade release in the States, although we're willing to bet some machines will find their way over to a few spots, forcing most of us to wait for the home release, which is still a way off. Street Fighter IV is set to release this summer in Japanese and Asian arcades, with the game due in other parts of the world some time after.

Overall, we're really excited to see the final levels and characters in Street Fighter IV. So far it has augmented the basic mechanics from Street Fighter II with the best ideas from many of the iterations thereafter, and wraps them all up in a sumptuous visual package, while--so far--maintaining the feel, spirit, and balance of the earlier years of the much-loved franchise.

Source: http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/streetfighteriv/news.html?sid=6202732&mode=previews