During PAX East 2014, Capcom and Twitch.TV hosted a special exhibition match for the upcoming fifth rendition of Street Fighter IV, Ultra Street Fighter IV. The match took place as part of Capcom’s 2014 Capcom Pro Tour year-long fighting game tournament. The exhibition match featured Capcom’s Community Manager “Combofiend” and Community Manager “Victheslick” of Twitch, in a first-to-5 match. The match below is also set on two of the new stages featured in this update:
USFIV is the fifth update in the series, following Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, and Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition 2012. The newest edition adds five new characters, extra gameplay mechanics, and new stages. Five additions will be made to the roster, with Poison (Final Fight, Street Fighter X Tekken), Hugo (Final Fight as “Andore”, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, SFxT), Elena (SFIII: New Generation, SFIII: 3rd Strike, SFxT), Rolento (Final Fight, SFxT), and Decapre (Street Fighter Alpha 3 cameo, USFIV). Along with new characters, players also have the option of using past versions of characters in offline-play, with Edition Select. Each character edition correlates with the balance changes that were made with that game (i.e. if the player chooses SFIV C. Viper, her stats will match those found in the original game).
Another new mechanic found in Ultra Street Fighter IV is the Red Focus Attack. At the cost of special meter progress, the player can choose to use a Red Focus Attack, instead of the normal Focus Attack, to absorb and power-through enemy attacks. According to Assistant Producer Tomaki Ayano, the new mechanics were added to give competitive players more tactical options, while providing more accessible mechanics for players new to the series.
USFIV is set to release in June on consoles as both a physical title, and a digital upgrade. PC owners will have to wait a little longer, as the PC version of Ultra Street Fighter IV is scheduled to release in August.