Capcom had the arcade version of Street Figher IV up and running in their demo suite this morning and I got a chance to go hands-on.  Just as I’d suspected – I’m still no good at this game only occasionally surprising myself by pulling off that kick-ass combo only to find I couldn’t summon it on demand leaving me, more often than not, at the receiving end of a huge oil barrel of whoop-ass.

The game is the same version shown at AOU last week in Japan and plays like a dream.  The screenshots we popped up alongside this post will give you the visual feedback you desire.  In short – the game looks brilliant.  I’m pleasantly surprised to find I wasn’t disappointed that the game was still a simple 2D side-scrolling fighter.  Perhaps that’s what makes it work so well. 

Producer, Yoshinori Ono, made it clear in an interview with 1Up.com that he had wanted to return to the roots of what made not only Street Fighter, but all fighting games fun.  As a result much of the core play mechanics borrow from Street Fighter 2 while there is definite homage paid to SF3 and characters from across the series.

There is a new Revenge Meter up top that apparently will allow you to pull off some Ultimate Combos through Seth Killian, master Street Fighter tournament player turned Capcom SF4 Community Guru, wasn’t keen on giving us any hints on just how to tap into that JuJu.  “If you can figure it out on your own I won’t stop you but they’re being really tight on details at this point."

We did get to see Chris Kramer, head of Capcom PR see photo above) pull off a couple killer moves including one special with Guile that zoomed in on the character in a close-up portrait view with the intended target in the background - this stylish approach to showing off some Ultra Combos coupled with the Okami-ish inking style makes SF4 a visual treat.  Complete with paralax scrolling backgrounds!

Nuff Said.  Check out the Eye-Candy.