Street Fighter 4 Coming February 17th

There is absolutely no question in my mind that I put more quarters into Street Fighter 2 arcade games than any other game in my entire life. Street Fighter 2 was a major part of my social scene for a few years from about 12 to 14 years old. My buddies and I would go to the local arcade any chance we got and pumped quarters into Street Fighter 2 machines, fighting each other, the computer, or anyone who stepped into the arcade. I even played in a few local tournaments and did pretty well. No major wins or anything, but I held my own.

So when I heard that Street Fighter IV was coming out soon, I started paying attention to some of the articles, previews and trailers out there. What I have seen so far leads me to believe that Street Fighter 4 will be a great update to the best fighting game of all time. The graphics look sharp and will combine 2d and 3d graphical elements, there will be a greater degree of customization than before with the characters and costumes, and there will be the greatest new feature of all: online tournament play.

Although Street Fighter 4 is designed to draw heavily from past game features in its franchise history, it does offer some stunning new gameplay options. The first of these are Focus Attacks. These moves allow players to absorb the energy from an attack and quickly counter with their own. Used properly, Focus Attacks allow for tremendous flexibility during combat and are the end result of efforts by the game's development team to evolve combat away from the rigid memorization of set combination patterns, giving players the freedom to be creative against opponents. The other new combat feature are new powered up moves called Ultra Combos. Like standard combos their purpose is to unleash maximum damage on an opponent, but unlike the combos of old, when performed correctly these long strings of punches, kicks and moves result in changes to the in-game camera angle and quick cinematics which illustrate the strength of your skills like never before.

We are only a couple of weeks away from launch, so now is the time to get an order placed for what is sure to be one of the hottest titles of 2009. You can get Street Fighter IV with free shipping at Amazon.

Also, check out the trailer from E3: