Street Fighter IV

Developer: in-house
Format: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Genre: Beat-em'up

The king of the bruisers steps up one more time.

Fans of classic beat-em'up action should get ready to start nursing thumb blisters the size of Tokyo as Capcom has announced it will be bringing Street Fighter IV to consoles and PC. The brand new arcade title was initially expected to be an arcade-exclusive but the Japanese veteran publisher has confirmed it will be released for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Street Fighter IV features a mix of returning favorites such as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Guile along with new characters created for this game, such as Crimson Viper, Abel, El Fuerte, and Rufus. Characters and environments are rendered in stylised 3D, while the game is played in the classic Street Fighter 2D perspective with additional 3D camera flourishes. Six-button controls for the game return, with a host of new special moves including Focus Attacks, Super Combos and the Ultra Combo system. We can feel the throb of our swollen digits already!

Combat now involves two meters - the Super Meter and Revenge Metre. The Super Meter gradually fills up when you successfully land an attack the Revenge meter fills when your opponent is kicking seven shades out of you. Filling one of the meters will allow you to serve up a bad-ass Super Attack, but if you can manage both then an Ultra Attack is on the menu which delivers its very own in-game cut sequence to fully depict that type of thrashing your handing out to the unfortunate victim. But that's not all: There's also a whole sequence of unblockable attacks called Focus Attacks which should demand a full round of applause from any spectators in the area.

Capcom has announced that it wants the arcade version out in the public domain before releasing a home version, so there's no official date as yet; but we understand that the first adverts are expected to run at the end of May, in the US at least. Here's hoping a summer of button bashing beat-em'up action awaits us UK gamers too.

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