Originally, I was going to re-write one of my earlier articles for Michael Rousseau’s Fog of War challenge, but even my earliest articles met the requirements for the challenge.  Instead, I’ll compare the first draft of my work – the one I usually post on Bitmob’s article editor to ferment a little – with my Final Draft.

Also, please read both articles. Normally the first article would never reach the Mobfeed.

Thanks to downloadable content, not even a release date can end the possibilities of new characters for Super Street Fighter 4. Recently, professional Street Fighter player Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez posted on his Twitter that he had a “strong source” who said Capcom was working on new characters for SSF4.

While someone’s Twitter isn’t the most-trustworthy news source, there have been interviews where the developers said DLC characters are possible, and the game does have an arcade release coming up.  If that’s the case, I do have a request: Don’t mine Street Fighter Alpha or Street Fighter 3 for more characters. They’ll be redundant, cause dissension, and be disappointing.

Redundancy

No two characters play alike, but a character should have a reason for being in the game.  Take Hugo, a character producer Yoshinori Ono mentioned in interviews as a possible character.  Hugo is a giant wrestler from the Street Fighter 3 series, and while showing up in SSF4 would be great for Hugo fans, there’s really no need for him with Zangief and T. Hawk already in the game.

Even with different moves, Hugo’s gameplan is the same “get close and destroy” as the other two, and he would have almost the same good and bad match ups.  This goes for a lot of possible characters as well.  Meanwhile, SF4’s completely new characters like C. Viper, Gouken, Juri, and Hakan have been very good at doing things other characters haven’t done before.      

Unpleaseable Fanbase

SSF4 added 10 new characters, a big feat for a fighting game released one year after the original.  The eight returning characters also made sense: Dee Jay and T. Hawk were the last of the Street Fighter 2 characters.  Guy and Cody have been popular since their Final Fight days.  Thai fighter Adon brought the speed people wanted from the Alpha games.  Dudley, Ibuki, and Makoto were some of the most popular characters from Street Fighter 3.

After that though the case for who should return gets murky.  Some want more Alpha characters, others want more from SF3.  Some want competitive favorites like Alpha’s Karin or SF3’s Urien.  Others want storyline favorites like Charlie and Alex. Even obscure characters like Birdie and Q have their supporters.  No matter who gets into the game, someone’s going to be disappointed, and it only increases the demand that these characters be near the top of the character rankings.

Unrealistic Expectations

“Honestly, Dudley has no real weaknesses.”

Seth Killian, EGM no. 238 pg. 54

Dudley was deemed to be the best new character in SSF4 before it even came out.  And he still may be, but after release there’s been a drop in hype for him.  Dudley has trouble matching up against fireball characters, and his defense isn’t as good as Ryu’s or Sagat’s.  What happened?

Street Fighter 4 is the opposite of SF3 and Alpha:  Fireballs are bigger factors in SF4, and you can’t defend attacks in the air.  With all the tools Dudley was getting, like an easy-to-hit Ultra Combo and above-average health, he seemed destined to be the new Sagat, the best character in the original SF4. 

In reality, Dudley was moving from Formula 1 to NASCAR, and needed those weapons to survive. That’s the big question mark when you’re porting any character from one gameplay system to another – what makes a character great in one game may make him or her average in another. 

Is a mobile character like Alpha’s Rolento going to thrive in a game with strong fireballs and anti-airs? Will Karin get the “custom combo” ability that made her dangerous in Street Fighter Alpha 3, and would it be effective with SF4’s physics and damage scaling? These characters are by design harder to use than Sagat or Ryu, but to be good competitively people expect a new character to have those fighter's tools.  

The New Breed

The best new-old candidate would probably be SF3’s stretchy Russian, Necro. More than a Dhalsim clone, Necro’s versatile moves have potential and would benefit from SF4’s mechanics and slower pace. But Necro is an unpopular freak whose design is often blamed for Street Fighter’s decline in the 90s.  And if Necro isn’t S-rank I’ll be mad I didn’t get a chance to send my capoeira girl Elena off to die against Sagat, and then blame it on a conspiracy to make the new characters worse than the old ones.

Juri and Hakan shows that Capcom still knows how to make interesting characters. I’d rather see a real new challenger instead of the ghosts of Street Fighters past.

Results

Flesch Reading Ease: 60.83 PASSED

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 9.49 PASSED

Gunning Fog Index: 13.49 FAILlED

Curses!  I use the word “character” way too much. In any case, I’m still not satisfied with the article. A lot of my arguments are not fully explained, use bad examples, or are too technical for the average reader. Let’s fix this one.