With the screenshots and interviews ringing in this new year of gaming, one thing is clear:
Street Fighter IV is coming.

Nothing can stop it.

For many fans of Street Fighter, it's like Christmas never stopped. Ryu and Ken are back
for another round of hurricane kicks in an actual sequel, the game is already showing signs
of playability, and SFIV is going back to its 90's-era roots. Young and old gamers have
been asking for this game since they can remember (including myself, at one point in
time), and the dream has finally been cast.

But does the world really need Street Fighter IV?



As a long-time Capcom fan and Street Fighter veteran, I now say no.

Why? Well, there's a lot of different reasons. Some are easy to explain, some are
harder to justify. I can only offer my honesty and ask forgiveness for such simple-minded
words.

Street Fighter III (Third Strike) should be the last true SF sequel, for it is a perfect
game.

That's right: perfect. Excellent graphics, the world's most sophisticated 2D hit-
detection, a roster full of wacky characters, selectable Super Arts, and smooth-as-silk
sprite animations are what establish Third Strike as the King of Fighters.

(See what I did there?)

That's one major reason why I can't stand to see another Street Fighter getting
so much attention. Is it jealousy on my part? Maybe so. Looking back at the multiple
releases of Street Fighter III, it's easy to see how it undersold, yet it still bitters my heart.

For one thing, the Dreamcast never caught the massive popularity that it needed to survive.
Double Impact and Third Strike suffered as result, cast aside in a world that had been
rendered dumbstruck by Tekkens and Soul Calibur. I can personally
guarantee that if Street Fighter III had ever been released on the first PlayStation, it
could've become the highest-selling fighting game of the 90's.

Just like the Dreamcast was misunderstood and unloved, Street Fighter III had been
doomed to temporary obscurity. One by one, we all migrated to other franchises when SF
had peaked. Years later, most gamers who remember their first Hadoken agree that
Street Fighter III was the last great 2D fighting game.

(Although it's neither here nor there, plenty of gamers will always argue such praise for
Mark Of The Wolves, considered by many to be the SNK equivalent to SF Third
Strike. I can only say that such games are beyond the current era, kept alive only by old
fighters and wannabe-arcade kings like myself.)

- KN1