The upside of hype (New Street Fighter IV character)

The AOU show is going to be in a unique position this coming weekend that it hasn't faced in wide numbers for the last couple of years. Due to the planned release of Street Fighter IV in arcades, several western video game media outlets are planning on sending staff members over to Tokyo to report on the event. This isn't necessarily a bad thing per se, but considering that most of the pre-show focus by these outlets seems to be solely on Street Fighter IV, I'm curious to watch and see just how much coverage is dedicated to some of the other, non-Street Fighter titles at the event.

There is enough there that I would presume would interest their readers (me being one of them). Arc System Works, Namco Bandai, Sega, Capcom, and SNK Playmore all have high profile releases in the works. This would be the perfect opportunity for English audiences to get a full and dedicated coverage of the show that was lacking at both the 45th AM show and AOU 2007 show. All these media outlets really have to do is take advantage of the opportunity they already have and spread their coverage further than just Capcom's corner of the event. We'll see how it turns out in the end though...

With that said, IGN has just released some new media of the latest revealed Street Fighter IV character, Abel. Abel is being described as "a man without a past" who is currently searching for clues and the remaining members of Shadoloo. According to the article posted, IGN is stating that Abel will be playable at AOU alongside Crimson Viper and all of the original 8 World Warriors. A rather good selection of characters that should give everyone a nice cross view of how the game is shaping up...

I don't necessarily dislike Abel's look, but there is something a bit disinteresting about him. There just doesn't seem to be much inspiration in the design.

In addition to the AOU 2008 event, the arcade build being showcased will also be present at GDC according to Capcom. Kotaku has mentioned that a tournament is being planned for a "select" group at the event, so we can expect quite a bit of Street Fighter IV coverage over the next two weeks. I'm eager to see if some Street Fighter veterans can get their hands on the title to really give some gritty impressions of the game, since most of what we have received so far has been from fans, but not necessarily "experts".

[Discuss on Forums]