14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Capcom working on the Street Fighter series announces that the upcoming Ultra version of the last installment in the fighting game franchise will include an all-new Select Mode, which is designed to allow gamers to choose which version of their favorite character they are interested in playing.
Basically, gamers can see a list of the versions of the titles that were launched over the years, each of them with its own set of mechanics and tweaks, and decide which version they want to play, mainly in order to settle long-running disputes about the strength of various characters.
In the official announcement, the company explains that “With Edition Select, players can now pick between the Vanilla SFIV, Super SFIV, Super SFIV AE, Super SFIV AE ver. 2012 and Ultra SFIV versions of their favorite character and create matches could only take place in our dreams. Just thinking about Daigo using SFIV Ryu vs. Justin Wong using SSFIV Rufus is getting me pretty hype.”
The video that accompanies the reveal of the Select Mode for Ultra Street Fighter IV makes it pretty clear what kind of issues inside the fan community the development team at Capcom wants to eliminate.
The studio says it is also “extremely excited to see what players with present day knowledge will be able to find out with the older versions of the characters. I can only imagine how many times players have thought, ‘if I could go back in time with the knowledge I have now, I would do so much damage.’ Until a time machine is invented, this will have to suffice.”
It will be interesting to see how the very dedicated Street Fighter community uses the new options in order to create definitive power rankings for the various included characters.
The Ultra version of the fighting game will also be used for tournaments, and the organizers will have to find a way to incorporate the Select Mode or ban it altogether.
Capcom has promised that the Ultra release for Street Fighter IV is designed to offer the definitive version of the title and that it will also deliver update to make sure that the balance of the experience is just right.
Gamers will be able to test the game before it is launched in select locations and offer their feedback, which will be taken into account before final launch.
Ultra Street Fighter IV will be offered in arcades in April of this year, on home consoles in June, while the PC version is delayed to August.