Creating another installment for such a well-known franchise so many years after the last resulted in alot pressure for Capcom to bring results to the table. With such a long gap between Street Fighter 3 and 4, fans had left the franchise behind them after the technical and difficult to master third installment. It was up to Capcom to bring these fans back, who may not have played a Street Fighter game in almost a decade, with an exciting and accessible new game [2]. "Street Fighter IV was officially announced in October 2007, ten years after III's debut, instantly doubling the pressure on Ono, then doubling it again as media focus narrowed on him personally" [5].
It's interesting to note that Ono thinks that production on the franchise could have finished after Street Fighter 3, "we did pretty much all we could do with 2D fighters by the time we got to III." [3]. Hopes for a new Street Fighter game would have to wait, for many reasons. "In the beginning we were not exactly sure which direction to go. Should we stick to something entirely new? Should we stick to the roots?" [3]. The long time-frame that followed Street Fighter 3 was partly due to indecision in the production of the follow-up. People had moved onto other fighting games on the market which utilized 3D. How would Street Fighter embrace this new era of video games while retaining the trademark gameplay and characterization of the franchise? Instead of creating another game immediately to respond to this, Capcom left Street Fighter for the time being to concentrate on other projects and genres that were growing in popularity.
"Another reason I think that it's actually better that we let it sit on the back burner for ten years, is that technology has advanced so much in the last decade." [3]. The quest for a successful 3D fighter was populated by many fighters around the time that the last installment of Street Fighter was released. Even though the EX series dipped its toe into the 3D pool with partially successful results, Capcom saw that to make a game that would live up to their expectations while in-keeping with the well-known framework of the previous games, they would have to wait for technology to catch up. To create the iconic characters of the series faithfully in 3D as well as possible, technology would have to accommodate this. With the release of the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 it was now possible to make the game that they hoped to make.
In a way, the conception of Street Fighter 4 brought the franchise full circle. In order to open the game to an audience who may never have played a Street Fighter before, those who are too young to remember the golden years or just new gamers, while bringing the hardcore fans back for more, Capcom decided to base the game on influences from the past. Instead of creating a game similar to any other fighter on the market today, Capcom stuck to a plan of gameplay that was already introduced as early as Street Fighter 2. "We haven't done anything terribly special. What we really need to do if we want brand new people playing fighting games, is we need to simplify things to the point where they no longer have to rely on looking at the manual." [4]. This stems directly from the aforementioned technical monster that was Street Fighter 3. To improve the franchise, simplicity would be key by referring back to the games of the 90s, before 3D fighting games took hold of the genre. "Basically what you're seeing is a result of the influence of the best parts of those games from back then, so it's not your imagination if it feels a bit like Fatal Fury here and there, or even some other game. We were very strongly influenced by the history of the fighting game heyday." [3]. By looking at the best games at that time, the creators of Street Fighter 4 tried to fix the wrong parts of certain games and took the best parts of others, with simplicity and appeal in mind, a surefire way to bring fans back to the ailing franchise with a taste of nostalgia. By using the same character designs that were used in Street Fighter 2, players would hopefully think that even though the platform and technology had changed, the franchise and gameplay would still be the same as it was back then. Nostalgia sells, and it seemed that Capcom noticed this. By waiting many years to release Street Fighter 4, people would look forward to playing the new version of the game that they loved years before, by making it so similar to Street Fighter 2. Thorough market research was carried out and fan favourites were included (voted by the players themselves), with the inclusion of a lower number of new characters than usual [5]. Gouken, the character everyone thought was playable years before, finally was a character that could be used. It was as though Capcom noticed Street Fighter 3 did not perform as well generally with their audience, so the new game focused much more on the golden age of the series, with no characters from the third installment.
The advertising campaign that was created for Street Fighter 4 reflected the nostalgic angle the game hoped to accomplish. Above shows one of the many ads that were made, referencing Chun-Li's lightning kick where the player would repeatedly tap the kick button to perform it. "The ads are playful, mischievous, very funny and packed to the brim with the arcade nostalgia that this title is gorging upon. Slogans such as “Return of the 15ft Pimpslap”, “To Haduoken or not to Haduoken” and “Reach Out and Punch Somebody” capture that cartoon violence and essence of fun that remains utterly unique within the Beat ‘Em Up genre..." [6]. The ads are fueled by the cultural capital of the franchise, filled with intertextual references of the days of Street Fighter 2 and the arcade explosion it created.
[1] Stephen Kleckner, Street Fighter IV Preview, 21/02/08, retrieved 18/12/09
[2] Brandon Sheffield, Saving Street Fighter: Yoshi Ono on Building Street Fighter IV, Page 1, 26/09/08, retrieved 19/12/09
[3] Christian Nutt, Q&A: Yoshi Ono On Bringing Back Street Fighter, 20/03/08, retrieved 19/12/09
[4] Brandon Sheffield, Saving Street Fighter: Yoshi Ono on Building Street Fighter IV, Page 5, 26/09/08, retrieved 22/12/09
[5] Rus McLaughlin, IGN Presents the History of Street Fighter, Page 8, 16/02/09, retrieved 22/12/09
[6] Thom Dinsdale, Street Fighter IV Advertising Punching Above Its Weight, 03/11/08, retrieved 01/01/10
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