A small press release just hit my inbox from Capcom announcing that the first Street Fighter 4 commercial (the home made ones you have been seeing on Youtube don’t count) will air this Saturday night at 10pm on CBS durring the EliteXC Saturday Night Fights.

So in addition to rooting for Kimbo Slice (who deserves to be an unlockable character in SF4), you can now sit back and enjoy some Capcom Street Fighter commercial goodness — and for those of you who don’t know who Kimbo is, check out the video after the official announcement below.

FIRST STREET FIGHTER IV COMMERCIAL TO AIR DURING CBS ELITEXC SATURDAY NIGHT FIGHTS MIXED MARTIAL ARTS (MMA) EVENT
New Trailer, Preorder Campaign Kickoff On StreetFighter.com Immediately Following

When: Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 10 PM
Where: CBS (check local listings)

SAN MATEO, CA – May 28, 2008 – Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today announced that the first television commercial for Street Fighter® IV will debut during the CBS EliteXC Saturday Night Fights mixed martial arts (MMA) event. The EliteXC bout takes place on CBS on Saturday, May 31 at 9 PM EST. Immediately following the bout, the Street Fighter IV trailer will debut on the newly redesigned StreetFighter.com, along with the first chance for gamers to preorder Street Fighter IV for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system exclusively through GamesStop.

Street Fighter IV incoming with new characters, environments and stylish moves.  After the announcement of newcomers El Fuerte and Abel, we can share 45 new screenshots with you.

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Source: Xboxygen

What’s the best way to reveal things? Official confirmation? Pffft… How about a random dude just busting out his handy portable camera to take terrible-quality footage of yet-to-be-revealed Street Fighter IV characters at the Taito center in the Akihabara district of Tokyo.

There are tons of guys walking through as this random dude tapes, but you get the vague idea.

According to video uploader RyukyuTwo, as it stands now Balrog is as close to Mike Tyson as we’re ever going to get and still wouldn’t be able to kick if his life depended on it. Our slim and slender Sagat still sports the iconic eye patch and is reportedly the final boss — you’re reward for taking him out is a “Thanks for playing!” screen.

The character models probably look something like this up close

Make sure to watch them quick before Capcom pounces and gets them removed. Either way, these characters can’t be too far from an official announcement.

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The tenth floor of the St. Regis hotel offered up a Street Fighter IV journalist-only tournament, complete with an open bar and enough pizza to satisfy the great E-Honda.

Upon entering the hotel room you are greeted by a loop of Street Fighter II playing on a large wall mounted plasma, two linked arcade units, and plenty of journalists trying to cram in as much practice as they can before the tournament officially kicked off.

The controls were fluid and familiar for the most part. I was the first to step up and try out one of the new characters (Abel) however, I wasn’t “able” to pull off very many of his moves, and with limited practice time, I quickly switched back to the familiar Ken/Ryu approach.

In terms of visuals, the game was flat out beautiful, and there was no need to jog your memory for a comparison to the original, since it was looping on the plasma just a few feet behind you (a stroke of PR genius).

The arcade unit itself is set to be distributed in Japan, and while those in the US can purchase the Japanese version right now on the AOU website, Chris (head of Capcom PR) told me that they are working to bring it to the US on a larger scale. In terms of completion, Chris shared with me that the current build we were playing was about 55% complete, with the major differences over the 50% build being primarily UI related.

GameTap’s Jared Rhea was kicking ass and taking names early on during the practice period, as he and his Street Fighter counterpart (Zangief) proved difficult to dethrone. My money was on Jared to win it all.

As the night went on, the arcade joystick became one with pizza grease, and the competition grew stiff. I managed to make it to the third round of the single elimination bracket before getting my ass handed to me by Mike Jones.

While I didn’t take away the 1st place trophy for best Street Fighter IV journalist in the US, I should have won something for moving the arcade unit at least six inches each time I performed a move — they really should have bolted that puppy down.

Unfortunately, my predicted winner lost in the final round to Dan Boutros — and it broke my heart to hear Jared’s first hand account of a “combo gone bad” later that night at the Will Wright party. Dan was then treated to a special guest match up against the games producer, Yoshinori Ono, where he once again emerged victorious.

No one walked away empty handed, as Capcom gave us all a sweet SFIV grab bags direct from AOU. All-in-all, it was a fun filled event, and thanks go out to Capcom for putting it together.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The undeniable force that is the internet has struck again, with a little help from what appears to be a video recording enabled cell phone.

AUO 08 Footage of the Street Fighter IV game has made it to the web despite Capcom’s best effort to keep things under wraps. No telling how long these two videos will be available before Capcom requests their removal, but you can view them after the jump.

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A little TV background noise while working is usually harmless, but when the Roger Clemens Steroid Congressional Hearing plays through your mind as you admire newly released images of Street Fighter IV characters, bad things can happen.

While sorting through GDC emails and press releases, I randomly found myself listening in to some of the comments being made during the hearing. The majority revolved around steroid use by professional athletes and the effect it has on impressionable children — because we all know that little Jimmy wants to grow up big and strong just like Mark McGwire.

So these thoughts are making their way through my head (along with the always present dancing elves and angry mushrooms) as I click open an email from Capcom. Ten or so images of an immensely muscular character by the name of Abel stare me in the face, and it hits me, videogame characters have become excessively muscular in the past five years or so. Surely they must also negatively impact our “impressionable” youth.

If Congress is genuinely concerned about impressionable children idolizing overly manly men, why stop at pro athletes? Videogame developers inject countless character models with unnecessary muscle mass each day, so how about asking the man behind the mouse to scale back the definition on E Honda’s Abs?

The main characters in Gears of War look like they drink HGH milkshakes for breakfast. Ken and Ryu, of Street Fighter IV, look like they’ve been shooting each other up with roids nonstop since Street Fighter III.

In an article published by USA Today in 2003, the publication reported that 47% of high school males participate in sports — a number that has held steady for nearly a decade. In contrast, according to an article published in 2000 by the Chicago Medill News Service, 84% of all teens play video games, of which 92% are male.

So come on Congress, put that juice caboose into high gear and spend some more of our hard earned tax money, because little Jimmy just may tear down that Mark McGwire poster and decide he wants to grow up big and strong like Ryu!

Update: This is an over the top piece meant to poke fun at the steroid scandal, wasted tax payer dollars, and overly muscled videogame characters. That said, please refrain from forwarding this to a certain lawyer with the initials JT — he may not get the joke.

We hit you with some initial info and screens of Abel, the most recently announced Street Fighter IV Character just a few short hours ago thanks to some Famitsu scans — but wait there’s more.

Capcom just sent us a grab bag of additional content for this giant man in blue, and we feel like sharing. Have at the official bio, art, and several new in game screens after the jump.

ABEL – A Man With No Past
With no memory of his past, this young man has no choice but to move forward, using any clue he can get his hands on to rout out what may be left of Shadaloo. His fighting style represents a mix of multiple martial arts. Though he appears gruff and unfriendly on the surface, he is not the misanthrope he seems to be. His serious and polite nature is easy to misinterpret as indifference, but these still waters run deep indeed.

I not exactly sure how I feel about introducing a man with no memory of his past, but hey — I’m so excited about getting my hands on this game in a few days, that I could honestly care less if they said he was a former American Idol reject.

Street Fighter IV - Abel High Res Art & Screens

9 Photos

 

Capcom has announced that Street Fighter IV will be a playable demo at this years GDC. I must admit that this news is right up there with the end of the writers strike.

As someone who is pushing thirty, I grew up playing Street Fighter in the arcades, and can’t wait to get my hands on this bad boy. A tournament will be held on Thursday night and I will be getting in some much needed practice before then.

Look for us to deliver a hands-on preview of the game as soon as we get back to our hotel later that night. We will be covering just about everything we can get our hands on this year, so if you know of a good caffeinated beverage, send it our way.

Over 60 New Street Fighter IV Images

62 Photos

 

The Famitsu website has released over 60 amazing screenshots of Street Fighter IV in action—and these are much better than the blurry scans that leaked onto the net this week.

This is the best look yet at great new versions of Chun-Li, Guile, Dhalsim, Blanka, E. Honda, Zangief, along with Crimson Viper, that strange new female character in a business suit with a long, red braid. This game looks amazing and we can’t wait to play it ourselves.

Over 60 New Street Fighter IV Images

62 Photos

 

Source: Famitsu

Scans have hit the net (i.e. Neogaf) depicting a fight between two of our favorite street fighter’s, in addition to a new character. Yep, she’s a chick alright. Unfortunately my Japanese is a little rusty, so I can’t decipher exactly what’s going on in the pages below.

Keep in mind that Ono said that multiple new characters would be on the way and it would seem as though Street Fighter IV may be a little further along than he’s previously intimated.