Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition, what we know.

In case you haven't heard, Nintendo is getting ready to release the next evolution of the DS hardware, appropriately titled the 3DS. If you haven't heard about the details of the system you can check here or just Google it. The specs of the system are floating around everywhere.

What I want to talk about is what we know so far about one of the launch titles, Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition.

Game version:

Right so obviously this is "3D Edition" but the base they are using is the current console version of Super Street Fighter IV. This was confirmed by Yoshinori Ono on his Twitter account. It's unfortunate that we wont be getting the Arcade Edition updates on the handheld version, but hopefully they'll change their minds.

New features:

The game will be presented in 3D much like the other 3DS titles. What this means is that the top screen where gameplay occurs will be presented using stereoscopic imaging. This dual imaging tricks the human eyes into seeing a 3 dimensional image by dividing the image amongst both of your eyes. What this does for Street Fighter is purely cosmetic. Flames from the fireballs will appear to extend off of the screen at you, etc. Of course this can be turned off if you don't like it.

You can play the game in from a 2D camera angle much like you do on Xbox 360 or PS3, but you can also play with an over the shoulder view they are calling "3D view". You can see an example of this at the beginning of this trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGdJc1Qm9DE">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGdJc1Qm9DE. All inputs will be exactly the same as if you were playing the game in 2D mode. Of course this is all optional too.

The bottom screen is being used for easy input specials and ultras. You can assign what you would like to use on the bottom screen, like each of your specials, or you could just have it be one giant ultra button. This will be especially handy for those of us who play on arcade sticks and aren't used to pad play.

Game modes:

This version is supposed to include full online play mode. Meaning you can play strangers in player matches or ranked battles online. Unfortunately your friends list will be handled through an annoying friends code system (c'mon Nintendo, it's 2011!). Thankfully you can play strangers without having to know friend codes and all that. Lobbies with spectators are supposed to be included too, for online play and local play if you and your buddies want to let the game handle the player order.

Figure mode - this is something new to the game and there's not too much known about it. From playing you unlock figurines of the characters (usually the in-game models of the characters, much like smash bros.) You can trade them amongst your friends, or put your game in "figure mode sleep ". What happens is if you run into anyone else with their game in sleep mode your figure collections will battle it out (somehow, I'm not sure how the game will decide a winner). If you win your battles you will be awarded with more figures.

Arcade standby - Just like what we have with the consoles; you can play arcade mode while you wait for challengers. If someone else with the game is near by, a local vs. match will automatically start. It's not been revealed yet as to whether or not this is possible in online mode. I would imagine so.

Things I'm hoping for:

Of course I would like for the new characters and balance changes from the new Arcade Edition to be included. We'll just have to keep pestering Ono.

I would also like a gallery mode so you can view the character's endings again without having to beat the game with them again. I thought it was odd that you could in SFIV but not in Super SFIV, hopefully they'll acknowledge this mistake for 3DS.

Trailers:





Other videos: