Watch Street Fighter V in action for the very first time

STREET FIGHTER V BRU! STREEEEET FIGHTER V! ROAD BRAWLER VYF! ASPHALT CLOBBERER VYFSTER! TAR BLIKSEMER FOIVE GUV’NAH! HIGHWAY SMACKDOWN V!

Holy crap, am I amped for a new Street Fighter game. And thankfully, there’s one on the way, a game that’s making me jump up and down like a One Direction fan while Geoff weeps tears of joy. Over the weekend, Capcom debuted the game proper, giving players a look at the first-ever match in Street Fighter V between series star Ryu and thighs of steel spokesperson Chun Li. Here’s what it looked like:

And here’s an extended cut trailer which teases the return of the Sean Bean of video game characters, Charlie Nash:

So how is this version of Street Fighter V really different? To the untrained eye, it looks exactly the same as Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV and Ultra Mega Turducken Festive Happy Hanukah Street Fighter IV. Well a quick observation shows a number of changes. First of all, the user interface has been slimmed down tremendously. Less clutter, more real estate with which to focus on characters.

Then there’s the actual animation and visuals of the game. They’re leagues ahead of the previous Street Fighter games, with the characters rippling with subtle details. It’s clearly been tweaked, with more detail and a better lighting system. The actual characters could benefit from standing out just a touch more, but there’s plenty of time to go before the game launches.

Attacks also seem to carry more weight behind them, with quick jabs being ignored while heavier attacks send characters flying. Chip damage looks to be easy to recover from, backward dashing appears to have a shorter reach now, parrying appears to be out and the EX meter allows you to enter a brief charged-up state to deal what I would assume to be extra damage.

Then you’ve got the Revenge meter, which is what will be used to build up Ultra attacks by the look of things. Last, but certainly not least: The final blow has to be clean. No chip damage attacks by the look of things. Holy crap, I am getting excited now for Street Fighter V. It’ll be out… eventually. Expect plenty of changes between now and then.

Last Updated: December 15, 2014