Street Fighter V: Reviews roundup and the Alphr rundown of what you need to know

Street Fighter V is a world apart from its original incarnation nearly 30 years ago as Street Fighter in 1987. While it may only be the fifth main entry into the series, it’s actually the 17th title bearing the Street Fighter name.

However, since the series successful reincarnation of the 2D-fighter genre with Street Fighter IV at the hands of Yoshinori Ono, all eyes are on Street Fighter V to redefine the genre once more. While Ono is, as always, extremely passionate and sure of the series’ success, we’ll find out how it really holds up in the competition circuit on release.

For now, here’s everything we know about Street Fighter V.

Street Fighter V: Release Date and reviews

Street Fighter V is now available on PC and PlayStation 4, sorry Xbox one players, you won’t be able to pick it up anytime soon as Sony helped bankroll the project.

If you’re wondering whether it’s worth picking up a copy of Street Fighter V, here’s a quick roundup of the reviews from across the web:

• Destructoid = 8
• The Guardian = N/A
• RockPaperShotgun = N/A
• GameSpot = Score pending online test
• IGN = 8
• GamesRadar+ = 4.5/5
• PCGamer = N/A
• USGamer = 3.5/5

Street Fighter V: Gameplay

From a gameplay perspective, everything about Street Fighter V has changed, yet it’s still managed to retain the core of what makes Street Fighter, Street Fighter.

Just like Street Fighter IV and its various incarnations, Street Fighter V keeps those gorgeous 3D models viewed side on, continuing the series penchant for incredible close ups and artistic K.O. freeze frames. However, this time around Ono has decided to trim back the fat, creating a mechanically leaner and cleaner fighter.

While the EX Gauge, first introduced in Street Fighter III is still present, SFIV’s Focus Attacks are gone. One reason for their removal is down to how Ono sees Street Fighter V compared to its predecessor. In an interview with Edge Ono explained how he sees the sequel as a means to grow the passion people have with SFIV to a new audience.

Ono believes that Street Fighter V is far easier to get to grips with than IV ever was, and because of that there’s been a lot of changes to how characters play and how to utilise powerful moves. One such example of this is how Chun-Li’s Hyakuretsukyaku is now mapped to the same input as Ryu’s Hadouken, except with a kick instead of a punch.

V-Gauge, stuns and special moves

In terms of special attacks and building up your power meter, Ono decided it was time to simplify things and instead bundle them up into the V-Gauge system. While it sounds complex, what with the likes of V-Skills, V-Reversals and V-Triggers, it’s all rather simple.

Firstly, you build up your V-Gauge by both dealing damage and taking it, meaning even noobs can dish out some punishment if they’re being backed into a corner. One way to build up your V-Gauge is through utilising character-specific V-Skills. While some of these attacks will be great for defense, such as Ryu’s ability to parry attacks or M. Bison’s skill of reflecting projectiles, others are perfect for landing a quick blow on your opponent. If successful, a chunk of your V-Gauge will be filled.

[gallery:6]

It’s worth building up your V-Gauge as V-Reversals rely upon it to ensure you can counter incoming attacks without spamming the ability. However, if you’d rather save your V-Gauge up for one big attack, V-Triggers let you do just that. Using up the entirety of your gauge, V-Triggers boost all of your attacks, such as sneaking in an extra few kicks on the end of Chun-Li’s combos or empowering Ryu’s energy balls with more power.

If that wasn’t enough, Capcom has also decided it was wise to bring Street Fighter III’s stun meter front and centre once more. Now situated underneath your fighter’s health bar, it’s even easier to see how long before your character becomes stunned and thus immobile. Ono hopes that, in making this more visible, it’ll encourage players to play more offensively to ensure they aren’t K.O.ed.

Game modes

As with every entry in the series so far, Street Fighter V will also have various modes for you to play through alongside the traditional Arcade, Versus and Online Versus options.

While we’ll get into the meat of it in the next section, one new mode available is a Story mode. This plays out similarly to Arcade mode, albeit with an overarching narrative structure to hold it all together.

If you’d prefer something a bit different, there’s a Survival Mode which sees you fight against the computer in a set of increasingly difficult bouts. After each match your EX Gauge and health will carry over, so the aim is to, uh, survive… You’ll also be able to purchase power ups using points earned through battle allowing you to last for longer. However, purchasing these bonuses damages your overall score, so if you want to hit the top of the leaderboards you’ve got to do it unassisted.

Next up is Street Fighter V’s Challenge Mode, which actually consists of 4 sub-modes: Battle Tips, Trials, Targets and Extra Battle.

Battle Tips is, essentially, a training and tutorial mode for fighters looking to brush up on their skills; whereas Trials provides you with a set of challenges to complete to prove your worth as a combatant. Targets is a daily challenge that rewards you with in-game titles, fight money and various other bonuses and Extra Battle pits you against special computer-controlled bosses for those who really want to test themselves.

While Challenge Mode may sound like a lot of content to churn through, it’s actually not going to launch alongside Street Fighter V’s February release, instead arriving in March or “soon after launch”.

Street Fighter V: Story

Wondering what the storyline for Street Fighter V is? Well, while we’re completely flummoxed as to why you think that’s even vaguely important in something like Street Fighter, Capcom has actually tried to put together a story mode for its fans.

While very little is actually known about it, we do know that it is set to bridge the gap between Street Fighter III and Street Fighter IV, with M. Bison and Shadaloo being the main antagonists. The game’s Arcade mode will also reveal how each character links into the main story too.

Interestingly, upon completing each character’s story, you’ll then be able to purchase their Story Mode costumes from the in-game store once it launches in March.

A series of Story Mode videos for each character have been leaked online (which you can find via AllGamesBeta) but in the interests of not wanting to spoil it for everyone, we’re not going to embed them here.