I'm enjoying the hell out of the gameplay, mostly because of deja vu and nostalgia, I'll bet. It's even got the "Haha you suck!" moment, starting at Fight 4 where suddenly the difficulty gets dialed up to 11 and the computer becomes a cheating bastard.

Street Fighter has *always* had that.

But as far as new characters go... I rather like C. Viper (if she'd only lose the absurd hairstyle), though only from a mechanics perspective. Well, and looks, if I'm being honest. Abel pisses me off at the moment but I suspect I'll come to like him once I figure out how to play him properly. If his treatment of me when he's controlled by the CPU is any indication, he's a cheap-ass mofo with a throw range and priority that puts Zangief to shame. And I laugh my ass off every time El Feurte appears, but ... well, he seems to be the comic relief.

What I dislike the most is what the art shift has done to the existing characters. Ryu and Ken are supposed to be beefcake manly men, okay, I get that, but good god, they're not sporting six-packs, they're sporting the 7-11 beer cooler. And what. the fuck. is wrong with Chun-Li's head?

I mean, they're not horribly disfigured, but they're *wrong* all the same.

--sofaspud
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