Capcom's Street Fighter series has always existed in a constant state of evolution, particularly in the modern era where software patches and iterative editions have allowed stats and characters to be tweaked and perfected over time.
That doesn't always go down well with players who find their preferred characters changing in terms of power, speed and move sets. With the upcoming release of Ultra Street Fighter IV, Capcom may finally have found a way to make everyone happy.
As revealed in a trailer released at the Southern California regional Street Fighter championship, Ultra will include a new feature called Edition Select. That means from the character select screen you'll be able to choose which version of a character you want to play as. In other words, if you loved Sagat's original version, before his abilities were restricted to level the playing field, you can choose that version.
The only downside is that using older versions of characters will mean you can't use any of the new combat techniques or game mechanics introduced for Ultra, such as Red Focus and Double Ultra.
Ultra Street Fighter IV will be available for consoles in June and for PC in August. It introduces six new stages and five new characters, along with new features like Edition Select. If you already own Super Street Fighter IV or Arcade Edition, it will be offered as a downloadable update, and also as a standalone retail game for new players.