Super Street Fighter IV

A year after the series' successful relaunch, Capcom released Super Street Fighter IV as a separately sold, improved version of the base game, rather than just downloadable content. A move that seems unusual today was fairly common for fighting games at the time - Capcom was responding to the community's wish to have a single, definitive version of the game for future tournaments instead of splitting the player base between old and new content. Super Street Fighter IV therefore contains the complete content of the original game and significantly expands on it.

The most notable change is ten new fighters, bringing the roster up to twenty-five characters - veterans like T. Hawk, Dee Jay, Guy, Cody, and Adon returned, Ibuki, Makoto, and Dudley crossed over from Street Fighter III, and two entirely new faces were added, the mysterious Juri and the Turkish wrestler Hakan. Each character also gained a second selectable Ultra Combo, expanding the possibilities for playstyle and match tactics. Capcom also reworked the netcode and online modes, adding tournament tools and the ability to watch other players' matches, which made the game the standard for the rapidly growing professional fighting game tournament scene of the time.

Besides the new fighters, the balance of all the characters from the base game was also adjusted based on feedback from tournaments, so the ranking of fighters' strength changed significantly compared to the original IV. New modes like the Replay Channel for watching and saving other players' matches, or improved training with the ability to record custom attack sequences, further made it easier for players to improve outside of live matches, and thanks to this, Super Street Fighter IV became the standard choice for major tournaments like the Evolution Championship Series for several more years.

Why play it: Super Street Fighter IV is especially worth it for players who want the widest possible roster of fighters and a deeper combat system compared to the base IV - it practically replaces the original game and became the reference version for tournaments and online matches for several years.