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Throughout Street Fighter’s long, illustrious history, it’s always been a somewhat hardcore experience, with complex command inputs and combos to master.
But that may not always be so. Japanese publisher Capcom may broaden the appeal of the iconic fighting game series with the introduction of more casual-focused Street Fighter experiences that make use of upcoming motion-sensing technologies.
According to producer Yoshinori Ono, while motion-sensing “doesn’t fit” with Street Fighter in its current form, titles along the lines of a “Street Fighter Fit” and “Street Fighter Exercise” are a “possibility”.
“I’ve been interested in motion-sensing for a while, ever since Wii was launched,” Ono told VideoGamer.com at a recent preview event in London.
“But I don’t think it fits the way Street Fighter is played at the moment. It does broaden the appeal to casual users simply because of the instinctive controls, but it just doesn’t quite fit an intricately balanced game such as Street Fighter.
“Now, there is a possibility of doing something called Street Fighter Fit, or Street Fighter Exercise, that is more suited for motion-sensing games, but that would obviously be a slightly different-themed game.”
Hardcore fans will, of course, turn their noses up at the suggestion of casual-focused Street Fighter games, but Ono insists such talk is only part of a wider effort to lower the barrier to entry many face when getting to grips with the Street Fighter series.
“Does that mean we’re going to do Street Fighter V straight away?” Ono said in response to questions around what’s next for the series.
“Now I’m not sure about that just yet, because with Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV I don’t think we’ve managed to pick up all those people who’ve never played fighting games. We’ve managed to pick up some of the people who used to play Street Fighter II, but not all of them, and I don’t think we’ve managed to pick up those who’ve never played fighting games.
“So what we would like to do is lower the entry barrier for those who have never played the fighting genre before so we can convey that fighting games are a good tool, a good fun thing to have per family. That’s what I’ll be thinking about in the next few months.”
Ono went on to explain exactly what he meant by broadening the appeal of Street Fighter.
“Where hardcore players are at the moment, with all their hyper super techniques, that seems to isolate themselves from the rest of the players. What I want to do is connect those people and casual players together so that the progression is a bit more continuous than it is at the moment, where a few of the elitists deem their skills amazing and don’t want to play with other people.”
Check back later in the week for our interview with Yoshinori Ono in full. Super Street Fighter IV is due out on the Xbox 360 and PS3 on April 30. For a hands-on preview, hit up our game page.
