While at the Game Convention in Leipzig, 1up got the chance to catch up with Yoshinori Ono, Producer of Street Fighter 4 (whose home version was first playable at GC on the 360) and pry some information loose from him during an interview.
1UP: How about the new characters for the console version? Have you figured them all out yet?
YO: As you know, we allowed people to vote on which character they most wanted to see in the console version, and Cammy won, so she’s definitely in the game. We have a rough version of her already up and running. Akuma came in second or third, and we’ve already included him in the arcade game. Figuring out the right number of characters is a lot like chess. You need to know the rules well, and things need to be balanced properly. We’ll see what we ultimately end up with.
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1UP: So you only have the Xbox 360 version playable here at Leipzig. Is that your lead platform?YO: No, the 360 isn’t particularly the lead platform, but since the show is in Germany we figured we’d go with Xbox 360. There’s some other show coming up where we’ll likely focus on PS3 [Smiles]. [That’s October’s Tokyo Game Show, in case you didn’t pick up on it. –Ed.]
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1UP: Are you going to have a demo for Street Fighter 4 on Xbox Live or PSN?YO: At the moment, we’re under pressure to get both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions done at the same and to finish them up, so at the moment, we unfortunately don’t have plans to.
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1UP: How about Sheng Long? [Capcom has hinted that the famous EGM April Fools’ joke character is actually in the game –Ed.]YO: Are you coming to the Tokyo Game Show? How about you ask me that question again then. [Smiles]
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1UP: So one thing that seems to not really get talked about by you guys is the fact that the Japanese developer Dimps helped with the making of the game. Why is that?YO: Well, it wasn’t that we were necessarily hiding that fact, but it’s that we didn’t really view them as an external developer in the traditional sense. Takashi Nishiyama, the guy who started Dimps and still runs the studio, used to work at Capcom years ago, and he was actually one of the developers on the original Street Fighter. After he did that game, he left Capcom and set up that studio. He still totally has Capcom blood in him, though, and we still view him as one of the team. The same goes for some of the others there. In fact, Nishiyama was one of the guys who helped make the Street Fighter 4 project happen. So the way it works is that we handle all of the art, characters, and game design within Capcom, and they handle the programming and balancing. But it really is a true Capcom game through and through, no matter how you look at it.
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1UP: There’s been some talk from Capcom — I can’t remember if it was you or someone else who said this — that if there’s enough demand for it, a Wii version of Street Fighter 4 could be possible. So where are you with things now? How would you view a Street Fighter game on the Wii — would you keep it as “Street Fighter 4” or do some sort of “Street Fighter Kids”?YO: Yeah, it’s definitely true that we’ve had a lot of requests for a port for the Wii. And it’s definitely doable. We just don’t have any plans for it yet, that’s all. If we feel strongly enough that it would sell, I’d imagine we’d do it. But it definitely would be Street Fighter 4 — not some dumbed down version.
In addition, with the recent upcropping of characters from other franchises appearing in fighting games, Ono was asked what he thought of the trend:
Well, we started it with X-Men vs. Street Fighter back in the day, so we’re probably not in the best position to criticize those guys. [Laughs] But, honestly, fighting games may not be as popular as they used to be, so if they need to use those other characters to get attention, go for it. For us, since it’s been over a decade since a proper Street Fighter sequel, we just wanted to focus on our core game and characters and see where that takes us.
Pity there won’t be a demo, but I get the feeling that anyone who knows Street Fighter won’t really need one.
And it’s good to know Cammy is coming back for sure now; I wonder if she’ll be keeping her Street Fighter II attire, or sport another outfit.
