Like it or not, incremental updates are a Street Fighter tradition. Capcom always expands each game in the series by adding new characters, balancing the roster, and tweaking the gameplay. This pursuit for perfection can be slow, and the changes may go unnoticed, but the effort eventually pays off. Series' favorites Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Street Fighter 3: Third Strike are a direct result of work completed over multiple iterations. And with Super Street Fighter 4, Capcom continues this tradition, aiming to make it more than a slight upgrade.
Capcom gave 1UP a demonstration of Super SF4 recently, and let us play three of the new characters: T. Hawk, Dee Jay, and Juri. Dee Jay plays a lot like he did in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, possessing a deadly combination of fireball zoning and ambiguous cross-ups. He retains all of his signature specials moves, including the Max Out fireball, Sobat, Machine Gun Punch, and Jackknife. We didn't notice any new special moves (at least not at this point in development), but we did notice the strength of his EX Sobat. Sobat is a multihitting charge-based kick that travels across the stage, and is used in gaining on the opponent while on the offensive. Interestingly, the EX version contains a lot of invincibility on its startup, which allows Dee Jay players to blow through the opponent's attack without getting hit. The invincibility period is not as big as, say, Rufus' EX Messiah Kick, but enough to be a major threat. Even better, a successful EX Sobat knocks the opponent into a crumpled state, which can lead into another combo opportunity, like another EX Sobat.
