Street Fighter V – Launch Party
Adam: It was with great pleasure that we at Player2, had the opportunity to attend the official Street Fighter V launch in Sydney last Thursday. A night filled with food, drinks, people and of course, video games! The venue was also attended by some of the very best Street Fighter players in Australia, some of which we had the pleasure of playing (read: losing) against.
Jenn: I walked into the venue and made a beeline straight for the bar. With my free wine in hand I took in the atmosphere around me, and was pretty happy with what I saw. The gallery, the food and the wait staff had all been themed around the Street Fighter game, and everything looked fantastic! Munching on a prawn cocktail, I decided to make my way over to the arcade machines to see what all the fuss was about.
Adam: The game itself was looking like its final build with F.A.N.G. being available to in the character selection screen and it was playing quite lovely. It’s fairly clear that SFV is vastly different from previous titles despite holding some similarities. Frame trapping and crush counters, along with fierce fundamentals appear to be gap closer at this stage. But since we’re all so new to this title, it’s impossible to say at this stage what tech will start defining the better players around the world.
Jenn: Keeping with the traditional Street Fighter aesthetic, the new game looks fantastic. Characters are crisp, environments are ambient and a lot of the niggling annoyances in the control scheme have been simplified. This was something I (as someone admittedly not fantastic at fighting games) really appreciated. The title offers something for the die hard fans (of which there are many) but also brings to the table something for newcomers as well.
Adam: Some news that dropped just prior to this was that there will be a new character dropped every month since release, up until September 2016. All of which can be bought with money earned simply from playing, the first of which will be Alex (last seen in Street Fighter 3 – Third Strike) and rumours that the second will be Balrog.
Jenn: Did I mention that there was free wine? Because there was and that’s why I have nothing else to add to this paragraph. I was too busy trying to chase down the guy cosplaying as Vega and find out what was under his mask.
Adam: I guess at this stage we’ll simply need to play the waiting game. The game itself drops on Tuesday – Feb 16th!
Jenn: Cheers to Street Fighter!
Jenn Christodolou and Adam Rorke
