• Absecon, New Jersey: Jersey Shoreyuken, March 20. Live Stream in HD by Console Warzone and the Nerd Palace. SF4 tournament starts at 2 p.m. EST. Also, there's a promo video showing how the venue will be set up.

• Brooklyn, New York: BattleField Arcadia Special "Double Impact", March 20. There will be a live stream provided by Frame-Advantage.com. SF4 tourney begins at 2 p.m. EST.

• Denton, Texas: Southern Entertainment eXpo, March 20. Live stream available here, 3:30 p.m. CST start time for Street Fighter 4.

• Anchorage, Alaska: Senshi-Con 2010, March 20-21.

• Reno, Nevada: Reno Revolution, March 20-21.

• Daytona Beach, Florida: Project Storm 3, March 19-21.

Will there be another Street Fighter Club in San Francisco? The GDC one was super exclusive and hard to get into.

Seth Killian: No plans for a fight club in San Francisco right now, although we will be doing something very cool for the game around launch.

As for the event during [the] Game Developers Conference, yes, this wasn't really a "fight club" at all — more like a press event that I was able to squeeze a few Street Fighter [players] into, plus SFIV [on the] iPhone. I didn't want to talk much about it because it seemed like kind of a tease, and I don't like the things I can't get bunches of people into...

Marn's Tier Rankings

• Ryu — TvC: Ultimate All-Stars Guide

• Ippatsuman — TvC: Ultimate All-Stars Guide

• Jun The Swan — TvC: Ultimate All-Stars Guide

Is Ultra selection in Super Street Fighter 4 blind? If so, I don't think it's necessary. The purpose of these new Ultras are for players to adapt to a play style of their liking, making them blind sort of disputes that. Will that apply to player matches as well?

Seth: I hear where you're coming from, but blind-select means just that — you choose your stuff and go into the match blind. No forewarning about who you're up against, or what Ultra they're using.

If blind-select is not your cup of tea, try player matches, or head to the "Endless Battle" mode with some friends (aka "lobbies").

Shack: Since there's no planned arcade version for Super Street Fighter IV, do you think the future of SFIV is geared toward American and European audiences beacuse they are more console-based players? Do you hope to convert Japanese players into console players?

Yoshinori Ono: To address your first part, like you say, the market has shifted. Obviously the West has been the center to a lot of activity. Certainly there are more people so there are more players. The world champion of Street Fighter is still [Japanese player] Daigo Umehara. Right under him you have [American] Justin Wong and other really powerful players.

For me personally, Street Fighter is an arcade game. It always has been. I'd love to do an arcade version, but the company is focusing more on console games right now, so [an arcade version of Super] didn't really pan out. That said, if there are people out there that want to see an arcade version, by all means, be vocal about it and let us know.

Shack: So it's still a possibility?

Yoshinori Ono: It's not impossible. If you know any arcade collectors or operators in the US, please tell them to write us letters saying they will buy 100 machines.

Kotaku's Brian Crecente: Would it have to be driven by the US market?

Yoshinori Ono: American interest would be awesome to push us in that direction. In the best-case scenario, you have got maybe a couple hundred arcades that are really serious and would probably buy machines from Capcom, but if we don't get orders in the thousands and thousands we can't get factories mobilized. It would have to go beyond North America and be a worldwide interest.

How are you able to adapt your fighting style to a new opponent quickly?

You should play as many varieties of player as possible, and learn about the variety of play styles. That's the first step. And the next step is to think about a reason behind his actions, like “why this particular player did this?” and “why did he do that?” in light of his particular style. You have to analyze his thinking process. By doing so, you'll start to see a formula that runs through a given category of players. That way, you can pretty much quickly adapt your style to a new opponent in a short span and will be able to make decisions based on your analysis and formula, which would also help you stay calm.

If Togeki and EVO were on the same day, which would you attend? Why?

Without hesitation and without doubt, EVO! I've been telling everyone about this (Seth, I'm not trying to get on your good side!) There are several reasons. The biggest reason is the tournament rules. Not limited to Togeki, but many tournaments in Japan do give players only one chance, one match. You lose once, and you are done. I find that very dissatisfying. A player like me who practices so hard for a tournament doesn't get to try out what he has worked for. If we lose in the first round, which can happen to every dedicated and strong player, there is no other chance. We are just left with frustration. The amount of efforts we pour into the event and the moment do not match up for the opportunity we are given. On the other hand, EVO gives every player a fair chance and every player can have fun playing and leave with satisfaction. We all can show the result of days and hours of our hard work. Even if you lose, you can admit your loss and leave in content. And the prize is bigger! That certainly helps too. All in all, EVO is kind to all fighting players. EVO is dedicated for us, and that's why I love EVO.

While the Street Fighter IV just hit the iPhone last week, and has already landed on the top ten charts for gaming, Capcom is already considering future plans for both the game and, potentially, other fighting titles for the iPhone.

He told me that Capcom already have plans for downloadable content for Street Fighter IV iPhone, but nothing is yet set in stone. He also said that if this game sells well enough it's possible that the publisher could start looking at their popular Versus series of games for the next title they might bring to the iPhone.

And why, I asked, didn't they bring Super Street Fighter IV to the iPhone instead of Street Fighter IV?

"We couldn't release Super Street Fighter IV before the console version because (Super Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori) Ono is going to get annoyed," he said. "At some point, though, it would be very interesting if we could release the console version and the iPhone version at the same time."

Could that happen soon, I asked.

"If we work hard it could happen," Tezuka said. "It could happen."

ShackNews: Did Capcom and the developers pay attention to character tier-lists when developing Super Street Fighter 4?

Seth Killian: They are very aware of those lists. Let me just say, for anyone that doesn't know this, the people at Capcom QA are killer. People are like, "Capcom QA didn't even know about this." Capcom QA knows about almost everything. Not absolutely everything because a million great players playing together will discover things that QA didn't know about. But the QA guys are no joke.

This guy Raoh, who is a Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike player, made a name for himself on the competitive circuit and did very well in Japan. He did very well in EVO here in America. He used to work at Capcom QA and wasn't even in the top 20 players on the QA team.

The QA guys don't enter tournaments so that's why they don't have reputations on the street, but they are unbelievably good at the game. If there was a tournament of all of Capcom QA against players around the world - I don't know how many top players would survive to the finals against the QA guys. It would be a bloodbath.

These guys are extremely good. They are very smart, strong players. So we know Sagat is stronger than a lot of the other characters. There's always going to be winners and losers in any balance chart. Nobody likes to hear that, but that's part of what makes Street Fighter interesting.

Difference in character strength is part of the nature of a SF game. It's something we don't try to avoid. Ultimately, in the current ranking charts, there are a few mismatches, but for the most part I think you'd be hard-pressed to find any other competitive fighting game with a closer balance across all the characters.

In this list of Super Street Fighter 4 changes, Gen only saw nerfs, what gives?

Seth Killian: He has a few new bits but probably the best of them is the much faster wall-dives. They were essentially useless in Street Fighter 4 (apart from EX as escape), but now they are legit — in my opinion they're better than Adon's, and every time they hit, it's a free Ultra.

At any rate, the post you are quoting from SRK was written by MrWizard. I was there when he played Gen — hell I was the one who invited him to play. That said, it was not exactly a scientific in-depth anything (nor did Wizard suggest it was). More like they played around with the characters in training mode for a while and jotted down some impressions. Wizard would tell you exactly the same thing, but given the level of anticipation around this game, even casual comments cause (in approximately 100% of cases) widespread overreaction.

They'll be plenty of time to yell about how your favorite didn't get the same stuff as somebody else's favorite after you've actually played the game, so please just bear with us and let's all play and experiment together before we decide what's broken, unfair, etc. ok? Seem fair?

I love discussing specifics but a big part of the fun with any new Street Fighter game is exploring and learning things for yourself. When MrWizard was up here last week to play the final build, he was asking me a ton of questions about specifics, even while he was playing at the same time. I gave MrWizard exactly what I give you guys — some basic info that leads in a direction or explains some of the thinking, but I don't tell him frame data, or the exact properties of a new move, etc., because discovering things for yourself is, in my opinion, one of the best parts about these games.

Adon: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Cody: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |

Dee Jay: 1 | 2 | 3 |

Dudley: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

Guy: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |

Hakan: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

Ibuki: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |

Juri: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |

Makoto: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |