Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition patch notes punch out

While Capcom are holding true to their promise that Street Fighter V would be the one and only version of SF5 you need to buy, they can't resist their old habit of slapping on modifiers to create increasingly ludicrous names. Next week Capcom will launch Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, a big free update adding new modes to the fighting game as well as giving balance a kick up the bum. Ahead of the launch, they've whacked out the patch notes so fightfans can pop their monocles at number changes and frown at how vague some of the details are.

The Arcade Edition will add the new (or old and returning) Arcade Mode and Extra Battle Mode, along with a new V-trigger move for every character and an overhauled UI. Those are the fancy headline features but the balance overhaul is real important too. Capcom sum up the overall changes like so:

• Increased active frames for Regular Throws from 2F to 3F
• Increased combo scaling for combos that include a V-Trigger activation
• Increased recovery for Command Throws
• Made revisions to the hurtboxes for jumping attacks, and to the normal moves that are primarily used as anti-airs
• Changed properties of moves that change the position of the character, which may affect certain combos

If you want balance specifics, dig down into the patch notes. These are a little vague in places, saying things like "Changed the collision boxes during the move" and "Changed the attack startup timing" without specifying in which way they're changed. Ah well, we'll see soon.

The notes also show off a helpful new Training Mode feature that turns characters different colours to highlight frame advantage (as pictured above).

Street Fighter V's Arcade Edition is due to launch on January 16th. The servers will go down for maintenance in the early morning (that's PST - so afternoon for us) then come back up a few hours later with the patch. While the Arcade Edition update is free for existing players, for new players Capcom will sell something called the Arcade Edition including both season passes for extra character unlocks - basically what they're currently calling the Deluxe Edition.

Fightfaces, how does all this look to you? And which sort of Hyper Turbo Super Ultra Edition name would you like to follow?