Gauge Fight: Street Fighter V Battle Systems

The new Street Fighter V [official site] trailer is in two minds. It starts by introducing a few characters, which might lead you to believe you're going to get some insights about the roster, but then it flips into explanations of the new V-Gauge and Critical Arts systems. The V-Gauge is a new addition to the series and sits alongside Street Fighter IV's EX Gauge - it allows characters to perform unique counters and reversals, as well as "triggers" that are linked to character-specific abilities or buffs. Critical Arts are ultra-super-power combos. Ultra-super-power is also the title of the upcoming enhanced edition of Street Fighter V.

I won't pretend that I'll ever master Street Fighter V. The last thing I needed was more gauges to keep track of. Give me three special moves and one super-special move and I can just about manage to learn them and use them when they're appropriate.

What about that picture of M Bison at the top of the post though? I'd love to be a Street Fighter V photographer, standing on the sideline and trying to get the most ridiculous shots possible. There are sections in the video that show what first-person Street Fighter might look like - Chun-Li kicking you square in the eyeball forever - and I'd love to have those kind of camera options during replays.

On a final note, there's a 2009 live action Street Fighter film in which M Bison has a load of people decapitated and then leaves the heads on platters for Nash to discover. In that film, Bison is reimagined as "a blonde haired, blue eyed Irish immigrant to Thailand".