Fighting fans chomping at the bit to play Super Street Fighter IV will be interested to learn that Capcom is releasing an HD overhaul of the 1995 Street Fighter: The Movie to tide fans over.  Much like last year’s Street Fighter II: Turbo HD Remix, Street Fighter: The Movie HD Remix will feature high definition visuals and tweaked, balanced gameplay.  It is slated to be released on Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network before the release of SSFIV. Click the jump for Bomb Guts’ exclusive and TOTALLY LEGIT DETAILS on the game.

Background

When first announced in 1995, the original Street Fighter: The Movie was the game that no one asked for based on the movie that everyone wanted to forget.  Street Fighter II fans quickly dismissed the game as a crappy movie tie-in, attempting to siphon tweens away from Mortal Kombat with its crummy “me-too” digitized sprites.  Street Fighter fans stayed away and the MK playing tweens found the nuanced Capcom-styled fighting system too complicated, and were disappointed with the lack of gore and finishing moves such as Brutalities, Babalitiys, and Boobalities.

However, in the intervening years, the fighter grew in popularity as a tournament alternative to the mainstream Capcom fighters, especially among those who didn’t have the dexterity for Street Fighter III’s blistering combos or who were otherwise just terrible. Aspiring competitors of mediocre skill soon flocked to SFTM due to its general lack of appeal to world class players which significantly lowered the barrier of entry to competitive play. Soon, a parallel tournament scene developed around the Saturn version of SFTM.  Within years, the scene had its own stars which some claim rival the popularity of Diago and Justin Wong with their own fabled moments to boot. Who could forget Horoki Murkami’s stunning victory over American John Sunn at EVO04, where in the third round with vitality near zero, Murakami countered Sunn’s hadoken spam defense with an unbelievable jumping hard kick/ crouching hard kick combination?

With fans of the games salivating at the thought of a remake, Bomb Guts has managed to “beat out” details from Capcom:

All New Sprites and Backgrounds

Capcom is working on all new HD digitized sprites with new captures from much of the original cast of the 1992 movie.

• Unlike the original version of the game, Raul Julia will be reprising his role as M. Bison in Street Fighter: The Movie HD Remix. Raul Julia was unable to participate in the making of the original game due to his death, and M. Bison’s sprite was played by his stunt man. In SFTMHDR, Raul Julia will be digitally resurrected, using mostly footage of him as Gomez Addams from a blu-ray of The Addams Family.

Bison executing a devastating throw.

• Kilye Minouge will be reprising her role as Cammy after rumors that she had passed on the project, which had prompted a grass roots internet campaign to get her in the game. The massive campaign included a petition with over 100,000 signatures. The reason for such support: Fans can’t get her out of their head. Na na naaa na na na-na naa na na naa na na na-na na.
• Jean Claude Van Dame will be reprising Guile, however there is a rumor that his sprites have undergone an extensive digital face-lift to make the aging, wrinkled, flabby, actor seem 1994 fighting fit.

With visuals this good you'll be saying "Van-DAMN"

New Characters

When SFTM introduced the non-canonical Sawada and Blade, fans initially lambasted the characters and the developer for expanding the original World Warrior rooster to include crummy movie-tie in characters. However, as the game grew in popularity in the super secret underground SFTH tournament scene (which is totally a real thing and not made up), Sawada became the main for many players, supplanting Ryu/Ken as the default character of choice for the first time in any Street Fighter game. Capcom, hoping to repeat this success, is introducing some new fighters who had minor speaking roles in the movie:

• T. Hawk – A mainstay of the Street Fighter series, T. Hawk was a minor character at best in the movie with a total of two lines of spoken dialogue. He was not included in any version of game, but for some reason he is being included despite being the worst character ever. Who even plays him? Jerks. That’s who.
• News anchor A – The unnamed male news anchor covering the Shadaloo crisis will finally be getting his own in-game character.  Unlike other characters, his play style will not fit into any specific type such as Sotokan or “charge.” Instead, he will be a combination of all of types which reflects his journalistic lack of bias.

Gameplay Updates and Tweaks

Like Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Street Fighter: The Movie HD Remix will feature move input simplifications, mostly to accommodate those unfortunate enough to be playing on the Xbox 360 controller:

• For all Shotokan characters, the light punch button is now dedicated to Hadoken, meaning no more blistering quarter-circle forward + punch. Also, light kick will be dedicated to fake Hadokens and pressing both light punch and kick will produce a reverse fake Hadoken, which actually heals your opponent.
• To make normally defensive charge characters more offensive, all back-charging special moves will now be forward facing. Attention all Guiles, want to keep that flash-kick in the pocket “just in case”? Then get out of that crouch and get all up in their grill.

Capcom isn’t giving up the exact release date just yet.  However it will most likely be coming out within the next month.  So dust off that stick, and maybe even invest in those new Sanwa buttons you’ve been eying because Super Street Fighter: The Movie Hyper HDD Remix 3^rd Strike is coming soon.  We at Bomb Guts frankly cannot wait.