I actually linked Benimaru's original design. The Leopard shirt he wore in most games after is a different story, but his classic look was pretty solid. I liked the flamboyancy; it showed that the designers had balls and wanted to try different things.
Making a fighter to cater to the tourny crowd ain't my cup of tea. When I get a new game, I go straight for the new characters. To me, that's what makes a new game and new game, as opposed to a remix of an old game. Anytime I see a tournament match for Third Strike that consists of Ryu, Ken or Chun Li, (Read: ALL OF THEM) I yawn and lose interest. I may as well be watching a Street Fighter 2 tournament. I trained myself to be competent with Elena and Dudley in tournaments FOR THAT VERY REASON. I got so sick of seeing Shotokans in the tournies, plus everybody else was overly used to it as well. When they finally got to me, they had to think of a different way of fighting.
Variety is the spice of life. Take the spice out, and you have stagnation.
Ya know what would have made this game so much more agreeable to me? If they hadn't left off a certain part of the name.
They are calling it Street Fighter 4.
It should be called Street Fighter EX 4.
As for the Street Fighter movie... ugh, I saw a commercial for it, and those fireball effects look pretty pathetic. Not Dragonball: Evolution pathetic, but still pretty bad. I'm sure it is meant to coincide with the release of SF4, but I doubt it'll do more than that.
