The Street Fighter series is considered one of the greatest series of fighting games of all time. The series that has made people flock to arcades pumping mad amounts of quarters during the '90s is back once again with its latest installment. The only difference this time is that you won't have to place slam quarters on the arcade cabinet saying "I've got next!" because it will soon be playable on your Xbox 360 with some new installments.

Street Fighter IV brings back a majority of the characters from the past Street Fighter games including favorites Ryu and Ken along with Chun-Li, Guile, E Honda, Dhalsim, Zangief, Sagat, M Bison, Vega, Balrog, Blanka, and Akuma. Joining the cast is Sakura (another fan favorite) and a group of new fighters including El Fuerte, a high flying wrestler and Abel, a Thai martial artist. Capcom has also said that the home versions of the game will feature even more fighters added to the mix so who knows what else is up their sleeve. Rumors are circulating about a couple of characters (Cammy), but Capcom has not made any announcements...yet. Expect character announcements to come in the next month or so.

Street Fighter IV plays in its 2-D fighting format, but does features some 3-D elements in some of the special moves and throws. The game does retain some of its previous fighting mechanics along with some new features. One of them is a new gauge system based on damage your character takes. If you take alot of damage from your opponent you'll charge up a meter which you can use to perform a comeback move to get back into the fight. This techniques can allow you to dish out loads of damage and open up combo possibilities. Also returning to Street Fighter IV are those big-time finishing super combo moves to lay waste on your foes. The flashy finishers can be worked into a combo to make devastating foes even better.

Graphically, Street Fighter IV looks amazing. Although the game is in 2-D, the 3-D backgrounds and characters look fantastic. The graphics have an anime style of look to them which makes you feel like your watching a movie. The special attacks look great as they pan into 3-D. Hopefully some other fighting games out in the market are paying attention to what Capcome is doing.

Word is Street Fighter IV will not be a "bare bones" game so expect to see more than an arcade mode and multiplayer. Capcom has promised extra bonus games like in the previous Street Fighter games like the car smashing and barrel breaking bonus games. Unfortunately, we don't know what they are at this time so we can only speculate and wonder what Capcom has in their bag of tricks.

Currently, Street Fighter IV is shaping up to be one heck of a fighting game and could probably be one of the best fighters on the Xbox 360. Although there is still not much info yet announced, the hype is continuously building. In the next couple of months, Capcom will introduce more features to keep the crowd excited. If you can't wait to get your hands on this gem then I suggest going to your local arcade and playing the game. There you can make your way through the large crowd watching the action and slam down your quarters saying "I've got next!" Let's just hope your not getting pwned by a little kid.

Street Fighter IV once again unleashes it's fury on the Xbox 360 in February.