In light of Ultra Street Fighter IV‘s inclusion in digital pre-orders of the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, I’ve decided to dedicate some time to examining the most slept-on online-capable Street Fighter title: Street Fighter IV: Omega Mode. Packaged as a free alternate version within the edition select of USFIV, Omega uses leftover game files, recycled taunts, and repurposed animations to completely change each character’s toolset; it’s essentially a completely new and unique Street Fighter title built within SFIV’s engine, with an entirely different balance philosophy than Ultra.
Omega was not popular at release due to some easy infinite combos — not to mention players’ interest in Ultra as a more serious, competitive game. I personally think Omega went woefully unexplored for being an extremely interesting venture, and I’ve started a series where I document each character’s Omega changes, and then show off some basic optimal combos.
This week I’m looking at Guile and Chun-Li. Guile was given two new special moves, both with motion commands, which significantly alter his basic combo routes. One is an unsafe double kick that mostly operates as a combo ender, while the other is Remy’s Cold Blue Kick from Street Fighter III. His EX Sonic Boom can be thrown three times as a reference to Nash’s Sonic Break super, which later appears in SFV as Guile’s V-Trigger I. Overall Guile’s new specials do little to annul his original two, and between his EX Boom and his plethora of juggles from a Flash Kick, it’s clear this version of Guile was a testing ground for the one that would eventually show up in SFV.
Omega Chun-Li has more in common with the Chun-Li that showed up in the pre-release versions of SFV, with a crouching fierce that only cancels into EX moves and a jump-cancelable throwback to her 3rd Strike Hoyokusen Super Art. Her fireballs now have a motion command, allowing her a much greater capacity to walk around while zoning than her Ultra version. She also has what is probably the fairest divekick that Capcom has ever created. The execution on her lightning legs has been mitigated somewhat, paving the way for the motion legs she would eventually receive in SFV. Overall she’s a bit more well-rounded and easier to play, as is typical for Omega characters.
Click here for a playlist of all Street Fighter IV: Omega videos I’ve released thus far. I’ll add future videos to this playlist as I finish them.
I plan to go through the entire roster over time, so subscribe to the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss out!
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