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’m starting a series where I document each character’s Omega changes, and then show off some basic optimal combos.
This week’s subjects are Ken and Akuma. Akuma seems to be halfway between his USFIV and SFV versions. He has better versions of his target combos, as well as access to both his old and new EX air fireballs. Ken, on the other hand, is almost nothing like what was delivered in SFV, and is actually more similar to early versions of Street Fighter II, with a special move based on his crazy kicks and a throwback to his shippu jinrai kyaku super art from Street Fighter III. Yet spiritually, I expect players of both characters will feel right at home.
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!