Super Street Fighter IV: Community Service

Freed from the unsportsmanlike cowardice of the rage-quit, and unaffected by the fickle finger of fate that is a stable connection, Street Fighter’s tightly-focused battles of knowledge, dexterity and nerve are best enjoyed face to face. Provoking that tell of frustration when your carefully-planned flowchart rattles your opponent into paralysis. Baiting predictable foes into wasting that ultra bar with a telegraphed double quarter circle motion joystick rattle, only to punish their failed retort. The elation of holding your steel in a bleak situation, while onlookers ooh and ahh, only to overcome the odds to rapturous applause and high-fives. Modern net code may have confined the beating heart of Street Fighter, but the soul is found at sessions like this.

If you thought that SFIV didn't have enough ninjas, Super has got you very well catered for.

Aside from the obvious draw of an entire day of bustling competition on an unreleased Street Fighter game, Yoshinori Ono’s appearance was a huge draw. If London was expecting the stoicism of Ryu, what they got was the zaniness of Hakan, with Ono-san on hand for photo spots with fans, striking provocative poses with an amusing Blanka toy whenever the opportunity arose. Indeed, an open Q&A session provided a suitable stage for his enormous personality when he took to the tables to field questions from both press and players alike.

Bounding about with infectious enthusiasm, Ono-san answered queries about the forthcoming arcade version of Super, revealing: “Capcom USA wouldn’t allow us to develop it until recently, but your voices have been heard and we can now finally get on with it. What should be in it, I have absolutely no idea.” He teasingly enquired which characters the crowd would like to see added, resulting in a cacophony of garbled names including Alex, Oro (and from this very journalist, a vociferously hollered Q), and this was to be an ongoing theme of his discourse.

If Makoto were any more supremely offensive, she'd have to start appearing on Frankie Boyle DVDs.

Capcom’s insistence that the fans have a voice is often repeated, but Ono’s regular checking in with the floor’s opinion seemed to come from a genuine desire to connect with gamers, rather than simply following a company line. The subjects ranged from the broader journalistic questions concerning community and development to more demanding fan enquiries that weren’t going to be satisfied with anything less than verbatim frame data, with Ono attempting to oblige in his own entertaining way.