2008 is the biggest year Street Fighter has had in a long time. We already know that Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, a redrawn, rebalanced version of the pinnacle of the SFII series, is due out for XBLA and PSN later this year. And Street Fighter IV has finally been announced, and is looking like one of the most exciting entries the series has ever seen. But while both of those titles are seeing adoring press attention lavished upon Capcom on a level that rivals the days of the original game’s SNES release, it’s worth noting that the focus of the games’ development is still very much with the player.

It would have been easy to simply release a straight conversion of Super Turbo online, but HD remix is being treated as the next true upgrade to the series. And with twelve years between the game’s arcade release and today, the redesign has been wisely entrusted to the people who now know the game best: The people on the cutting edge of playing it. Thus, the game is being overseen by David Sirlin, a player with sixteen years tournament experience under his belt, eleven of which have been spent organising the international Evolution Championships. He currently keeps an open dialogue with the rest of the SF community and explains his tweaks to the game on the official Capcom blogs. He’s also been known to consult top-level players worldwide when making tricky decisions, and that combined knowledge and understanding bodes very well for another Street Fighter game shaped to the design of those who love it.

And despite the hardcore level of play available, both SSFIITHDR and Street Fighter IV are being made with the intention of being completely open and accessible to players of all levels. Special move commands in Super Turbo HD are being made easier so that less dexterous players can finally enjoy the game on a tactical level without their tangled thumbs holding them back. And while it’s still at an early stage, reports of SFIV already seem to indicate some very accommodating gameplay mechanics. In particular, the traditional Super Meter – which allows some massive bodily demolition to be unleashed when charged by aggressive play – is being tempered with a new Revenge Meter, which will incite a large-scale comeback move when the player is in trouble. It’s a very Street Fighter addition; one which gives the less sophisticated player an easy and fun method of achieving success, but quietly adds a deeper level of tactical consideration for the stronger player in regards to balancing aggression.

More than just a fighter, Street Fighter is the best competitive series around, as well as a great lesson in what can be achieved when developers truly pay attention to their audience. It dispenses instant gratification, rewards long-term play, and is as complex as you want it to be. Anyone at all can get anything they want out of it, making it that rare breed of game which is both as hardcore and as casual as it gets. Actually, screw the arbitary buzzword labelling. Street Fighter is just a damn classily-designed game that knows how to get it right. And the way in which it gets it right makes it one of the greatest treasures we have in gaming.