After an initial world-wide public beta test that was disappointing to say the least, Capcom has retooled their servers and has begun hosting a series of regional stress tests for their upcoming fighter, Street Fighter V.

European fight fans got their chance last week to get their hands on Street Fighter V, and  this week, the Street Fighter faithful were able to go a few rounds here in the U.S. thanks to a two day stress test that took place on the 25th and 26th.

This new Street Fighter V stress test marked the first opportunity for yours truly to spend some time with the game, so I thought I would share some impressions that I had from this early build of the game. (Or, you can actually watch footage of me trying the game out from a Late Night Bacon session that was held on our Twitch channel)

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Each entry in the Street Fighter series has a sort of intangible quality to it: a certain feel, if you will. It’s really a tough subject to try and quantify in words, but if you have been playing the series for as long as I have (since Street Fighter II on the SNES in 1992) then you’ll understand what I mean. So with that being said, Street Fighter V feels different from Street Fighter IV. I don’t necessarily want to declare it as slower paced than Street Fighter IV, however Street Fighter V has more of a methodical quality to it. Veterans of SFIV will definitely have to adjust their gameplay style when making the jump to Street Fighter V. I found it more challenging to keep up with online foes than I had expected, as things that I had relied on when playing SFIV just didn’t translate over as well, or were at least more easily overcome in SFV. I don’t consider that a bad thing though. Without change or variations in style, a long-running series such as Street Fighter will quickly become stale and wear out its welcome. But there is a learning curve between the two, just as there was a learning curve when making the jump from Street Fighter II to the Street Fighter Alpha series, and later, the jump from Alpha to Street Fighter III, and from Street Fighter III to Street Fighter IV.

V-Trigger is the small bar placed above the normal super meter.

So aside from that intangible “feel” of Street Fighter V, what else is new?

The main new element is the new V-Trigger system that each character possesses. V-Trigger, which replaces SFIV’s Focus Attacks, has its own meter, separate from the standard “Super” meter that we all used to by now. Rather than enable a powered up move, V-Trigger enables a powered-up skill-set that is unique for each fighter. Ryu, for example, will be able to enact an electrical charge that courses through his hands, and allows him to throw his electrical Hadoken, which he can hold for a few seconds before throwing. Cammy will be able to use V-Trigger to add multiple hits to her regular specials, etc. V-Trigger skills also come into play for each fighter prior to that gauge being built up. By pressing both Medium Punch and Medium Kick at the same time, you can perform a V-Trigger enabled skill that is also unique for each fighter, and does not use any meter. Ryu, for instance can use this to parry a move (something that veterans of SFIII will welcome back) and Chun-Li can use this to dash diagonally up into the air, setting opponents up for an overhead, or hitting them on the way up and setting foes up for something else.

Just as Parry’s were the linchpin of Street Fighter III, the V-Trigger system will be the system that acts as the foundation for Street Fighter V, and will need to be mastered in order to be competitive.

The now familiar EX moves and Super Combos make a return, and still share the same meter. One thing that I noticed while in the practice mode between matches, was that the frame-linking of normal combos into a Super Combo seemed much more forgiving. In fact, it seemed that there were some instances where I was able to link a jumping fierce, standing jab, into a Super Combo almost by accident. Capcom may have toned down the frame requirements a bit in order to cater to newer players, however it may not be quite as much of an issue as one would initially think, because Super Combos don’t seem to have the same effect as Ultra Combos did in Street Fighter IV. That’s not to say that they are no longer extremely powerful or useful moves; they just are not designed as the same tide-turning moves as Ultra’s were in SFIV.

Street Fighter V looks absolutely stunning.

The bread and butter of the Street Fighter V stress test was of course, to test out the online servers in a real-world situation. Capcom had advised that for best results, players should have their PlayStation 4’s connected through a LAN cable, however I opted to continue utilizing my wireless connection. Even on wireless, I found the online play to be incredibly smooth, with only one or two matches that were laggy. Otherwise, the online experience was fantastic, especially considering the absolute disastrous state the servers were in one month prior.

The Street Fighter V stress test allowed us to play as 6 of the expected 16 initial fighters that will be available once the game launches next year. Included in the test were:

• Ryu
• Chun Li
• Charlie Nash
• M. Bison
• Cammy
• Birdie

Each one of the returning World Warriors boasts enough tweeks and changes to keep things fresh enough that any series veteran will want to spend a lot of time in the training mode to re-learn every nuance. I found Ryu had a number of adjustments to the range of certain moves, such as his crouching sweeping kick, which may have contributed to the copious amount of losses that I took over the two night period.

Other characters have had moves changed completely, such as Chun Li’s iconic Wind Kick, which is no longer a rapid input of a kick button, but rather a quarter-circle forward, kick input. It’s a lot of little changes that will add to the learning curve, but should be second-nature once mastered.

Necalli (pictured on the right) is a brand new addition to the Street Fighter universe.

In addition to the above mentioned inductees to the Street Fighter V roster are four other characters that have also been announced, but were not included in the test. Series staples Ken and Vega will join the cast, with newcomer Necalli having been announced last month. The most recent addition is the quirky R. Mika, who made her first and only Street Fighter series appearance in Street Fighter Alpha 3.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with this current build of Street Fighter V, yet I can’t say that I am completely in love with it. There is a definite learning curve involved, perhaps the steepest one since the move to Street Fighter III almost twenty years ago. But that is in no way a negative. It just means that this old dog will need to learn some new tricks once Street Fighter V launches in 2016, exclusively for the PlayStation 4 and PC.