Capcom Shows Off Street Fighter V’s Alex And Details Its Challenge Mode

Capcom Unity has come bearing news concerning Street Fighter V’s March update. There isn’t a release date for it yet, but the company has gone over the first DLC character that will be added, Alex, the upcoming Challenge Mode, and some other additions and fixes that will come when it is released.

First, Alex will be Street Fighter V’s first DLC character. He first appeared in Street Fighter III, and Capcom says he’s been a fan request for a while. He’s described as a grappler with a close-range Power Bomb who is also capable of performing solid midrange attacks. His V-Skill is Overhaul, which lets his next hit after performing the V-Skill hit as though it were a counter hit. The Rage Shift V-Trigger has him perform a clothesline, which can be charged to break guards. It can parry one attack while charging. Finally, his Critical Art is Heavy Hammer, where he chops an opponent, picks them up in a crucifix hold, then throws them down. Capcom didn’t say how much Alex will cost yet.

Challenge Modes’ various options were also discussed. Once it’s added to Street Fighter V in March, people will get 12 Beginner Tutorials, 11 Intermediate Tutorials, 4 Advanced Tutorials, 16 Character Tutorials for each character, Combo Trials for all 16 characters, and Demonstrations for all 16 characters. The Combo Trials will allow people to earn Fight Money.

Three other features were mentioned as well. The In-Game Shop will open, allowing people to spend Fight Money on DLC characters and Story Mode costumes. 2/3 sets will be available in Ranked Matches, allowing for rematches. There will also be a Battle Lounge, where up to eight people can sit in a lobby and watch a match.

A list of bug fixes and rebalancing adjustments that will come with the March Street Fighter V was also provided and is as follows.

• Bug: Sometimes you don’t get EXP from casual matches
• Bug: On a rare occurrence, if you restart the game after you unlock colors, the colors you unlocked will disappear
• Vega:
  • If you hit V-Trigger Bloody Kiss (anti-air) in certain situations, Vega will no longer continue to rise off the top of the screen.
• M. Bison:
  • If M. Bison is interrupted by an opponent’s V-Trigger or Critical Art during his invisible frames of Double Knee Press in V-Trigger mode, M. Bison will no longer remain invisible until his next move.
• Rashid:
  • Rashid will no longer float in the air for a moment if you perform his V-Trigger after he touches the ground upon a missed Eagle Spike.
• Chun-Li:
  • During V-Trigger activation, the hit stop and block stop has been made the same for multi-hitting moves (medium or heavy attacks for both normal and special moves).
    • She was previously able to perform option selects involving standing HP into Houyokusen, so this has been removed.
• Vertical and Back Jump Frames:
  • All characters except Birdie and Zangief: Vertical jump and back jump frames have changed from 3f->4f.
  • Birdie: Vertical jump and back jump frames have changed from 4f->5f.
  • Zangief: No changes to jump frames.
    • These changes reduce the effectiveness of throw tech option selects involving jumping (also known as “jump grab”). Changing forward jump frames would affect the game balance too much so those remain unchanged.
• Throw Escape Change:
  • If you push buttons during the normal throw delayed tech window you are unable to escape throws for 2 frames.
    • Prevents using light attacks to option select with throw escapes.
  • If you execute specific special moves during the normal throw delayed tech window you are unable to immediately escape throws. Each characters V-skills, V-triggers, V-reversals, critical arts, and moves have been set individually.
    • Prevents throw escape option selects involving specific moves such as Shoryuken, etc.

Street Fighter V is immediately available for the PlayStation 4 and Windows PCs.