Ultra Street Fighter 4 reveals two new battle systems

With Ultra Street Fighter 4 smashing its way onto the PC sometime early next year, key changes to the next iteration of the venerable fighting game series are starting to be surface. Capcom is altering the game's battle system with some tweaks to combos as well as working to eliminate the chance of landing a so-called unblockable attack on an opponent.

Two major changes that Capcom have in mind for USF4's battle system are the Ultra Combo Double mechanic and the Red Focus Attack. As Street Fighter producer Tomoaki Ayano revealed in a new dev blog yesterday, they're adding a third option to the existing Ultra 1 and Ultra 2 combo system which should yield some new tactical possibilities.

“As the [Ultra Combo Double] name suggests, once you've built up your revenge gauge you'll be able to use either Ultra combo,” Ayano writes. “The downside to this is that the Ultra will do less damage than it normally does.”

Likewise the Red Focus Attack is an update to the already existing Focus Attack.

“[Red Focus Attack] uses up Super meter, but can absorb multiple attacks,” Ayano writes. “Since it uses meter you'll have to put some careful thought into how you use it. Just like the regular Focus Attack, the Red Focus Attack can also be dash canceled.”

We already knew USF4 was adding new characters and killing off Games for Windows Live dependency , but as we can see, both in the announcement video below and in Ayano's blog, it's clear the upcoming version of Street Fighter 4 is also looking to give players new and different ways to take on their opponents.

“Our vision is that Dual Ultra Combos will give you more offensive options, while the Red Focus Attack will give you more defensive options,” Ayano writes.

Hat tip, Eurogamer .