Street Fighter is not, it's fair to say, a series that's shy about repackaging itself up for another turn, and now Street Fighter 5 is primed to receive its third release, this time in the form of the Champion Edition, which comes to PS4 and PC on 14th February next year.

The Champion Edition, which follows on from last year's Arcade Edition, includes almost everything so far released for Street Fighter 5. In total, that amounts to 40 characters, 30 stages, and over 200 costumes, although Fighting Chance costumes, brand collaboration costumes and Capcom Pro Tour DLC will not be included.

Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition is getting a physical and digital release on PlayStation 4 and will also be available on Steam, with all versions costing 24.99/$29.99 USD. Additionally, those that already own a previous edition of Street Fighter 5 can purchase the Upgrade Kit for 19.99/$24.99 USD. It's available now and grants immediate access to new Championship Edition content ahead of February's launch.

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For years now, Yoshinori Ono has been the public face of Street Fighter. And Street Fighter's defined his life - having fallen in love with Final Fight, Ono made a beeline for Capcom and found himself working there soon after Street Fighter 2's release and through the series' glory years. He became a household name, though, for helping bring Street Fighter back from the wilderness.

"This was before social media, before the internet, before Facebook," Ono told me during an on-stage interview at last month's EGX. "It wasn't until I was working on Onimusha that I could see what a phenomenon it had become. I was going around with Inafune, but people would always be asking me about Street Fighter. So I went back to Capcom and said the world was ready for more Street Fighter."

Bringing back Street Fighter wouldn't be simple, though. "It was tough. As a company, Capcom were past making fighting games in general. It was 99.99 per cent decided that fighting games were done and dusted and we were moving on to other things. But I managed to convince [Keiji] Inafune and the then-chairman - they were like, okay we'll give it a shot. That's all it took for me to flip those percentages. If it hadn't gone as well as it did, I might have been fired... I'm glad Street Fighter 4 did as well as it did."

The series has flourished ever since - even if it hasn't been without its struggles. Street Fighter 5 saw through a rough launch period and is now an assured fighter with one of the strongest communities around it - at EGX, the Capcom Pro Tour stage was one of the most vibrant, well-attended of the whole show. And next year it's becoming part of the Intel World Open, a tournament that welcomes all-comers through its early online rounds before the grand finals take place alongside next year's Olympics in Tokyo, with a $250,000 prize pot up for grabs.

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Five of the Best is a quite-new weekly series celebrating the incidental details in games we don't celebrate enough. Things like maps - everyone loves maps. They're the kind of things we can't do without, the kind of things which give games so much flavour and charm.

It's also designed to promote discussion because, let's face it, it's all subjective, what someone thinks is best. I have different ideas to you and, um, most people, apparently, and that's OK! I think. I hope. So join in. We've had some lovely discussions so far and you've reminded me of so many things. It's Friday after all, what else are you going to do - work?!

You can find all the previous Five of the Bests in a handy archive.

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Early August 2019, Evo - the world's largest fighting game tournament - concluded on a tragic note. What should have been a weekend that ended with celebration was instead tarnished by reports of sexual harassment and spiked drinks at the event's afterparties.

What followed was a surge of support from many of the most prominent voices within the fighting game community (FGC). Victims spoke out about their past traumas, and there was a collective call for action. In what can be interpreted as the FGC's very own Me Too movement, well-known figures in the community, such as competitor Leah "Gllty" Hayes and photographer Chris Bahn, had allegations raised against them, resulting in public apologies from the pair and a ban forbidding them from entering some of the USA's largest tournaments.

This recent turmoil has raised uncomfortable and important questions about the FGC, on whether those guilty of these actions are simply bad actors, or whether the FGC has a deep-rooted problem at its core. I talked with women in the community who've worked in this environment long enough to know the reality of what it's like at these events, about their thoughts on the culture, recent allegations, and what needs to change.

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Ah, Asura's Wrath. How I miss you so. Your over-the-top, QTE-fuelled combat lives long in the memory. I close my eyes and I see a planet-sized man press his finger down on Asura, the demigod's six arms a flurry of punches. You were deeply flawed, but remarkable, a true last-gen diamond in the rough.

While Capcom seems unlikely to return to the wonderful world of Asura's Wrath any time soon, it lives on in the form of Street Fighter 5 costume DLC. This week the company announced an upcoming Asura's costume for Kage (the evil Ryu-esque character), due out via Extra Battle 27th September.

Kage really does look the part as Asura, but the costume is of course no substitute for a brand new Asura's Wrath game (Asura's Wrath was one of Eurogamer's games of 2012), or even a guest appearance by the character in another Capcom game.

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Valve has issued a public apology for leaking Street Fighter 5's next round of DLC characters.

The upcoming new DLC characters, E. Honda, Poison and Lucia were all leaked on Wednesday when Steam published the trailer for the DLC reveal early. Capcom had planned to make a big splash during this weekend's Evo fighting game tournament.

Now, Valve has apologised in a post on Steam, saying there was "a mix-up in the publishing process".

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It was leaked a little early on Steam, but Capcom has now officially announced E. Honda, Lucia and Poison will be making their way to Street Fighter 5 on 4th August.

On the final day of Evo 2019 (and the day of the Street Fighter 5 grand finals), the characters will be made available to buy individually, then the following day a "Summer 2019 Character Bundle" will be released - including different battle costumes for each fighter.

It's likely this was meant to be a big announcement set to go live during Evo, but the leak seems to have forced Capcom's hand to go ahead with the early reveal.

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Japanese police are using Street Fighter to recruit cops.

Characters from Capcom's famous fighting game franchise will be used for the first time as mascots in the Osaka Prefectural Police's recruitment advertising for cyber-crime investigators.

It turns out Capcom has been working with Osaka Prefectural Police and other nearby police forces on various crime prevention awareness campaigns since 2013. But this year, Capcom received a request from the Osaka Prefectural Police to use Street Fighter characters for the first time.

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If you ever watched the excellent Street Fighter 2 animated movie, you'll be familiar with its opening battle: a dramatic fight between Ryu and Sagat that saw the series star give the towering Thai the famous scar on his chest.

Now, Capcom has released a new stage for Street Fighter 5 that lets you recreate that fight.

The Field of Fate stage in Street Fighter 5 is a field of grass that billows in the wind under the cover of a night sky that pours with rain. This is the same setting for the fight between Ryu and Sagat that kicks off the animated movie - and sees Ryu's Dragon Punch split Sagat's chest open.

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Street Fighter 5's much-maligned in-game adverts have returned.

After Capcom slapped Dhalsim's necklace of shrunken human skulls with an ad for its Pro tour, the company said it was going to have a rethink. Now, in-game ads are back, this time letting us know about new Street Fighter T-shirts from Japanese clothing shop Uniqlo (thanks, EventHubs).

However, the ads work a little differently this time. While they appear in stages (Capcom Pro Tour-themed stages only) and during pre-match loading, they do not appear on the characters themselves, which suggests Capcom's learnt a valuable lesson.

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