
Hello. Today, I will return to the public biffing of Street Fighter after a long absence, with a single rule: I can only play as Blanka.
To explain: I haven t played a game in this series since Street Fighter II, in which this Brazilian bootleg Hulk was a classic character. But he was only added to Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition last week, where he is described by the game s roster as unemployed . Join me in pretending that the release of this wildman is the reason I have decided to fight online in SFV, and not because I thought of the headline Blanka Slate first and then had to come up with a whole feature to justify using it.

It’s better to be fashionably late than a total no-show. Blanka’s absence from Street Fighter V at launch was a bitter pill to swallow, but everyone’s favourite weird Brazillian jungle-monster-man is back today and on form.
Rejoining the likes of Ryu and Dhalsim and a few other frenemies from the good old days of Street Fighter 2, Blanka has picked up a few new tricks and some impressive costumes on the way, including one very, very silly one..













It s the big mon himself. Blanka, the beast-like brawler who first appeared in Street Fighter II, is coming to Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition next week, on February 20. He s still got them electrics, he s still likes to roll around and savage his opponents with his claws, and he s still upset at the world for accidentally leaving him in the Amazon jungle for most of his formative years. But maybe that s all about to change in his upcoming story mode. One day, says a post from Capcom, a suspicious salesman approaches him and offers a way to make Blanka famous by mass producing a doll made in Blanka s likeness. Wanna see Blanka dressed up as that doll? I have a picture right here. (more…)

Capcom's released the first gameplay of Blanka in Street Fighter 5. He's available to download from 20th February.
The fighting game's next DLC character is one of the original eight world warriors who starred in Street Fighter 2. The video, below, shows his Street Fighter 5 incarnation retains the electricity-based attacks Blanka is famous for. You can mash a punch button for Electric Thunder, and charge for rolling attacks.
Blanka has plenty of attacks which hit his opponent from behind, so he should have decent mix-up potential (a command grab called Wild Hunt, which sees Blanka leap forward, will help here). He can hop forward quickly, landing on the other side of a falling or downed opponent. And the video shows how Blanka is able to jump over and slide under projectiles. I get the impression he'll be a tricky character to master, a fun character to play as and an annoying opponent, which is just how Blanka should be.

Street Fighter 5 Arcade Edition is what Street Fighter 5 should have been when it launched back in February 2016: a fun, easy-to-get-into but hard to master fighting game that is, crucially, feature complete.
Here's what Arcade Edition, which is a free update for existing Street Fighter 5 owners or a game you can buy outright, does - or has - at launch that vanilla Street Fighter 5 did not: an arcade mode, online play that works, fun modes for single-player fans, a gallery of awesome artwork and a cool team battle mode. All this stuff should have been in Street Fighter 5 when it first came out (that it has taken nearly two years for Street Fighter 5 to get an arcade mode borders on the criminal). But now Arcade Edition is here, it's hard to deny Street Fighter 5 has finally realised its potential.
It's worth digging into the new arcade mode, because there's a lot more to it than you'd expect. Capcom has created various "paths" through which you can play against the computer, each themed around a different Street Fighter game. One is based on the first Street Fighter, and only features characters that appeared in the 1987 arcade game (Zeku represents Geki). The Street Fighter 2 path includes a barrel-breaking bonus stage, as Street Fighter 2 did back in 1991. There are also paths for Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter 3, Street Fighter 4 and Street Fighter 5. The remixed music is fantastic and the nostalgia costumes look great. When you complete one of the paths, you unlock a cool character ending image as well as a custom illustration (some of which are truly beautiful).



While Capcom are holding true to their promise that Street Fighter V would be the one and only version of SF5 you need to buy, they can’t resist their old habit of slapping on modifiers to create increasingly ludicrous names. Next week Capcom will launch Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, a big free update adding new modes to the fighting game as well as giving balance a kick up the bum. Ahead of the launch, they’ve whacked out the patch notes so fightfans can pop their monocles at number changes and frown at how vague some of the details are. (more…)