Street Fighter 4‘s DLC Bonanza

Street Fighter 4 is getting a whole mess of downloadable content, including extra features and alternate costumes. Some of it’s free and some of it’s not.

Here’s the free: A “Championship Mode expansion pack” that adds a number of features to the game like the ability to record, upload and download matches to share with the Street Fighter IV community. The downloadable pack also includes new Points Systems to “measure your skill” and enhanced matchmaking that helps set beginners and intermediates in tournaments together, while requiring people to earn Grade Points to enter the higher level competitions. That should keep newbies from stumbling into confidence-destroying match-ups against pros while creating an incentive system (who doesn’t love collecting points) for them to get better. The expansion pack will be available “post-launch,” according to Capcom.

And now the not so free. In a series first, Street Fighter IV will have alternate costumes for each and every character in the game. Some of them are good, some of them are bad, as we’ve explained already. You’ll have to pay for these costumes, but you won’t exactly be able to pick and choose which ones you want. No, Capcom is offering the costumes in weekly themed packs that they’ll be doling out in the weeks after the game launches. The packs go for 320 Microsoft Points and $3.99 on the PlayStation Store. Here’s the schedule and list:

2/17 – Brawler Pack: Zangief, E.Honda, Rufus, El Furete, and Abel.
2/24 – Femme Fatale Pack: Chun-Li, Cammy, Sakura, Rose, and C.Viper.
3/3 – Shoruken Pack: Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Gouken, and Dan.
3/10 – Shadowloo Pack: Seth, M.Bison, Sagat, Balrog, and Vega.
3/17 – Classic Pack: Guile, Dhalsim, Fei-Long, Blanka, and Gen.

So if you just wanted the Blanka costume, you’d have to wait until the last week, and buy four other costumes along with it too. The real kicker is that while Japan is getting the same weekly costume DLCs, they’ll have the option to wait until April and buy an All-In Pack that has every alternate costume available for a value price. Capcom US doesn’t seem to be offering the same deal, so, if you’re a Street Fighter whore like me and need every single costume just ’cause, you’re going to be shelling out the Spacebucks like you’re Neil Armstrong.

Sigh. The things I’ll do to see Zangief dressed like Mike Haggar and Cammy wearing a coat but no pants.