Street Fighter IV's Crimson Viper Detailed

Capcom has released new media and in-depth details on Street Fighter IV's new characters. First up, Crimson Viper, whose moves are revealed to be the Thunder Knuckle, Burning Kick and Seismic Hammer. She's also the only character to have a special high jump (courtesy of jump jets in her boots...) and comes with two combos, Emergency Combination and Burst Time. Details on all of Viper's moves are after the gallery, which features 24 new screens of the American fighter.

Using devices concealed in her gloves and boots, C. Viper unleashes the power of electricity with her left hand and calls upon the power of seismic shocks with her right. Jets hidden within her boots allow for fiery kicks and propulsion assisted high jumps. Her moves as varied as they are flashy, providing her with a good deal of options in the ring.

Thunder Knuckle
The device in her glove emits a powerful electric shock as Viper charges forward. The jab version of this move can sneak underneath some projectiles such as fireballs and Sonic Booms, allowing her to surprise her attacker with a well timed counterattack. The fierce version moves upward at a diagonal angle, allowing for defense against aerial attacks.

Burning Kick
This move utilizes the power of fire with an aerial spinning kick. Viper can surprise opponents attempting to knock her off her feet by suddenly unleashing this powerful move. This move can also be used while in the air following a jump and can be used to cancel a standard attack, allowing for both air to air and air to ground tactics.

Seismic Hammer
Powerful shockwaves emitted from Viper's glove cause seismic disruptions that knock unwary opponents off their feet. Basically, it behaves like a low flying projectile, with the button used determining the distance of the impact. Jab attacks directly at her feet. Strong moves a bit farther away. Fierce connects with players all the way across the screen.

High Jump
Special joystick inputs allow players to take advantage of this special jump available only to C. Viper. Using jump jets concealed within her boots, Viper jumps much higher than ordinary legs can carry her, allowing for intense aerial battles and sneak attacks from above.

Emergency Combination
Crimson Viper's Super Combo has her utilizing all her powers at once, continuously punching her opponent using both electric and shockwave attacks, moving forward all the while. She finishes this all off with a spectacular kick that unleashes an arc of searing flame! This move is well suited to ground to ground situations.

Burst Time
Crimson Viper's Ultra Combo starts by unleashing the forces of electricity and shockwaves at once, then following the punishing blows with a arcing kick enshrouded in fire! Although the range of the initial blast is rather limited, this move is versatile enough to be used in both ground to ground and ground to air situations, making it an indispensable part of Viper's formidable arsenal.

5:20 PM on Fri Mar 14 2008
By Michael McWhertor
7,108 views
51 comments

Comments

mossberg at 05:33 PM on 03/14/08
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thats cool i guess
nerdtacular at 05:33 PM on 03/14/08
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I like that no matter how contorted or in profile she is, there is always a clear presentation of side-boobage.
SpartanPanda at 05:35 PM on 03/14/08
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She can Thunder Knuckle my Seismic Hammer any day.
baxterpunch at 05:37 PM on 03/14/08
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Someone at 1up mentioned that they thought she was based off of Angelina Jolie. As I see more pics, I agree 100%.

And that is soooooooo awesome.
Ken Hikari at 05:39 PM on 03/14/08
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These screens are starting to look really nice. I'm getting excited for this game the more I see it.
IndustrialJones at 05:40 PM on 03/14/08
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I picture her fighting my purple headed yogurt slinger.
zetopazio at 05:40 PM on 03/14/08
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So she can use chidori!(Sasuke's special technique(Naruto))
SpartanPanda at 05:44 PM on 03/14/08
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She can Thunder Knuckle my Seismic Hammer any day OO
Tizlor at 05:45 PM on 03/14/08
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She looks stupid.
Demonbird at 05:46 PM on 03/14/08
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Connectedness Index: 24

Jump Jets...
Junker at 05:47 PM on 03/14/08
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Eh.. yeah.. >.>

..

Well, she looks awesome, and as Ken Hikari said these screenies are looking sexier and sexier.
davrone at 05:49 PM on 03/14/08
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LAME. And where is Cammy?
Terroris at 05:52 PM on 03/14/08
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i cant stand those graphics. it just doesnt seem like street fighter anymore.
godrifle at 05:53 PM on 03/14/08
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So she basically has Cammy's Spiral Arrow, Rock's qcb dash, A shoryu, Twelve's spikes, and that new kick thing. Nothing new for a SF character, but cool combination.
sebFlyte at 06:02 PM on 03/14/08
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@Terroris

The screens don't quite do it justice. In action, it really is more Street Fighter than ever... and Crimson Viper plays as well as any of the old characters (and this comes from someone who was a hardcore SFII fan who's skipped all the iterations from II Turbo to IV on grounds of sheer distate).
yashichi8bit at 06:05 PM on 03/14/08
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"Thunder Knuckle"

For Realz?
onidavin at 06:06 PM on 03/14/08
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And she still looks like a KOF character. But I can dig it. And no matter how much I love hand-drawn sprites, I think they're doing a great job with this stuff. I'll have to play it to see if it holds up from the look and feel.
blackadvent at 06:08 PM on 03/14/08
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Yeah, but if you press pause, can you see Chun-Li's panties?
OGHowie at 06:14 PM on 03/14/08
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New character designs are horrible.
残心 at 06:24 PM on 03/14/08
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@godrifle: Except no one will ever be as cool as Twelve... :(
Maverick_fox at 06:26 PM on 03/14/08
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again, why is she on a SF game? maybe on guilty gear or power stone but in sf?
Maverick_fox at 06:33 PM on 03/14/08
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@godrifle: are you saying that capcom is recycling movements from old characters sir? , regret that ! /sarcasm
Acunia at 06:41 PM on 03/14/08
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She really looks like she belongs in Kind of Fighter's, even her moved lean that way
Acunia at 06:42 PM on 03/14/08
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**King of Fighter...
Sherlock_the_Barbarian at 06:48 PM on 03/14/08
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These types of games need to die, already.
Karlott at 07:10 PM on 03/14/08
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@Sherlock_the_Barbarian: Yes, end all fighting games now. Someone named Sherlock The Barbarian on the internets said it should be so.
Sparx at 07:15 PM on 03/14/08
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I can't say the same for anyone else but I'm looking forward to using Viper. She has some nice attacks and her unique jumping ability and low range attacks might just dictate the flow placing you firmly in control.
Ether02 at 07:43 PM on 03/14/08
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I like the character but she seems kinda overpowered with all those moves
Highlander Wolf at 07:44 PM on 03/14/08
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Look! In screenshot #6! It's Skullomania!! He's gonna be in SF4?? Awesome!!!
JKPierce at 08:01 PM on 03/14/08
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@Sherlock_the_Barbarian: Dude, it's... like the weirdest thing. Ever. I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about it or not, but it was recently discovered you can Not Buy Games if you don't like them.

Like I said, crazy stuff.
kftgr at 08:01 PM on 03/14/08
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Thunder Knuckle + Burning Kick...I'd rather have Burn Knuckle and Slash Kick

Actually, the best would be Thunder Kick + Triangle Punch!

references galore!
smallwang at 08:02 PM on 03/14/08
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Reminds me of Terry Bogard from FF series
zanzibarlegend at 08:09 PM on 03/14/08
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Connectedness Index: 195

@Karlott: word what u said. now moving on to the topic at hand.. she looks amazing, i cant wait to whoop ass with Viper. all u shit talkers slamming the game will get owned, plain and simple. :D
zanzibarlegend at 08:10 PM on 03/14/08
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@JKPierce: this post ftw
kubevubin at 08:44 PM on 03/14/08
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She's definitely more of a KoF-style character. By the way, this screenshot looks awesome:

[kotaku.com]

I was having my doubts about this graphical style, but that particular screenshot looks really, really good. It's almost like watching a cartoon or something...
revender at 08:48 PM on 03/14/08
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Love those background animals.
SuperMekman at 09:32 PM on 03/14/08
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Looks good.
drbrownt0wn at 10:24 PM on 03/14/08
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she looks like a bitch; both in character form and in my imagination of how tough she will be to fight against.
magilacudy at 10:40 PM on 03/14/08
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Err... ok she has weapons? Is it just me or are they missing the point of a "return to Street Fighter 2"?
willyolio at 11:21 PM on 03/14/08
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@magilacudy:
and vega had claws.
UmeShoryu at 11:21 PM on 03/14/08
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@magilacudy: Well Vega used a weapon when he fought. I think when Ono spoke about returning to SF2 he didn't necessarily mean the design of the characters but giving 4 the accessibility 2 had. ie. Designing the game so that people who don't normally play fighting games can pick up the controller and immediately start having fun.

This is not a lets dumb down the game strategy but rather removing gameplay elements that may make it too hard for casuals to learn and replacing it with another system that is easier to master but still has enough depth for it to be used in high level play. This is how the saving system came to replace the parry system.

SF3 is a great game, but the parry system turned away a lot of potential fans. Not to mention an almost entirely new cast of characters. Look at this example, if you haven't played SF since the days of Champion Edition and one day you spot someone playing Third Strike you're gonna think cool a new SF game. So you go and and challenge the other guy. (Who happens to be well-versed in SF3 mechanics). You go to the select screen and don't recognize any of the new characters? WTH, where is Guile and Honda and Sagat? Oh well you go and choose Ryu. After picking Ryu you remember jump in fierce kick into sweep used to work wonders in SF2 so you try that. Other guy blocks your slow recovering sweep and hits you with a combo. You get up and try to mash out a throw, except throws are now two buttons and the guy just blocks your fierce punch and hits you with another combo. Ok, lets try fireballs. You keep throwing fireballs at him and notice he's somehow "teching" them and not taking any damage. So you try one last jump in kick only to get parried and supered. KO'd. You walk away angry, vowing to never play SF again.

Soul Calibur was better anyway.
Rivers at 12:16 AM on 03/15/08
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Benimaru?? KOF?? Anyone??
sebFlyte at 04:06 AM on 03/15/08
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Seriously, this game is the return to SFII they've been raving about.

The screenshots don't quite do the game justice... once you see the characters in motion it is unmistakeably a return to SFII.

The new characters fit in well too--I picked up SFIV having not played Street Fighter since SFII:T (which I played an insane amount) and felt almost-instantly at home. Crimson Viper feels like an SFII character to play as well; she's fast and relatively easy to pick up.
hastyp at 05:49 AM on 03/15/08
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Beautiful.
KM91 at 07:12 AM on 03/15/08
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@zetopazio: That's what I was thinking.
Witzbold at 07:35 AM on 03/15/08
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@Sherlock_the_Barbarian: I think your ability to comment needs to die NOW.
mquest at 03:35 PM on 03/15/08
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@Witzbold: Please don't mind if I second that comment.
Game looks excellent by the way. This looks like essential gaming to me.
Witzbold at 05:56 AM on 03/16/08
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I seriously am considering putting $$$ down for a machine after I get more $$$ saved up for other more important things in life.

Hopefully by then the price will have dropped a little.
Lord_Majestros at 06:05 PM on 03/16/08
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I hope it plays like Street fighter III(sadly sans parrying and offense heavy) just with the SF II cast. In action it kinda looks like SF3 which is to me the best 2D fighting game.
I'm in the "she looks like a King of Fighters character crowd by the way.
Lord_Majestros at 06:26 PM on 03/16/08
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I was going to leave a lot of my gaming in general thoughts out of this due to not knowing how much info people had gathered on this game so far but UmeShoryu's post changed my mind as that's the info I have but I am a pro SF3 gamer. I understand the roster alienation gripe but I grew to love SF3 and I'm not saying others should love it but my thing is the parry debate. With all the time I put into Street Fighter as a series I got wrecked before I was worth playing against and then finally started winning and the some may be for this game which is kinda another version of Street Fighter 2 which screams in my head that we don't need the HD remix game with this game coming out. I went off track a bit but any way the parry issue...I am not big on street fighter being made into a jump in and play game. That was a great example of the SF3 experience but with true series progression(fighters and gameplay) instead of rehashing SF2 for all those years SF3 would have gotten the pt it deserves. Every new person gets wrecked when they jump into a new game and I really wish for this new game to play better than Street Fighter 3 not whatever adjectives they can add to part 2. I'll most likely get it but pray for a demo first.
valuepack at 05:16 AM on 03/17/08
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So she has a tie tucked into her breasts? Is that what I'm seeing there?