@StrawHatRican:
Like I said, take it with a grain of salt…I'm just repeating rumors from testers and stuff I've heard here and there from Nakky Blogs.
The new anime is apparently a Madhouse production (Trigun/Hajime no Ippo) so the quality shows. SF4 according to some friends I have in Sony was done with a VERY tight budget, the success of the game allowed them to expand the budget a bit which is why the presentation in this new version coming out seems more polished.
Refer to my last point about the budget ,althou Ono DID state he wanted the character themes to be more prevalent in this version, and I agree my heart pounds a bit faster when Ryu/Ken/Bison/Guile and Zangief's themes are playing instead of the generic stage BGM (cept for the Volcanic Rim stage BGM...that shit is god mode).
Street Fighter Alpha 2 was probably the mecca of the CPSII board Capcom games (no offense directed at SFA3 but the OVERALL design of SFA2 was way more polished). Stages/Music/Illustrations and Endings were top notch in SFA2. SFA3 while a superior game (balance wise and roster wise) suffered from disjointing music (wtf was up with Ken's theme) and some strange stage designs (I admit I love Cody and Ryu's stages but the rest are pretty "bleh").
All in all the SSF4 stages are looking nice in the design department but I wish they would give some of the original World Warriors some of their settings: (Chun Li and Guile "have" their stages but where is my HONDA BATHHOUSE DAMMIT!!!?).
I could also tell that the lack of anime quality was a budget cut. I guess Capcom wanted Ono to focus everything on the gameplay.
With SF4 success, Capcom has faith in him. Ono has spent a lot of years to convince Capcom to make a new street fighter. The arcade and fighting genre was less less popular a decade ago. I am not counting the number of FPS now. After all, a games is as expensive as making a movie. There can be no mistakes. I guess video game makers play the safe card with FPS.
It was not such a bad idea to have the classic themes playing during the rivals fight after 7 generic theme. it makes the rival fight more memorable and nostalgic. Your blood pumps again.
I agree alpha 2 stages were much better than Alpha 3. Yes, the artwork and illustrations were incredible and memorable. Sagat vs Ryu was epic in the thunder plain. The ost was way superior. The endings were alpha 3 were cheap because 99 percent of the time Bison the dictator got owned by someone.
Personally, the "Ryu final" manga is a masterpiece. Every chapters, every fights make sense and they all play a part in the story. It is like a well made story unlike Naruto. Ryu wins fight in a lot of pain and difficulties. You feel that the famous plot no jutsu does not exist. Ryu really earns his victory. The art is incredible, you recgonize Ryu's shoryuken.
Ryu vs Akuma is 10 times shorter than Itachi vs Sasuke and 10 times better in every way. I wish Capcom makes an OAV. it really deserves it.
SF2 the animated movie had incredible animation and realism. The Ryu final is the reference in terms of story telling.