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Ahead of the release of Street Fighter IV, this Ninja was given a task. The mission that I chose to accept involved a treacherous journey, full of the dangers of British public transport and its minions – human, metal and elemental – across the city to where a particular championship was being held.

In the lair of Oxford Street’s HMV, an age-old combat of skill, strength and endurance was being fought. There, through the thick dust of testosterone, I played witness to a host of warriors who would stand up and stake their bids to be declared an ultimate Champion of Street Fighter.

As the battles waged, I tracked down the mastermind behind it all; placing him under my barrages of questions. I now report back and bring you the interview with UK PR Manager of Capcom, Leo Tan. Here, we duel it out and discuss the eternal lure of Street Fighter, his views on the long awaited release, who the love of his Street Fighter live is and the character of his dreams:

S-N: Firstly Leo, thank you for taking the time out to talk to me. Let’s make a start with the first question! To me, Street Fighter has always been the longest standing fighting game. What do you think makes the games so enduring and appealing to both old and new fans?

LT: On the most primal level, I think it’s that people like to beat each other around the head. On a slightly more considered level, I’d say Street Fighter has endured because Street Fighter had solid character design, easy to understand rules and, well, maybe because it was just the most popular. Almost everyone knows the rules – Ryu can do fireballs, Blanka can do electricity, etc – so it’s easy for most of us to play. And the rules haven’t really changed, so the barrier to entry is quite low for anyone who’s played any of the Street Fighters. Which is quite a lot of people. That’s for older fans, though. I guess for newer fans it’s mostly the beating other people around the head.

S-N: For you personally, what has been the most significant event in SF history?

LT: The discovery of combos, I think. When Street Fighter II first came out the concept of combos in a fighting game didn’t really exist. You could link a jumping kick with a sweep, or maybe a dragon, but that was it. Until somebody discovered that you could cancel the recovery frames of a big hit by quickly inputting the command for a special move. It was an unintentional bug, but the developers realised it was brilliant and incorporated it properly into subsequent Street Fighters and the fighting game genre was born.

S-N: On SF IV, why has there been such a delay of 15 years in releasing a new game?

LT: My PR instincts tell me that I need to say it’s not a delay, since we never announced another Street Fighter, but you’re right. 15 years is way too long between Street Fighters. And actually, I thought that was probably it for Street Fighter. Fighting games had become so hardcore and niche, arcades had all but died and it reached the point where I was really struggling to find people to play against on the same level as me. Everyone was either much better or completely rubbish. I don’t think it would have made any kind of sense to release Street Fighter IV directly after Street Fighter III. For many of those still playing fighting, Street Fighter III had mastered the art form. Even today people are still playing Street Fighter III, and probably will continue to do so for quite a while yet. So there really wasn’t any need for another Street Fighter. But what our producers found over the years is, every time they had an interview with a journalist about any game, they were always asked “when’s the next Street Fighter?” It was a relentless attack from journalists from all over the world, so I guess 15 years is just how long it takes to break the will of our developers and force them to do our bidding.

S-N: What is your most and least favourite feature of the new game?

LT: The Focus is the best thing ever! Anyone can do it, it’s easy to fit into your game and it doesn’t die with minimal online lag like parrying does. So it allows the flow of game play to move backwards and forwards like a sort of Parry Lite, but isn’t a complete wall that shuts out beginners. And I guess after several months of dedicated play I also love how easy it is to do combos now. The timings are so relaxed in comparison to the older games. And love how much scope there is for creativity and stylish play, and the damage scaling stops it from destroying the game.

My least favourite is probably the difficulty of the AI on Medium. Seth is such a wall in comparison to the difficulty of the rest of the AI up to that point, and even though I’m pretty good, I struggle with any of the challenges on Hard. And I’m maybe top 50 in the UK at Street Fighter, so if they’re hard for me, they must be nigh on impossible for the other 99.9 per cent of the population trying to unlock all the colours and taunts.

S-N: Which new character impresses you the most and why?

LT: C. Viper. In the beginning everyone was so down on her. “She doesn’t flow”, “she doesn’t have good combos”, “why is she even in Street Fighter IV?” Now, though, the tournament players have completely torn her apart and I think she’s the most exciting to watch. Her rushdown offensive game with the feints and her combo potential make all her matches thrilling – she’s top tier! I love Joe the most, definitely check out his C. Viper on YouTube.

S-N: Are there any major differences between the platforms that the game is on and which one would you recommend?

LT: I can’t see any, to be honest. I’m sure that the rendering or shading or texturing is subtly different on each one, but then so is how it looks from TV to TV. So I’d say first make your choice of platform according to what your friends are playing it on, since you’ll probably be online a lot. If that’s not an issue and you’re going to play on a pad, make your choice according to which pad you like best. Though OBVIOUSLY you should be aiming to play on a stick, as God intended. And then finally, if you still can’t decide, buy both. If everybody bought two copies, we’d DEFINITELY make another Street Fighter!

S-N: For me, Chun-Li has always been the first lady of gaming – who was your first Lord and Lady of gaming?

LT: For me, it’s Chun Li too. She was my first Street Fighter character, because mashing kick buttons was an easy way to do damage and I liked to jump in and mash Mid Kick a lot. My first Lord was, predictably, Ryu. I still play him as my main, because I understand him the most and I’m too old now to really change my ways. I could learn another character, but then I couldn’t challenge any of the players I know, because I’d be rubbish. And I’d rather play them than spend time on my own in training mode.

S-N: If you could create any character of your own, who would it be and why?

LT: I am currently campaigning to be a character in whatever the next Street Fighter game is. This is a horrific abuse of my position but I don’t care. If any other Street Fighter player was in my position they would do the same. Deep down inside they know that, and so I know they’ll eventually forgive me if I succeed. Which I probably won’t. I am INCREDIBLY jealous of Seth Killian having a boss named after him, even though both he and the producer Ono-san are pretending that’s not the case. But it is. You know, I know it, they know it. The thing about that is, Seth has done loads for Street Fighter over the years, way more than his position at Capcom requires. He loves the game, he’s intimately involved with Evolution and the shoryuken forums and deserves to have some sort of presence in the game. I don’t. But that doesn’t mean I can’t try, right? Right?

S-N: It’s very hard to button bash with SF – something that I have always respected and liked about SF. Do you devote time to learning the moves off by heart, how do you memorise them and can you quote some of your favourites?

LT: Like most Street Fighter players I know every character’s moves. I also know most of their basic combos and roughly how they should play. I wouldn’t say I devote time to learning them, I just see them and then can do them. Perhaps when I was at school when it first came out I spent time going through a guide book trying to memorise everything but now it’s like a language I speak, and I can assimilate that kind of information as easily as I can assimilate new words into my vocabulary.

I don’t really have a favourite move, but I really love the dynamic that Makoto’s Hayate creates in Street Fighter III. It’s fast, does decent damage and leaves her opponent in slight disadvantage. And the pressure it creates is too much! I love it when the person receiving it falls into disarray and ends up randomly jumping and freaking out, or just eating an endless procession of them. It’s mind games at an incredibly fast speed and is right at the threshold of my ability. Which is where everyone should be when playing fighting games, because that’s when they’re at their best.

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I want to thank Leo again for giving me such an excellent interview; he’s been a fantastic opponent indeed. And let’s all keep an eye out for any new characters coming, who will showcase the true and deadly persuasive powers that Leo really has!