Street Fighter IV to launch in March 2009

Movie producer Patrick Aiello has confirmed that the console release date of Street Fighter IV will coincide with 'The Legend of Chun-Li' - a brand-new Street Fighter film from Hyde Park Entertainment.

"Capcom is releasing Street Fighter IV in 2009, which is the 20th anniversary of the game," Aiello stated. "The film and game release dates will coincide."

Scheduled for March 2009, the movie takes a darker look at the Street Fighter universe, with Aiello encouraging comparisons to Batman Begins.

"The action is an organic result of the conflict that our characters find themselves in," he continued. "We took great care to construct our characters' starting point, so when we watched them grow in separate directions, good and evil, the fighting scenes would be out of natural conflict and make sense. It's very much like Batman Begins in that sense."

Street Fighter IV retains the series' light-hearted approach, however.

"I'm not certain how much of the game will coincide with the story because ours is a very partitioned off origin story of the Street Fighter universe," Aiello stated. "So the release dates will coincide, elements between the two will coincide, but in terms of them relating to each other perfectly, I don't believe that's the case."

And that's no bad thing with positive reviews pouring in for the arcade version. Roll on March 2009.