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With no need to save up your quarters for the arcade, Street Fighter IV is on its way to home consoles.

It’s been a long time coming, but Capcom has decided to grand the wish every Street Fighter fan with the fourth installment (no counting spin-offs and updates) in the series. What can fans look forward to when it releases? Already released in arcades, we have some insight on what to expect.

Ryu is back to reclaim his spot as the top emotionless fighter.

Among the most important aspects for fighting titles has to be the character roster. In the arcade version there are 18 fighters currently residing in the world of Street Fighter. Don’t fret if you consider 18 to be a small number as Capcom is promising to include at least extra three characters for the console versions. As for who is represented, here is a list of characters you can currently play (or will in the console versions) with:

1. Ryu. 2. Ken. 3. Chun-Li. 4. Guile. 5. M. Bison. 6. Sagat. 7. Vega. 8. Balrog. 9. E Honda. 10. Blanka. 11. Zangief. 12. Dhalsim 13. Vega. 14. Rufus (new). 15. El Fuerte (new). 16. Abel (new). 17. Crimson Viper (new). 18. Seth (new). 19. Dan. 20. Cammy. 21. Fei Long.

Street Fighter IV not only features a healthy cast of characters, it also has in-depth fighting mechanics that should please hardcore fans. The largest introduction to SFIV is the focus attack which is essentially built up counter attack against your opponent. Think of it as building up adrenaline and then using it to counter your opponent with a surprise attack. Having played around with the focus attacks, it’s safe to say that they add a new tactic for players to take advantage of within their fights rather than continually trying to string together large combos.

Another large reason why the console version will prove to be a worthy cure for your Street Fighter addiction is the possibility of downloadable content. Yes, that’s right; Capcom and the producers of SFIV are considering bringing forth downloadable characters after the release of the title to the consoles. No word on what the download content would consist of, but one can only imagine that new characters and environments to fight in are in the works.

The last bit of information we have on the console versions are that they may end up including the car-smashing bonus rounds. It also hasn’t been officially announced, but Yoshinori Ono, the producer, has commented in the past that he has considered adding them in. It would be a godsend if they are included as gamers love to whack away on those cars in-between matches – plus, they served as a great distraction from straight up fighting.

You can look forward to Street Fighter IV on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC for either a late 2008 or early 2009 release. Until then, stay tuned to GWN for our coverage of Street Fighter IV over the next few months.