Gamers asking why they should upgrade to Super Street Fighter IV now have their answer. In addition to new characters, Capcom will include four-versus-four Team Battle, where both sides compete for world warrior supremacy. That, however, is just one of the exciting new features. Although the game debuts April 27th, the publisher plans to release a downloadable update on June 15th that'll bring the coolest mode of all, online Tournament.

Hit Select to save a fight to your hard drive, then invite friends to check it out.Click to see more images from the game...

For the first time in the Street Fighter series, players will be able to host and/or compete in four or eight person tournaments with other gamers from across the globe; they can even begin the tournament before everyone shows up. They're also not bound to using one character throughout the tournament; they can switch between matches.

Not only can the host edit the lineup to make sure everything's fair, but he or she can also take part or be a spectator. That opens up the possibility of friend, community and world championships. In fact, Capcom created the Sign of the Warrior, an in-game title held by the current Super Street Fighter IV online champ; an icon will appear in the person's profile to let you know he or she holds the title. They'll need to defend it in special tournaments. If they refuse or simply disconnect their console, Capcom will strip them of the honor and put it up for grabs.

As for the aforementioned Team Battle, players are split into two teams (red versus blue) and enter a lobby, where they can communicate with each other and comment on the match in progress. Meanwhile, the system does its best to create evenly matched teams, based on fighter data; the host makes adjustments as well. Naturally, the loser gets knocked out, while the winner advances.

In addition, players can save any match by pressing the select button. Doing so, even at the very end, will record the match to the person's hard drive. Then they can access their personal My Channel and send invitations to other players to view these videos.

The best thing about this, though, is the ability to study a player's button inputs and damage per move. Gamers can even view matches in slow motion.

On top of that, Capcom's created a Replay Channel, comprised of matches from around the world. Gamers can call up random fights, or select from the following categories: Boss (fights between boss characters), Newcomers (fights with new SSFIV characters), Alpha (matches featuring characters from the Street Fighter Alpha series), Originals (matches with the original eight Street Fighter II brawlers) and Turbo & III (featuring warriors from Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter III).

Finally, Capcom worked with Microsoft to offer at least 15 different Street Fighter costumes for Avatars. The list includes Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile and Akuma, among others. No word yet on how much they'll cost.

Until recently, there was little to get excited about with Super Street Fighter IV. It just seemed like a rehash with a handful of new faces. But all of these online modes (Tournament, especially) make it one of the deepest and most anticipated fighting games. Not only does that open up the possibility for heated competitions, but we also love being able to study data to improve our skills. We'll see you online next week.