Street Fighter is an institution, having repeatedly revolutionized the fighting game genre, and after a few years of obligatory overhauls and re-releases for SF4, it's finally time to see what the next chapter holds. Street Fighter 5 is coming to PC and PS4, and we've played it extensively. Fists were broken, teeth were knocked out, and many, many fireballs were thrown to bring you the information you're about to read.

SF5 retains the core principles of the series: one-on-one 2D fighting, with only a joystick and six attack buttons to work with. But as with any new fighting game, there's a lot you'll need to learn on the path to greatness. To bring you up to speed, here's everything we know so far about Street Fighter 5, from the comfortably familiar to the excitingly fresh.

If Sony's trying to establish itself as the premier destination for console fighters, snagging exclusivity for a franchise as legendary as Street Fighter is a big win. Xbox One and Wii U owners hoping to duke it out in SF5 may want to invest in a PS4 or now, because it looks like the next chapter in Capcom's fighting franchise won't be available anywhere else for some time. But there's a silver lining: this is actually a great move for the game's lifespan.

That's because Capcom's developing SF5 for cross-platform play - a monumental first for the series - in an effort to unite the community into a single centralized playerbase. Online bouts against friends or high-level competitors will no longer be restricted by whichever platform you own, and both versions are being built to maintain 1080p/60fps parity in Unreal Engine 4. Instead of fracturing the audience into isolated spaces, everyone's invited to the same online party in SF5, which should greatly enhance matchmaking and the rate that new combos and tactics get shared around.

The Street Fighter cast is packed with fan favorites, and so far it seems like Capcom is leaning on nostalgia as the guiding force behind its character choices. You'll want to check out our full breakdown of the , but Ryu, Chun-Li, M. Bison, and Nash (who you may know as Guile's counterpart Charlie) are all familiar faces that have made the return for SF5. It's standard operating procedure for new Street Fighter games to mix a bunch of established characters in with some newcomers, but it's still unclear what that balance will be in SF5's final roster.

We also don't exactly when SF5 takes place in the timeline, though visual details both small (Bison's head of white hair) and large (Nash's stapled-together zombie body) imply that these battles could be taking place long after the events of the Alpha series and SF2, but potentially before SF4 and SF3. If Capcom's not careful, the Street Fighter timeline could end up being just as confusing as Legend of Zelda's.

Focus Attacks are the central mechanic in Street Fighter 4: the ability to absorb a hit and unleash a devastating, inky-looking counterattack, or cancel a move to strengthen your offense or defense accordingly. Street Fighter 5 does away with Focus Attacks entirely. Instead, the focus (sorry) is all on the new V-Gauge, a small red meter just above your super bar. The length of the V-Gauge depends on your character, varying between two and three segments (from what we've seen so far). And managing this bar is key to victory in SF5's fast-paced brawls.

All the core mechanics of SF5 (V-Triggers, V-Skills, and V-Reversals, but more on those in a minute) come back to the V-Gauge, as you build or deplete it over the course of a fight. In the simplest terms, a player with a full V-Gauge has far more options than one without. So what can you actually do with these precious ruby-colored bars? Well, for starters...

Ultras are the other big system in SF4, where taking damage is the only means to activating a potentially tide-turning attack. They're designed to be the ultimate equalizer, but SF5 ditches Ultras and the idea of soldiering through the pain so you could dish it out yourself. Instead of flashy Ultras, each fighter has a unique V-Trigger, a special mode activated by pressing HP+HK. And though they can help you mount a comeback, they're more about playing your character to their full potential.

You're all but guaranteed to build up at least one V-Trigger each round, and once you've got it locked and loaded, there's no reason to save it for later. That's because of how powerful they are - giving Ryu chargeable, guard-breaking fireballs, or adding multi-hit properties to Chun-Li's normals, for instance - and the fact that the V-Gauge empties between rounds. While some are special move-enhancing modes, others like Nash's short-range Sonic Move teleport are a single action. Learning how each fighter's V-Trigger works will be crucial to your success.

So you know you want the V-Gauge to fill up, because it enables your powerful V-Trigger. And while taking and dealing damage will build it up little by little, your V-Skills are your primary method for boosting up your meter. Executed by pressing MP+MK (the old Focus Attack input), V-Skills are little maneuvers that provide tons of utility. They're a bit like the traits from : individualized modes or moves that can bolster your usual playstyle.

And when you'll bust them out depends entirely on your chosen character. For instance, Ryu's V-Skill, Mind's Eye, is actually a SF3-style parry exclusive to him, while Nash's Bullet Clear can absorb an incoming projectile (or bop the opponent if they're close enough). Using your V-Skill effectively is the best way to build up your V-Gauge, and there's no limit on how often you can utilize it. As with V-Triggers, true SF5 mastery will only be possible once you understand how all the V-Skills function.

The last ability related to the V-Gauge isn't as flashy as the other two, but it's arguably just as important. If you've played any of the Street Fighter Alpha games, you may remember the Alpha Counter, which lets you do a counterattack on the opponent while blocking. V-Reversals work almost exactly the same, letting you spend a bar of your V-Gauge to push back against an incoming onslaught and create some space.

Opportune use of the V-Reversal is crucial when you've got someone like Bison rushing you down, and you just need a moment to breathe and think about your next move. The input is a little tricky: while blocking an attack string, you need to tap toward the opponent and press all three punches. The distance it puts between you and your opponent also varies, so you'll have to get a feel for how they all work.

With all this talk about the V-Gauge, you might think that it's the only bar in the world that matters. Au contraire - the pulsing blue super meter and its four equal parts are still a factor in SF5, and it works the same way it did before. If you've got at least one bar of meter, you can unleash an EX version of your special attacks by pressing two buttons instead of just one. And once the meter's full, you can bust out a super attack, which have been renamed to Critical Arts in SF5.

Most players will probably rely on EX moves more than Critical Arts, but you'll need to decide whether you want more opportunities for decent damage or one chance for a devastating (but risky) attack. Finding that balance while managing your meter is necessary, and unlike the V-Gauge, any unspent super meter you build in one round will carry over to the next.

Having duked it out dozens of times in the two currently available stages, China and London, they're not too different from what you get in SF4: vibrant, moving backdrops that are interesting to look at without being distracting. Goofy spectators have lined up for each bout, including a four piece band in the London train station and an alarmingly stereotypical shopkeeper in the neon-lit streets of China.

But the levels can shift this time around. While SF4 had shattering pots and detachable plane wings, SF5 will let you open up entirely new areas if you KO your opponent in a certain spot. In China, you can cause a nearby tour bus to speed away or bust into the aforementioned shopkeeper's property. That said, the length of the stage will remain the same, and not every level has these transitions; what you see is what you get in the London level.

Netcode is a hotly debated topic in the realm of fighting games, given how it can completely determine the quality of your online experience. Slow matchmaking or rage quitters aside, you're guaranteed to have a bad time if every game you play on the 'net suffers from crippling lag, random drops, or missed inputs. SF4's netcode seems to run the full spectrum from great to unplayable, but SF5 hopes to smooth out online play with some new technology.

Dubbed "Kagemusha", Capcom has built this proprietary netcode for SF5 entirely from scratch, instead of porting over SF4's systems. If you're familiar with the popular GGPO netcode used in games like Skullgirls, Kagemusha is said to function in much the same way, utilizing mystical 'rollback' techniques to ensure that both players see and feel each fight in the same way. It's complicated stuff, but the bottom line is that SF5's online experience should be superior to that of SF4.

You've probably encountered the frustration of a one-frame link when messing around with SF4's combo trials. In essence, these are normal attacks that are crucial to some big-damage combos, but must be executed with the kind of precise, pinpoint timing (a single frame of animation) that eludes the majority of players. Capcom's Peter 'ComboFiend' Rosas tells us that they won't be as prevalent in SF5. "One-frame links are actually a big topic for us, because we know that it hinders some people from realizing their full potential," says Rosas. "In terms of input leniency and things like that, we're actually looking into methods to solve that, because we want everybody to be able to access damage."

That's not to say that executing combos will be easy, but reducing the need to master these overly-demanding timings should help reduce the gap between skilled and fledgling players. "Even if you can't perform a one-frame link, the damage differential between somebody who constantly does them and somebody who [knows some basic combos] won't be too far," says Rosas. "We want everybody to always feel like they're in the game."