The game I most want right now is Street Fighter IV, and I don't particularly want to wait.

When I was in my early teens, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior was the battle I chose to fight with my mother. My dad was usually on the road, smack dab in the middle of his 'owner/operator of a long-haul semi truck' phase, and that left my sister and I mostly alone--except for every other weekend or so--with one figure of authority and moral guidance.

I knew that my mom didn't like Street Fighter II and I knew why: she simply needed an education.

When you say 'street fighter' to a parent--then as now--you conjure up unpleasant images: goons lounging casually near chain link fences, juggling switchblade knifes and possibly swearing between a trip to the local hotel for a roll between the sheets with a prostitute. That's how my mother saw it, at least, and that's how I know a lot of her friends did.

So I launched a campaign on how Street Fighter II wasn't really about all of that, how my interest came down to just the two warriors, battling it out before one emerged the victor and the other went home battered and bruised... but still very much alive.

In essence, I sold her on the genre (or at least, resigned her to the fact that this was important to me and that I wasn't going to give much ground). Eventually, I had her blessing to save up what money I could scrape together and purchase the game... and so I did.

Of course I enjoyed it. Of course I played the heck out of it--hour after hour, day after day... for months--and of course my mom said that it made me a violent person and that video game violence was evil. She was wrong and I got to keep playing the game (because, after all, I never tried to throw a fireball at my sister or anything like that).

And that brings us to the present, so many years later, when Capcom is preparing to unleash a new round of Street Fighter perfection on the fans... people like me who never really grew out of that old-fashioned gamer mentality that says "lots of punches and kicks and fireballs and Chun-Li do make for a great game."

The complaints I've been hearing are that Street Fighter IV is really nothing but a much prettier remix of Street Fighter II with a handful of new characters. And so I say "Bring it on." And to that I add "Quickly, please!"