i thought a lot of the 3S cast was much better than the new guys of SF4. i like Dudley, Makoto, Ibuki, Yun and Yang. i think they are better than Rufus and crew, so far as character designs go.
if you think about it, that's what every new character does with the exception of Abel. they are gimmicked offense characters designed to guess correctly once, then be able to stick to you like glue for the rest of the round, which doesn't fit Street Fighter too well, imo. i mean, if i wanted to play a mindless rushing offense after one correct guess, i could just play BlazBlue.