"The Moon doesn't contain this much cheese..."

I've never disliked a Street Fighter game. I am one of the few people to even like the first one. If you're thinking ''Everyone liked Street Fighter II!'' I should whomp on you pretty good. Anyway, I even liked all the EX's. This one... it shouldn't have existed. I've been playing Street Fighter since I was 5 years old, and what has been in common with every game? Other than Ryu? Yes, a 6 button fighting button configuration. Why did they ditch it? Just to confuse the hell out of people and make it easier for the idiots in the arcade to have something to be proud about.

Controls: -90 Ok, I put this first because it just really pisses me off. Since Street Fighter, the original, there has been three punches and kicks. Why change it now? This is like some sort of horrible Capcom version of Fighter's Megamix, and we can all greatly remember how that was a smash hit, right? The fierce/roundhouse buttons were replaced with assist buttons. Why not just have a combonation of buttons and/or joystick movements to do this? I can tell you why. Capcom is running out of crap. They tried 4-button with Rival Schools, and it was workable, but they still went back to 6-button. Now, in the middle of a ''series'' they change it to a much more akward version? Bologna if you ask me. You try to call out one of your partners out, and the one who's healing comes out, and you die. That's just.... annoying. More about how to die later in this review. If you hated the loser people who used ''easy'' version on previous games, you might as well not play, because it's almost like a permanant easy mode.

Graphics: 5 Still cartoonish. Why do they still have Alpha Ryu in this? I personally prefer Street Fighter II's Ryu, but I guess nobody else likes a real fighter's face and loves the boyish look. Backgrounds are smooth, but the characters still look crayon-colored.

Music: n/a Not that there isn't any, but come on. Asking me to grade music for an arcade game? Think about that.

Gameplay: 1 First off you pick three characters. That's just... a KoF wannabe attribute right there, but then they screw things up by trying to make everyone easily accessable. Second.... the energy... dear LORD. A strong kick takes 15% of your life. This leaves the Hyper Combos (not to be taken lightly, the combo part...) which can take at least half of your life, only to be chained with the other three fighters (by repeating the basic special move command, you can bring out another fighter to raise hell again) you can easily take out 1 or two fighters with full lives, and with certain characters it is TOTALLY possible to kill an entire team. How cheesy is that? Anyway, I play this game strictly because I can kick ass in it, and it's fun to waste other people's money, isn't it?

Overall: 3 Try to stay away from this game unless you are a diehard tournament fighter fan, like me, and play for sport only. Otherwise, you will want to castrate yourself after playing.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 06/05/00, Updated 02/20/03