Street Fighter EX2 Plus

"SF E=mc^2 carry the three..."

Street Fighter returns to the 3D format with its sophmore attempt. Characters have returned, some have been dropped, some brought from out of retirement, and some are totally new. And while it's not Dead or Alive 2 or Tekken; it makes up for it in the dazzeling special moves and and new fighters coming in.

The old gang consist of Ryu and Ken (:b), Guile, Chun-Li, Dhalsim, Zangief, Blanka, Vega, Sagat, and Bison. The later four had been added to the plus version of EX2; Bison being from the first EX. And the new guys follow from their first introduction:

Pullum; the princess from India that likes to dance you into submission.
Darum; her ever-ready bodyguard who wants to challenge Zangief on a 1-on-1.
Hokuto; from Guy's Bushin clan. She looks better now...
Doctorine Dark; this assassin's still after Guile's head. And no, he's not anywhere near these so-and-so's at Mortal Kombat.
Cracker Jack; a nice guy. Did he quit Shadowloo?
Skullomania; car salesman by day... Car salesman going out of his mind by night... ^_^
Sharon; a secret agent and another of a few who uses Gunz.
Nanase; Hokuto's li'l sis who wants to show the world how strong she is. Her pole reaches full screen length. She's that strong.
Area; a brilliant scientist's brilliantly scientific daughter who's here to test out her latest weapon.
and Vulcano Rosso; another ''poor soul walking the path between love and hate.''

The secret characters are:
Shadowgeist; car salesman's boss by day...
Kairi; a killing machine who'd probably killed Akuma (a reason why he's not here...).
Garuda; keeper of the shrine to the killing arts.
and Hayate; a Hayato from Plasma Sword wiht a change of clothing. ^_^

If you're looking for plot; you should look in Evil Zone; another PSX game. But what it does have is the EX mode (basically a Custom Combo technique); ''Meteor Comboes'' that are either suped-up specials, not really worth doing, or just completely silly; and a ''Director's Mode'' where you can record and edit a favorite fighting move. It's also got a lot of bonuses like ''barrel-breaking'' and ''satellite-destroying.''

Is it worth your money, this EX2+? If you're a die-hard fan of SF; you'd say ''Hail Yeah!'' If you're sick of Dan Hibiki, you'll be glad that you'll not find him here. Each character's moves are cool to perform and are nearly completely original to the others. I'd say buy it, give it a try, and if you don't like it... At least be glad that there's someone out there that will gladly take it out of your hands. ^_^

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/00, Updated 06/24/00