Street Combat

"Why did Irem screwed up the original jp version (Which it's Ranma!) and replace it with crap that needs to be flushed away!"

I remember when I was 12 years old I rented Street Combat only to fall victim to this abomination of a game. I was driven so mad that I actually destroyed the game with a hammer and was grounded because my parents had to pay for the loss of the game. After a while I finally forgot about those awful moments created by the mess that was Street Combat, or so I thought.
I am also a big Ranma 1/2 fan, and I own almost every season of the show and the average Ranma 1/2 Hard battle game for the SNES. Just not long ago my brother bought online the Ranma 1/2 Chonai Gekitosen (translated Neighborhood Combat), which was only released in Japan. When I played the game, I realized that this game was somehow familiar. And suddenly, I recalled those horrible memories of Street Combat and its aftermath. At the same time I also learned that Street Combat was an atrocious translation (if you can call it a translation) of Ranma 1/2 CG, which might explain why this Ranma game never made it to the U.S. And now I will explain why Street Combat earned its place in the gaming hall of shame.

STORY: 2 words: UTTERY DESPICABLE!! You are a turd named Steven who fights against a group of butt-ugly thugs to win a bare-bones tournament, and that's it. Other than that, it's an abysmal version of the Ranma storyline. Instead of male and female Ranma, it's the idiot that is Steven and you either play as him with a suit of combat armor, or his standard outfit. Instead of Genma, you've got a devil horned macho man. Kodachi has been replaced with Bobo the Clown. Rather than fighting Tatewaki Kuno, you fight a G.I. Jerk of a samurai fighter. Principal Kuno had to resign because a military robot in a hoverboard took his job here. Shampoo was rinsed out of the game by a supposedly female ninja that actually looks like a cross-dressing man in her in-game picture. And Ryoga was switched with a #%$^% up Power Ranger!!. Holy Crap! Even Barny the Purple Dinosaur was more entertaining than this pile of @&$%!

GAMEPLAY: In the 1 player mode you only play as Steven in either with or without his armor suit, but it doesn't matter because there's no difference between both versions of Steven. You can't play as the other characters unless you're playing the 2 player mode. Now when playing the 1 player mode your opponents are real dumb. Most of the time they can be easily defeated by using throws or the same special move over and over again. Another thing is that there are 2 ridiculous bonus levels in which you have to (a) beat the hell out of an elderly dwarf, and (b) hit the objects he throws at you. The old shorty is supposed to be both Happosai and Cologne. Seroiusly, is this some kind of import prank, because I'm not laughing.

SOUND: You'd better play with the volume low because the sounds in this game will make your ears bleed. All the music tracks are as bad as Hanson's music and the characters have no voices except for their annoying groans and grunts. And as for the sound effects, even NES sound effects sound more realistic than the ones in this game. Were the sound designers on shrooms?!

CONTROLS: Now this is absolutely pointless! Why is there a jump button when in other 2D fighting games you can just press up on the D-pad? And you know what's worse? There is a special attack button, which is the most stupidest feature because special attacks are supposed to be performed with continuous button patterns. It is also the most irrelevant feature because each character has their own set of special attacks that can be done without the special attack button, and sadly most of them can be done with the same button pattern/s.

GRAPHICS: What can I say? There's nothing great or horrible about the graphics, and the backgrounds are uninspiring, boring, and most of them have no animation. 'Nuff said.

REPLAY VALUE: First of all, there's a good chance you won't want to reach the end. Second, even if you manage to withstand the game's problems, you'll end up wasting precious time because there's no unlockable feature whatsoever that will make this pile of crap entertaining. Better yet, avoid this game like the plague.

OVERALL: Street Combat was not only a failed Street Fighter clone, it was also a Ranma fan's worst nightmare. It showed what would happened if the Ranma 1/2 series was done so horrendously. Even though Ranma 1/2 CG has the same gameplay as its mistranslated failure, it's still better to play the Ranma version than be stuck with the U.S. version. I hope Rumiko Takahashi sued Irem for their ill-fated decision to use one of her best known series as toilet paper.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/07