Street Fighter II

"Shoryuken Like This Game"

Introduction

It's very scary when a lot of gamers today are too young to have played or remember one of the greatest fighting games to ever grace the arcade. Street Fighter II: The World Warrior is most definitely the best of the best in fighting games to date. The only competition at the time was the more mature and realistic Mortal Kombat series that also got transferred to the Super Nintendo, but Street Fighter II is able to keep the same fun you had at the arcade and transfer it to the Super Nintendo. Now questions you may have about whatever happened to the first Street Fighter game or what happened to this series after its run at the arcade will not be answered here. For even I do not have that kind of knowledge. But all I can say is that it does not get any better than Street Fighter II.

Game Play

This is a very short game depending on how you play the game. The difficulty levels are set just right so that you can either run through the game on the easiest difficulty or shoot for watching some end stories to your favorite characters by playing through on more difficult modes. The controls work pretty much the same way as it does at the arcade by using combinations of buttons to perform certain moves like a spinning uppercut...now you know.

There are only eight characters to play and as this is the same game you get in the arcade. If you were expecting to play as Bal Rog or Vega then you should have picked up Street Fighter Turbo. Anyway you get the original eight featuring some not so realistic characters but they are diverse enough. You can either play as the traditional martial arts master Ryu or play as the South American cross between Bigfoot and an electric eel in Blanka. Some characters like E. Honda and Chun Li have some moves that can put an opponent at a huge disadvantage with rapid kicking or punching moves. There are four special characters in the game and two special bonus levels. You have to go through Bal Rog, Vega, and Saggot to get to M. Bison who is the final guy. In between matches you will also get to beat up a bunch of bricks and dish out some damage on a car to prove you have unbeatable skill. The last few guys are rather challenging, but the bonus levels are just fun levels to get to practice rapid button mashing. The challenge level in this game is set up very well compared to the likes of Mortal Kombat's over the top challenge.

Chances are your mother would have rather watched you electrocute some sumo wrestler in Japan than have your ball breaking character be upper cut into a acidic cess pool. The violence factor is non-existant with no blood or fatality finishing moves to perform. Of course the winner of a match will have some pitiful taunt at the end, but that is about it. There is also a versus mode for tournaments between your own family and friends which is a must for a game like this.

Graphics/Sound

The graphics are 2-D cartoon with the background effects of people watching you and doing the same motions over and over. You get to fly all over the world only to fight in some dump like a Chinese market street or right there on the airstrip at a U.S. airforce base. The graphics lose no value in the transition to the Super Nintendo. The sound is what is always fun because you can test out the sound effects and music yourself. You definitely could not try this on the arcade version. The options mode allows you to test the volume by allowing you to play all of the sounds effects and music tracks in the game. The music is excellent for such a fighting game and the sound effects are very memorable. Anybody to ever play this game can remember a particular phrase one of the characters yells in this game.

Replay Value

Due to the different challenge levels for this game you get some replay value as far as playing through the tournament goes. It depends on how good you are and what difficulty you play on, but the length of the game is about a day. This is an arcade transfer remember. The characters all have different endings to view so this is an added reason to play through the tournament with all of the characters. This is very challenging though.

Final Recommendation

Street Fighter II is a classic must-own game. If you were walking and talking in the early 90's then there is no reason why should not be familiar with this game because it was freaking everywhere! It was a very smart move to make this transfer to the Super Nintendo and forever keep the experience alive on the console. This game was all for the kids as the mature concept of Mortal Kombat kept it on the backburner and everyone dreamed of becoming as awesome as Ryu shooting fireballs like Mario and day dreaming of hot dates in a Chinese restaurant with Chun Li. This game was, is, and is still the best fighting game to date.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/20/08

Game Release: Street Fighter II (US, July 1992)