Street Fighter II Turbo

"How do you defeat a Dragon Punch anyway?"

Street Fighter II started something huge. With this title alone, the concept of one-on-one fighting was no longer boring and Capcom effectively created a genre where new series always keep popping nowadays. Some are quickly forgotten while some perpetuate the tradition. And since Capcom did start everything, the Street Fighter series handled beautifully for a while.

Back then, Capcom discovered the joys of adding a suffix to their main title. History would then also prove that this was maybe a bad idea as they outdid themselves by never understanding when a series should stop. Nevertheless, this worked for some time. It didn't just work, it was a marvellous idea because Capcom knew how to improve upon the prequels such that everybody would move on to that new game. Street Fighter II Turbo is the best example you could possibly get hold of.

SFIIT has a nice eclectic task which smartly answers everybody's demands. Whether you like to play aggressively, whether you are more of the ''one-hit'' strategy, whether you like to toss people about with damaging throws. Ryu and Ken are the marked men ; Chun Li carries the burden of being the sole female in the game ; Dhalsim will give you head-aches with his limbs ; each character has been crafted for a particular type of gamer and none have been left out.

But SFIIT is above all a marvellous fighting experience. Gameplay is simple and intuitive. The helpful 6-button configuration makes the controls easy to grasp although the shoulder buttons can be a drag. However, this minor fault is quickly forgotten as one really gets in this game, something which does not take too long.

Dragon-Punching, Hurricane-Kicking or Sonic-Booming your way through, you are set to defy the empire of M. Bison. You face everybody, mirror matches included. And although the game doesn't explicitly say so, there are bosses to make your life harsh and to ensure you don't make it to the big villain. Balrog, the Mike Tyson-ripoff will annoy you with his stances ; Vega, everybody's favorite narcissist, hides behind a mask so you can't hit him in the face ; Sagat is as badass as they come, you'll learn to fear him soon.

Skill is required to come to terms with them as they all have a few tricks up their sleeves to counter you. And if you're a newbie, trying not to get caught in dubious traps such as a fireball-contest against Ryu or a jumping-contest against Blanka isn't so evident. Thankfully, you can just set the game as the lowest difficulty and practice a bit against the same Ryu who is nothing more than a punching-bag at this level. But you'll need it if you want to tackle the high difficulties and make it through alive.

This classic fighter is a beauty on the SNES. It makes full use of the palette to give the game splendid visuals. The characters have appropriate stances which never look horrid as it has happened so often in the same type of games. Backgrounds are well-detailed and if anything else, very colorful. A prime example of this is Blanka's Brazilian stage with realistic on-lookers cheering for the overlooked green beast. Similarly, the elephants in Dhalsim's dwelling look real while Honda's background undergoes some changes whenever the fight ends. You can even break crates or statues in specific stages.

The music is another extraordinary part of this game. While everybody would hum Mario's theme, I would find it more normal to recall the pre-fight music which really sets the mood. Every single piece marvelously accompanies the character but it doesn't take a Spider-sense to figure out that Guile's upbeat techno track is better than the rest of the soundtrack by leagues. It is No. 16 in the Options menu -don't forget to check it- and it's playing right now as I'm typing up this review.

There is also some voice-acting to render it SFIIT even more attractive, as if that was ever needed. Each time you go on to face the next fighter, you'll hear the name of his country being called. Be it ''Japan'', ''USA'' or ''Thailand'', the announcer is perfect and adds to the eerie feel of the game. Moves' names are called out too as you decide to adopt an aggressive style and start to unleash projectile after projectile hoping this will be enough to keep fat but still fast E. Honda away.

In addition, SFIIT also sports 3 bonus stages. All three are irritatingly easy and really appear to have been thrown in just for the sake of holding your interest should you get tired of the game. And that wasn't even necessary. In 1-player mode or against a challenger, Turbo is all the time vastly entertaining and hasn't aged at all. I'd rather play this than all the junk that Capcom have been churning out lately and the hype around shallow titles like Virtua Fighter 4 only reinforces my opinion.

Play it.

Always.

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Shoryuken !

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/29/02, Updated 11/09/02