Street Fighter II

"An incredible game in it's time."

In 1987 a little game by the name of Street Fighter made a modest debut in the arcades. While the game did introduce some very innovative concepts it was cursed by bad controls and failed to gain the public's eye. Flash forward to the year 1991 when it's sequel Street Fighter II: The World Warrior appeared. This game not only succeeded where it's predecessor failed but would prove to be one of the most revolutionary titles in the history of gaming. Yes this was the game that not only defined the tournament-fighting genre but also became the model for virtually every fighting game to come.

Now as I'm sure almost everyone knows by now when it comes to milking a good thing for all it's worth the folks at Capcom are the undisputed champions. But notorious as they are for their rehashes you gotta love them as one of the best names in developing high quality titles. The Street Fighter series is without a doubt one of the best examples of Capcom's ways. In fact the Mega Man series is probably the only one with more titles to it's name. Street Fighter II would eventually spawn dozens of remakes on many different platforms including the SNES, Genesis, and even some of the more obscure platforms like the 3DO. First there was World Warrior, than there was Champion Edition, than Turbo, than Super, then Super Turbo and no doubt others I don't know about. While World Warrior is the most basic Street Fighter II game and lacks much of the flare of it's later rehashes it still manages to hold a special place in the hearts of many gamers as the original and definitive tournament fighting game.

Street Fighter II has excellent visuals throughout the game. Almost everything was ported very faithfully from the arcade. The character sprites, backgrounds, and special moves all look as they should. The only flaw is that the graphics can't quite match the quality seen in the arcade version of Street Fighter II because of the hardware limitations (lower animation frames being the most noticeable graphical flaw). But complaints aside it's really a great effort and for a game from 1991/92 these are some pretty impressive visuals if I do say so myself.

Once again the game delivers with excellent audio. Each character's stage has it's own theme (all of which hold legendary status in the world of old school fighters). The themes fit perfectly with the characters and IMO the Street Fighter series has some of the greatest music of the entire 16-bit era. The composer should be proud. Thanks to the SNES’s excellent sound chip the music and sound effects are almost arcade perfect.

The game play in Street Fighter II was so ground breaking when it was first released that it revolutionized the entire genre. Before Street Fighter fighting games were entirely beat em up/ side scrolling oriented. Street Fighter gave us the concept of 1 on 1 combat using special moves to defeat your opponents. However it was Street Fighter II that would take this idea to new heights.

Now if you are a newer gamer to the genre and are used to playing fighting games with all the super combos, turbo speed, air counters, extra strikers, parrying, and other nifty abilities common to newer fighters let me warn you right here and now that Street Fighter II has none of the above mentioned notta, nothing, zip. This is classic old school fighting my friends. But if you can look beyond this and appreciate Street Fighter II for what it is a pioneer (and a damn good one at that) you will no doubt enjoy it.

The game play that Street Fighter II has to offer was truly incredible in it’s time. A nice selection of different characters each with their own signature fighting style and moves was what really set it apart from the original Street Fighter II and other earlier fighters. The cool versus mode where you can challenge a friend to a match was also a major high light. Challenging friends or the local champ to a match was one of the biggest appeals of the arcade version of Street Fighter II. Yes kids, teens, and even adults of the early 90’s spent many quarters on this one. So as you can imagine having this mode in the SNES version was a very welcome edition.

Unfortunately the game play is in many ways the game’s biggest downfall as well. You see while the game is excellent in itself and can easily hold it’s own against pretty much any other fighter from the same time period it falls flat on it’s face when weighed against all the remakes out there. Why get World Warrior when you can have Turbo or Super with their greater assortment of moves, more characters, better game play balance (Turbo), tournament and time modes (Super), hyper speed (Turbo), improved vs. mode, and other bonus features? My point exactly.

The game really doesn't have much of a story. Basically each fighter is participating in a martial arts championship for the title of “World Warrior”. To win the tournament they have to defeat each of their opponents and then face the four grand masters. Each individual character has his/her own story, which is revealed in the game endings but none really go into much detail and much of your character's personality remains a mystery (Ryu in particular). But of course good story lines aren't really necessary in fighting games so it's no big deal.

The SNES controller is perfectly suited for Street Fighter II and made it easy for the console version to play very faithfully to the arcade. Each fighter’s attacks consist of three levels of punch and kick strength (weak, medium, and hard) with a button for each respective strength (six in total). With the SNES this layout transferred perfectly because of the controller's six action buttons. The controls are tight and responsive just like they should be so you should have no problem moving your character around and pulling of special moves.

Oh man this game is so replay able. Sure there are no secret options to unlock but it's just so much fun experimenting with each character’s moves and going head to head with a second player in vs. matches it just never gets old. Speaking of which you have a total of eight selectable characters (a lot for the time) including the original street fighters Ryu and Ken as well as Street Fighter II's all-star cast of Guile, Zangief, Dhalsim, Chun-Li, Blanka, and E.Honda. Unfortunately you can’t select the four grand masters Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison in this version.

I really wanted to give this game a 10/10 it’s a great game after all but there’s really no reason to buy it over the vastly superior Turbo or Super editions therefore I have to lower the mark a bit to be fair. Unless you want it for nostalgia sake as the game that defined the tournament-fighting genre get one of the those other two instead you’ll get a lot more bang for the buck.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/06/02, Updated 10/06/02