Street Fighter II Turbo

"The Father Of All Fighting Games!!!"

Introduction

Street Fighter II- Some call it ''the father of all fighting games'' as it introduces modern concepts to fighting games. There is no deniable that Street Fighter II is still one of the best classic fighting games and it is as good as old-school gets.

What It Is About???

Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, the second Street Fighter II game was released in 1993. It is mainly an enhanced version of the already excellent Street Fighter II. Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting added speed and playable bosses to an already successful formula and there's no doubt that Hyper Fighting is by far the best Street Fighter game for the SNES. For those who already have a copy of Street Fighter II, you might feel yourself being cheated. Why? Since there is an enhanced copy, why do I take the trouble to buy the older version? Even if you already have Street Fighter II, I'll still strongly recommend you to buy Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting.

Since Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting is mainly an enhanced version of Street Fighter II and I believe that many diehard fighting veterans should have played it before, therefore, I will not spend too much time on explaining how it plays and go straight to the main points to make my review as short as possible.

What's New

Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting boasts over 12 standard selectable characters, which includes Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Blanka, Vega, M. Bison and so on. Each fighter has his or her own fighting arena. For example, Chun Li's fighting arena is a background of a marketplace, showing the streets of China while that of Guile shows a background of an airport. Don't get deceived by the 2-D graphics because it's a 16-bit game.

Graphics

The characters and backgrounds are very well animated. The graphics are not as good as today's modern Street Fighter III, but in 1993, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting has one of the best 16-bit graphics.

Music and Sound

The sound effects are truly awesome. When each fighter does a special move, you can hear certain sound sample. For example, the sound sample will be ''Sonic Boom'' for Guile and ''Yoga Fire'' for Dhalsim. In Dhalsim's arena, you can even hear an elephant groaning. Furthermore, each fighter also has his or her own background tune that suits him or her the best.

Want More???

As mentioned before, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting added speed to the game and the result of it is a more fast-pace fighting game than the already excellent Street Fighter II. Remember this code? Press Down, R, Up, L, Y, B on the second player controller while the word ''Turbo'' starts to scroll across the opening screen. You can now pick a 10-star speed setting. Can you imagine how fast the game will be?

If these aren't enough to satisfy you, there are also bonus stages too, which require you to destroy objects ranging from barrels to a car within a limited time. Furthermore, fighters have more varied moves than any other Street Fighter games that are released before this that ranges from the usual combos to the projectile attacks.

Conclusion

Need I say anymore? Not only is the translation excellent, but also the control as well. The newly added speed to the already impressive Street Fighter II in the Hyper Fighting is already a very good reason to purchase Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting. Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting is asolutely a classic game. Do you know? Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting ranks 5th in Electronic Gaming Monthly's Top 100 game list. Read Electronic Gaming Monthly issue 100 to find out more. [Well, I am not really surprised that the game makes it to the top ten.]

Graphics : 9.5/10.0
Concept : 9.5/10.0
Control : 9.5/10.0
Music : 9.0/10.0
Sound : 9.5/10.0
Gameplay : 10.0/10.0
Replay : 10.0/10.0
Challenge : 9.0/10.0
Overall : 10.0/10.0

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/20/00, Updated 12/16/02