Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting

"One for the fans, but shows its age (and a few other problems)"

Before I begin this review, I want to make one thing clear: I never grew up with Street Fighter II. If I remember correctly, I rented it once for a few days when I was a kid and have dropped (maybe) $1.50 into various arcade machines. That being said, let me start with the good:

Graphics/Sound: 7.5/10
Dutifully recreated from the original. Not up to modern standards by any measure, but hey, if you want modern Street Fighter, just go buy Street Fighter Alpha XL Gamma Bravo 007 Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah (or whatever version they're out with now).

Gameplay: 8/10
Nobody does it better. There are no super-advanced combos in this game, no juggling, and no hallmarks of "modern" fighters. Yet, this is what makes this game so appealing (at least to me). The game is entirely built around reflexes, timing, and knowing what move to make in what situation -- almost pure skill. No button-mashing allowed here. As far as characters go, there are some that are unbalanced; however, there are enough unbalanced characters to balance things out (much like rain on your wedding day). This gameplay was popular for a reason.

And now, to the bad:

Control: 2/10
Here's where the problems begin, and where the majority of my frustrations come from: while the control scheme works well, it's nigh impossible to pull off the "special" moves with any sort of consistency. This is true when using either the d-pad or the joystick. I've literally been involved in both offline and online matches where I (and occasionally my opponent) have spent the last part of the match on one side of the screen doing nothing put punching air while trying to execute a "fireball." In a game where these moves are incredibly important, something like this renders your strategies impotent. And when playing on Xbox live, this sluggishness is exacerbated by lag, making much of the online game difficult to plan any sort of decent strategy for (leading to excessive use of button mashing and cheap strategies).

A.I.: 2.5/10
This is the main reasons I mentioned my inexperience at the beginning of the review. To summarize in one word: obdurate. To summarize in another word that I didn't get from a thesaurus: hard. I turned the difficulty down to its lowest setting (0 stars) and, after a week of play, can barely make it past the fourth or fifth level of single-player mode. All of the characters attack viciously and continuously, all of them will use "cheap" strategies, all of them have godlike reaction time, and all of them can execute their special moves instantaneously. For me, the single player game is unplayable. It's just too frustrating. I mean, if I wanted to get kicked in the balls, I could do that to myself (because I'm talented like that). This kind of A.I. would be unnaceptable in a modern game, and for good reason -- it's just plain bad.

Multiplayer: 5/10
I'm divided when it comes to multiplayer. On Xbox live, there are simply too many problems to have an constantly enjoyable experience. Some I've already mentioned -- lag and "cheap" players ruin the experience. Others deal with connection issues , as successfully starting a ranked "quick match" is practically nonfunctional because you can go minutes at a time without making a valid connection. However, when playing with friends in the same room, the game is as fun as it ever was. This is really the only time I've been able to enjoy the game, as all the cheapness, control, etc. issues are counteracted by the fact that I can still beat the crap out of the guy sitting next to me when all the aforementioned problems starts getting to me (or I can do it randomly. Both are fun).

Overall score (I worked it out to average correctly. Suck it, other reviewers): 5/10
If they fix the control and Xbox live issues and add a "pansy mode" (like in Ninja Gaiden Black.....shut up): 8/10

As I've said before, the single player is, for me, nonfunctional, and while Xbox live can be fun, it can also be frustrating, too. The real good times come with the game as it was meant to be played: with friends.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/06