"One of the best fighting games in Gameboy!!!"

Street Fighter II is sometimes known as ''the father of all fighting games'' as it introduces modern concepts to fighting games. The game revolutionised the fighting genre when it hit the arcade in 1991. No surprised, the most revolutionising fighting game was released for the Game Boy as well.

I'll try and make this review as short as possible. In my opinion, this isn't the best Street Fighter II version yet. The best version will be Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting. Anyway, there's no doubt that Street Fighter II is one of the best fighting games for the Gameboy till today.

There are a total of 9 fighters, naming Ryu, Ken, Zangief, Blanka, M. Bison, Balrog, Guile, Chun Li and Sagat. There are a total of four modes, naming normal, versus, survival and option. The normal mode allows you to choose a fighter and fight with the CPU. The versus mode allows you to play two players, provided that you have a Gameboy link cable and two gameboys but i suppose not many gameboy owners have that at that time. The survival mode allows you to choose a fighter and fights continously without any refilling of your fighter's lifebar and it ends when your fighter gets K.O. The option mode allows you to configure the game level, time limit, music and effect.

Despite the fact that the screen is black-and-white, the graphics are generally quite good. Fighters look good, so are the backgrounds. Imagine the SNES Street Fighter II version without any colour. Just black-and-white alone. The only complaint that i have is that when two identical fighters are fighting together, because of the black-and-white screen, it's hard to differentiate the two of them. At least, in the SNES version, the fighters can have different colours in their outfits. Nevertheless, what can you expect from a Gameboy? Overall, Capcom has done a great job here.

The music and sound effects are generally quite good. Familiar Street Fighter tunes are back though the tunes doesn't sound as good as the SNES version. Each fighter also has his or her own tunes that suits him or her the best. The sound effects are quite remarkable, considering that the game was done on a gameboy. All the usual noises which are produced by kicking, punching etc can be heard pretty clearly. As for the announcer, the voices are generally quite okay.

The Gameplay is generally quite good. Of course, it may not play as fast as the SNES versions, specifically Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting but the game manages to be played in a reasonable fast and fluid manner, without suffering many slowdowns.

The Gameboy version of Street Fighter II does suffer when it comes to control. Why? I have to admit that the special attacks like Ryu's or Ken's fireball are quite easy to pull off but...... the Gameboy has only two buttons when compared to the SNES version which has six buttons. Only a B and an A buttons for the Gameboy. A punch and a kick. Unlike the SNES version, there is no weak, medium and strong punches and kicks. Because of that, it's hard to determine which move will be executed. However, this isn't entirely the programmers' fault.

Overall, Street Fighter II is easily one of the best fighting games for the Gameboy. It's clear that Capcom has tried very hard to fit everything into a 8 megabit cartridge. This is as good as a Street Fighter can be in the Gameboy. If you are a hardcore Street Fighter fan, you may consider buying it but if you already have Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting for the SNES, i suggest you save your bucks. Why? Because i am certain that you will be spending lots more time on Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting than the Street Fighter II version in the Gameboy.

Graphics : 8.5/10.0
Concept : 8.0/10.0
Control : 7.0/10.0
Music : 7.5/10.0
Sound : 7.5/10.0
Gameplay : 9.0/10.0
Replay : 7.5/10.0
Challenge : 7.0/10.0
Overall : 8.0/10.0

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/00, Updated 12/16/02