"Who said there were no good fighting in the PC?"

This game has been around for some time, but for a complete lack of advertisement, few people seem to know it is avaliable for Windows 95. It is basically everything it is on the other versions, even in graphics and sound quality. It does have some problems, but first the good things. All the 18 fighters are there, and so are the secrets Evil Ryu and Real Akuma (a.k.a. Evil Akuma). No Cammy tough, this isn't the Gold version, unfortunatelly. The controls work fine IF you have a joystick or gamepad with at least 7 buttons (10 recomended), as it's very hard to do special moves on the keyboard. Comparing it to Alpha 1 (also avaliable for your computer, but even harder to find), the changes are mainly for better. AI of the opponets is better, they now use alpha counters on you too. The voices are a bit different, but I can't say if it's for better or for worse (I liked Dan's first voice more though). The graphics are adjustable to youc computer speed, wich, by the way, is my most serious complaint about the game. The box says the minimum is 133 mhz (166 mhz recomended) and 24Mb or more RAM. But on a Pentium 166 MMX with exactly 24 MB of RAM it doesn't run at 100% speed in the minimum graphical quality as expected. I mean, it's okay that it runs choppy in the minimum reqs, but not on the recomended! And the lack odf speed makes the fights stop for you once in a while, but the computer acually keeps playing! Imagine like this: You're figting against Zangief, and in the middle of your compo, the game freezes for one second. When it comes back to normal, your character will be high in the air, being Screwdrived! Now that hurts!

Also, why did the guys at Capcom put the intro in a low definition .avi? It would be much better if they made it using the graphical engine of the game, like on the versions for the consoles and Arcades. Anyway, now for the notes:

Gameplay: 10
What can I say? That's the best 2D fighting you can get. And man, is that fun!

Graphics: 9
Atough you will probably need a Pentium 3 to run it on the highest definition possible.

Sound: 10
Capcom really is good on this. The music is well composed and fits well to the scenarios. The sound effects are very good too.

Replay value: 7
Now this depends on you. If you like to perfect your skills, meet the secret characters and play on the highest difficult level, you really won't get tired. Also, if you have somebody to play against, it can add much more fun. But for this you gotta have two controlers, or one will have to use the keyboard, as there is no Internet play or any other multiplay options.

I would say it's a pretty good game overall, even feeling cheated by Capcom on the requerimets issue (I have a computer with that exact configuration...). It can be found under 40 dollars in the US, and I believe it is a well spent money.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99