"An oldie but a goodie"

This wonderful fighting game for the GameBoy has fantastic moves, graphics and gameplay. It costs only $10 at Toys'R Us, not to mention that it's a much deeper (in terms of gameplay) game that SF II, SF Alpha or MK 1, 2, 3, or 4. On the other hand, it can't really compare to Neo Geo fighters.

Control: 8.5/10
Control is clear and crisp, but doing extended motions on a GameBoy (like HCF/HCB/) is MAD hard. The Easy Commands are great and make it MUCH easier to pull off moves like Sofia's Salamander or Eiji's Enjin-syuraha, which is impossible to do with regular D-pad motions.

Sound: 8/10
Crisp but forgettable. Enough said.

Graphics: 9/10
Except for the times when it looks like the two characters have melded into one, the graphics are clear and nice. You can tell who is who and the backgrounds are fairly nice, but pixelated. On the other hand, during Supers or Desperations, the number of characters seem to have tripled or doubled. The best example I can think of would be Sofia's Call Me Queen. Take a look at it and you'll see. It looks like Sofia's cloned herself.

Story: 5/10
Quick cutscenes, not really great, but kind of humorous. The graphics in the cutscenes are quite nice.

Replay: 10/10
With tons of cool codes like Scorcher Mode and Full Battle, you can pick it up and play it again and again. I've had it 1 year already and it was only two weeks ago I realized that tapping or hitting the button greatly changes attack motions, like fireball speed or the height of Sofia's Jewelry Shower.

Gameplay: 9.5/10
The engine moves just a bit slow, and there is a bit of game slowdown when you are fighting Gaia and Uranus, plus on Normal or above, the CPU characters block every move you use, except Supers.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/00, Updated 07/18/00