Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival

"A great port of an excellent fighter"

Gameplay (9/10): The gameplay of SSF2TR is handled perfectly on the GBA. The street fighter 2 everyone knows and loves is completely intact. With a character roster of 18 (including Akuma and Shin Akuma), a super combo bar, and the lightning fast action that is usually associated with Street Fighter, this game has some really awesome gameplay. There are survival, time attack, training, and arcade modes, all of which give you vs points to unlock the 2 hidden characters. The difficulty level adjustment really allows anyone to enjoy the game. Long time SF fans will still get a kick out of the challenging level 8 AI, while beginners can start at level 1 and work their way up. Add VS play to all of this and you have one extremely tight game that plays almost as well as the original and better than the SNES version.

Graphics (9/10): The graphics are another huge plus for SSF2TR. All of the characters are large, colorful, and well animated. There are barely any cut frames, and the action moves quickly and smoothly, only slowing down for intentional effect. The backgrounds are also amazing. Some of them are pulled directly from the arcade game, while others are borrowed from the Alpha series, but all of them are amazing. The updated stages are mostly for the better with the Ryu, Ken, and Zangief getting awesome new stages with several layers of scrolling backgrounds. Others, like Chun-Li and Guile, were screwed; getting backgrounds that aren't even half as good as their originals. Also, some backgrounds, like Cammy's and Bisons are pretty awful compared to the others. The menus and the character select screen are all sharp and easy to see. The contrast in this game is really great, making it easy to see, unlike in other GBA games. The bright and varied colors all used really well, making this one of the more graphically impressive games on the GBA.

Sound (8/10): The sound, for the most part, is pretty good. The only real complaint is the voice changes for Sagat and Guile, who now sound like pre-pubescent school boys. Other than that, the voices samples are good and are used frequently for the special and super moves. The background music is really catchy in most of the stages, while a little flat.

Overall, this is one of the finest conversions ever made onto a handheld system. It really blows the Neogeo color fighting games out of the water in every aspect. I recommend that anyone with a GBA fork over the 20$ this game costs, its seriously fun and a great game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/02, Updated 04/02/02