Pong and Beyond

269th played so far

Genre: Fighting
Platform: Playstation 3/Xbox 360
Year of Release: 2008
Developer: Backbone Entertainment
Publisher: Capcom

Yeah, you’re right, we’ve played a version of Street Fighter II before – Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting. Apparently the difference here is not directly the game, but the extent of the HD remake.

You see, based on the book, there’s two sides to it. First of all, this is an HD remake done right – rebalanced, redrawn, but the game itself is essentially still there. On the other hand, because of that, it seems to offer less special things – they just don’t go far with it. The question then is, does it work for us?

Our Thoughts

Here’s the thing. When it comes to most of how the game plays, we’ve discussed it before. Read it, it still applies.

To an amateur like me, the gameplay hasn’t changed much. I’m sure the combos are slightly different and some other combinations may apply, but I honestly haven’t really memorized them. Any other rebalancing is even more beyond me – I cannot tell when an attack changed from doing 5% damage to 10% or that you’re stunned for a second longer. I know this is the sort of thing that has a big effect on competitive play, it just doesn’t apply to me.

Yet, despite the story mode, that’s where a lot of the changes are focused. Online multiplayer is a prominent option, with its leaderboards and other tracking systems. It doesn’t offer me much, and I can see that applying to most.

The one thing that is noticeable is the thing you might not think about. The game has clearly had a graphical upgrade – just look at the screenshot on top and compare it to that in the previous review. It’s not a big change – to be honest, when playing it, I thought that’s what the game was meant to look like anyway, perhaps with some nice added flourishes, rather than a full HD upgrade. It’s testament to how well the artists managed to stick to the expected style, though, while still improving it.

This is, I suppose, the definitive version of the game. It looks good and plays well. It should do, it’s a classic, and it’s the version you want to get if you want to get a copy of Street Fighter II. It just leads me back to a question we’ve asked before with Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes – do both versions of the game really both belong in the book?

Final Thoughts

Everything I read about the game seemed to at least imply the game was made for fans. I suppose that shows here. Too much duplication, with not much added for us. The book introduces the game more as a remake case study than explain the double inclusion, which I suppose suits as an explanation, but it’s simply not enough to woo us.