Introduction Not Required
I’m totally aware that StreetFighter does not need an introduction, but yet it deserves one. Most ofus who’ve been gaming for the better portion of our lives rememberevery single iteration of the series, and probably nursed a fewblisters to prove it. However, less of us had the opportunity toexperience the best, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, only released onthe Dreamcast in its purest form. This installment spawned years oforganized tourneys and competition, yet never saw a true peak on amajor home console. No matter how many times the series has beenreinvented and ripped off, Super Street Fighter II Turbo was theepitome of 2D fighters.
With the release Super Street Fighter IITurbo HD Remix, the masses are finally reintroduced to an enhancedversion of the most important 2D fighter in history. In terms ofgameplay alone, HD Remix hides its age very well. While you won’t finda great deal of over-the-top aspects as you would in slightly moremodern 2D fighters like Guilty Gear, you will still find a deep,wholesome 2D fighting experience that has without a doubt withstood thetrial of time. It’s difficult to really break down all of the aspectsof gameplay. Every self respecting gamer knows about the basic sixbutton layout and directional inputs of Street Fighter, right? Itdoesn’t even make sense to put all down on paper, and it’s impossibleto draw comparisons to similar games because Street Fighter has becomethe industry standard of 2D fighters. To many of us, basic StreetFighter skills are innate. For all fighting games, Street Fighter isour frame of reference. This is exactly why the release of HD Remix isso important to the gaming industry.
I Want To Celebrate
Therelease of HD Remix is incredibly significant. Along with Mega Man 9,HD Remix is a long overdue celebration of gaming’s two dimensionalpast. It shows an honest commitment from a major publisher to the aging(yes, I consider twenty-somethings aging), core audience from the1990s. The amount of effort put into a fifteen dollar purchase isdaunting; with the most welcome bonus is the addition of an online modewith a near-perfect netcode and matchup systems. The online mode alsofeatures easy-to-set-up tournaments where matches take placesimultaneously, and online friendly rotations, a la the “I got winner”setup of your mom’s basement in ’94. The experience can never replace agroup of buddies sitting around a television, talking trash, and thelosers passing the controllers around the circle, but the online modeof HD Remix certainly does its best, and is a very well executedattempt at online fighting.
The rebalanced mode of HD Remix isalso worth a great deal of celebration. From Ryu to Fei Long – all ofthe fighter’s you’ve grown to love are present, albeit in a slightlytweaked format. Honda still defies physics with his headbutt, andDhalism still practices some sort of perverted Yoga not compatible withWiifit (sorry, Mom). Though the causal audience will not recognize allof the minor tweaks, as one quite familiar with Street Fighter, I canpersonally attest to how much effort truly went in to the fine tuningof gameplay in this installment. Capcom went straight to some of thebest competitive players for their input and took their suggestionsinto account when they rebalenced HD Remix. Essentially, they furtherrefined the arcade-perfect Dreamcast release of Super Street Fighter IITurbo and deliveedr the greatest version of Street Fighterever. Seemingly major changes such as Ryu’s new fake fireball orHonda’s ability to destroy projectiles with his short headbutt are moreapparent than minor tweaks such as Blanka’s increased lowerinvulnerability on his hop or Guile’s rearranged hitbox on his upsidedown kick.
Your Little Brother is Garbage at This Game
Forany seasoned Street Fighter player, all of these rebalances arepotential huge game changers. But quite frankly, these things won’tmatter to a lot of players. This may be the true beauty of HD Remix -the commitment to hardcore players and an effort to appeal to a newgeneration. Those unfortunate enough to be younger than a SuperNintendo have the opportunity to jump right in to HD Remix, if they canovercome some natural barriers.
One potential barrier will be thelack of innate Street Fighter skills and tendencies. Your kid brothermight not be as accustomed to getting out of a simple fireball trap andcould be easily discouraged if matched up with more experiencedplayers. Without a doubt, online Street Fighter II promotes child abusein digital format. If you grew up on Dead or Alive, the learning curveis going to be rather steep for a seemingly simple fighter.
Onthe bright side, this time around, you’ll find yourself whiffing yourshoryukens a little than you used to, since there’s a greater allowedmargin of error for most directional inputs. This of course can beslightly disheartening to purists, who may pride themselves on theirability to perfectly execute a spinning piledriver every time. Clearly,this feature is intended to allow the game to be a bit moreuser-friendly for D-pad users. Obviously, many fans will scoff at theuse of the D-Pad, especially the XBox controller, which clearly did nothave 2D fighters in mind during the design stages. As a true fan of theseries, it’s hard to recommend this game to anyone without a joystickor some other sort of gaming pad designed for fighters, but it’scertainly playable on a casual level.
I’m Sorry, I Just Can’t Look Away
Ofcourse, no high definition remake can be complete without completelyoverhauled visuals. Capcom commissions the artists of Udon to redesignall of the characters and stages. Some may be leery about the newcharacter designs, but most of those people probably have hairy shinslike Zangief and are still upset about it. I’ll make no bones about it:this game is gorgeous. The sprites and backgrounds are lively andcolorful. The game looks almost like the pages of high budget,glossy-paged comic book. To put it quite simply, HD Remix looks betterthan it should and you should feel guilty for looking at it. Theoriginal sound effects are intact for the most part, and the remixedmusic captures the feel of the original. As a reminder, do not expectthe animations to be silky smooth, as no new animation frames wereadded to preserve the integrity of the gameplay.