Super Street Fighter II – The New Challengers

Super Street Fighter 2 was released on both the Snes en the Sega Genesis. This review is about both versions. Let’s begin with looking at the differences between both versions. These differences are all esthetical: The Snes version looks and sounds better than its Genesis counterpart. SSF2 on the genesis doesn’t use the entire screen, while the Snes version does. The Snes version also uses considerably more colours. As far as the graphics are concerned the Snes version is superior to the Genesis version. In fact SSF2 on the Snes is one of the most incredible arcade-to-console conversions of the 16-bit era. The sound on the Snes is also better. On the Genesis the sound effects are less clear and the voice effects are scratchy.

Both games, however, feature the same brilliant gameplay. Street Fighter 2 was easily the best 16-bit fighting game; its only competition came from Mortal Kombat, a game that was a typical case of form over substance. In the arcades Street Fighter 2 had some serious competition, notability SNK’s Samurai Shodown-series. The balance between the characters in SSF2 is excellent. Most people use Ken or Ryu, but every fighter on the roster can be a force to be reckoned with if controlled by a seasoned player. Nowadays when using an emulator it’s possible to play this game over the internet and although I’m an experienced player myself people have fought me on equal terms using Guile and somebody even went as far as to humiliate me using Zangief (!).

One last thing that remains to be done is to compare this game to the earlier editions in the Streetfighter 2-franchise. This game offers four new playable characters and subsequently four new stages. The new characters are all valuable additions. Playing as the Indian T. Hawk might not be easy or even effective, but at least he and the other new fighters add some variety to the game when you play against the CPU. A few new moves have been thrown in and other moves have been slightly altered: for instance Ken now can set people on fire with his dragon-uppercut and Ryu now can set people afire with his fireball. In my opinion Super Street Fighter 2 is more an upgraded version of Street Fighter Turbo (which in turn was a mere upgrade to the original Street Fighter 2) than a new game. At the time SSF2 was released most gamers already owned one of the many versions of Street Fighter 2. I think SSF2 didn’t offer enough innovation to warrant a purchase if one was already the owner of SF2, SF2T or Street Fighter Championship Edition (genesis).

When I judge this game without taking an earlier purchase of a Street Fighter game into consideration, I must conclude that this one is the best in the series. It has better graphics than Street Fighter 2 Turbo and it has 4 extra characters.

Conclusion – An awesome fighting game, nothing on the Snes or Genesis beats it.

Rating:

SNES – 100 / 100
Genesis – 95 / 100 (slight deduction for inferior graphics and sound)

Reviewed by Butch

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