Alright, so, I hope you are satisfied at this point, Street Fighter II. You have had two updates already, each adding something new to the game or the basic formula, improving on yourself time and time again. There is NOTHING ELSE you wanna do or say from this point, and we can finally get Street Fighter III, right?............. ok then, glad that we got that settled. So anyway, what’s the next game that I am looking at here? reads the title...................... sigh, I knew it was too good to be true. So yes, less then a year after Street Fighter II Turbo, we would get yet ANOTHER update for Street Fighter II, because I guess there was just so much more to be done that hadn’t already been done at that point. But hey, the game was still pretty huge at that point, so I guess there can be no harm in keeping this train rolling, right? So let’s keep doing that with Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers.
If you all remember Street Fighter II Turbo, you would probably remember that it was a very basic update, changing very little about the actual game rather then the speed at which the characters moved, and for all of the other changes, they didn’t really add too much to justify the new release. However, in comparison, this new update was HUGE, not only adding plenty that wasn’t already there, but also revamping the game completely to where many parts of the game now look much better and sound much better as well. As a result, we definitely get what was the definitive version of Street Fighter II at that point, and one that I definitely enjoyed checking out. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a perfect update, and there are obviously better versions of the game that surpass this, but for what we got here, it is still a great version of an already great game.
One of the biggest changes that one would notice right from the get go would be with, again, the game’s new improved visuals and sound. Unlike all of the other versions of the game, which were made using Capcom’s CP System arcade board, this would be the first game ever to be made using Capcom’s new CP System II, which allowed them to change plenty about the game’s visuals to make them look better, including an updated HUD for battles, updated profiles for all of the characters, updates for all the different stages, and even new stages that you could now fight in. You can even see the changes from the very beginning, where there is a brand new intro that involves Ryu firing a hadouken straight at your face, which is cool to see, even though we will now never see the two randos fighting on the street ever again, which does kinda suck. Obviously, most of the game looks and sounds very similar to the other versions, but for what we got here, this is the best looking version of Street Fighter II that we had gotten so far, and it has aged very well all the way up till now.
Aside from that, there were several changes that were made to some of the characters’ movesets, such as giving Ryu, Zangief, and others new techniques that they could pull off, along with the introduction of a brand new Tournament Battle mode. As you could guess by the name, this mode was made with tournaments in mind, where four separate arcade machines were meant to be linked together, and four separate matches could play out at once as part of a tournament, ultimately leading to the last round against the two best players that would come out on top. I myself am not typically one who participates in fighting game tournaments, nor am I one who cares about that whole scene, but it is cool that Capcom had already started adding ways to support that kind of scene this early on into the series. Obviously though, the biggest change made to the game would be with the new challengers, which consisted of Cammy, Dee Jay, T. Hawk, and Fei Long. All four of these newcomers would become recurring characters in the Street Fighter series, but in terms of how they are in their debut, they work pretty well, and I like using Cammy and Dee Jay in particular when I tried them out. I probably wouldn’t choose them over the other options already available, but it is cool to see more characters being added to the game after all the other updates.
However, with all of that being said, there is one big problem that holds this update back from being perfect: the fighting speed. Unlike with Street Fighter II Turbo, which made the speed of fights much faster compared to every other version beforehand, and made things much more intense as a result, the speed of the fights in this game was brought back to the normal speed of the first two versions of the game, which is honestly kind of a big letdown. Sure, I guess this is what more veteran players of Street Fighter II would’ve been used to, so it wouldn’t have affected them too much, but at the same time, those veterans had probably already adjusted to the faster speed of the Turbo version, so switching it back to the slower pace of the original versions just makes no sense for the most part. Thankfully, this would be fixed with the next update that would follow after this, so this wouldn’t be a problem for very long, but still, keep that in mind for those of you who come to this version after playing the Turbo version of this and the previous Street Fighter II versions.
Overall, despite the much slower speed that we got in this version, this is still definitely the best version of Street Fighter II that we had gotten up to that point, and it is still a fantastic version of the game to play for those who were fans of the base game, or any version of the game for that matter. I would recommend it for diehard fans of the game, as well as for those who are big fans of the genre, but once again, for newcomers or for Street Fighter II veterans, you would still be better left off playing the later versions instead. And… I can’t think of a joke to end off this review with. Uh… go try to throw a hadouken in real life, I dunno. I’ve heard it could be possible, if you just believe in yourself enough, and ignore the laws of physics altogether.
Update #3
If you all remember Street Fighter II Turbo, you would probably remember that it was a very basic update, changing very little about the actual game rather then the speed at which the characters moved, and for all of the other changes, they didn’t really add too much to justify the new release. However, in comparison, this new update was HUGE, not only adding plenty that wasn’t already there, but also revamping the game completely to where many parts of the game now look much better and sound much better as well. As a result, we definitely get what was the definitive version of Street Fighter II at that point, and one that I definitely enjoyed checking out. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a perfect update, and there are obviously better versions of the game that surpass this, but for what we got here, it is still a great version of an already great game.
One of the biggest changes that one would notice right from the get go would be with, again, the game’s new improved visuals and sound. Unlike all of the other versions of the game, which were made using Capcom’s CP System arcade board, this would be the first game ever to be made using Capcom’s new CP System II, which allowed them to change plenty about the game’s visuals to make them look better, including an updated HUD for battles, updated profiles for all of the characters, updates for all the different stages, and even new stages that you could now fight in. You can even see the changes from the very beginning, where there is a brand new intro that involves Ryu firing a hadouken straight at your face, which is cool to see, even though we will now never see the two randos fighting on the street ever again, which does kinda suck. Obviously, most of the game looks and sounds very similar to the other versions, but for what we got here, this is the best looking version of Street Fighter II that we had gotten so far, and it has aged very well all the way up till now.
Aside from that, there were several changes that were made to some of the characters’ movesets, such as giving Ryu, Zangief, and others new techniques that they could pull off, along with the introduction of a brand new Tournament Battle mode. As you could guess by the name, this mode was made with tournaments in mind, where four separate arcade machines were meant to be linked together, and four separate matches could play out at once as part of a tournament, ultimately leading to the last round against the two best players that would come out on top. I myself am not typically one who participates in fighting game tournaments, nor am I one who cares about that whole scene, but it is cool that Capcom had already started adding ways to support that kind of scene this early on into the series. Obviously though, the biggest change made to the game would be with the new challengers, which consisted of Cammy, Dee Jay, T. Hawk, and Fei Long. All four of these newcomers would become recurring characters in the Street Fighter series, but in terms of how they are in their debut, they work pretty well, and I like using Cammy and Dee Jay in particular when I tried them out. I probably wouldn’t choose them over the other options already available, but it is cool to see more characters being added to the game after all the other updates.
However, with all of that being said, there is one big problem that holds this update back from being perfect: the fighting speed. Unlike with Street Fighter II Turbo, which made the speed of fights much faster compared to every other version beforehand, and made things much more intense as a result, the speed of the fights in this game was brought back to the normal speed of the first two versions of the game, which is honestly kind of a big letdown. Sure, I guess this is what more veteran players of Street Fighter II would’ve been used to, so it wouldn’t have affected them too much, but at the same time, those veterans had probably already adjusted to the faster speed of the Turbo version, so switching it back to the slower pace of the original versions just makes no sense for the most part. Thankfully, this would be fixed with the next update that would follow after this, so this wouldn’t be a problem for very long, but still, keep that in mind for those of you who come to this version after playing the Turbo version of this and the previous Street Fighter II versions.
Overall, despite the much slower speed that we got in this version, this is still definitely the best version of Street Fighter II that we had gotten up to that point, and it is still a fantastic version of the game to play for those who were fans of the base game, or any version of the game for that matter. I would recommend it for diehard fans of the game, as well as for those who are big fans of the genre, but once again, for newcomers or for Street Fighter II veterans, you would still be better left off playing the later versions instead. And… I can’t think of a joke to end off this review with. Uh… go try to throw a hadouken in real life, I dunno. I’ve heard it could be possible, if you just believe in yourself enough, and ignore the laws of physics altogether.
Update #3