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SThe classic game that was once king now returns to the Game Boy Advance with a few new features and some differences. Street Fighter 2 was a big arcade succes, and arguably the best Street Figther game ever. For all you people living under a rock, Street Fighter is Capcom's most famous 2-d fighter. The main idea is to take all the opponent's life with punches and kicks before he does the same to you. This game starts with 16 playable characters and you will be able to unlock one more. The entire cast includes: -Ryu -Ken -E. Honda -Chun-Li -Guile -Cammy -Dhalsim -Blanka -Zangief -Fei-Long -Dee Jay -T. Hawk -Balrog -Vega -Sagat -M. Bison SSF2TXR pushes the graphics pretty far, as they look really nice. Backgrounds are detailed, and there are many small animations going on. A couple of new backgrounds have been added. For example Chun Li's stage has now been changed to her Alpha 2 stage, and Guile now has a brand new level. Guile's stage has a helicopter that flies up and down, it looks polygonal a bit. Characters look sharp, but are mostly the same old sprites used in SF2. The music has returned from the SNES version, and seems to be less crisp than the original. However, the music was and is still the best ever for a fighting game. It really gets you into the mood of fighting, and is always enjoyable to listen to on your free time. Sound effects are effective, but a bit dull. Gets the job done though. The game really gets good during fights, as the fighting engine is very deep. This game will be easy to learn, but it will take you time to master each characters supers and special combos, not to mention all your basic attacks. Blocking is in effect, and there are still high and low blocks. There is no more air blocking, which in my opinion is very good since it'll make you think before you jump. If you get hit too many times you will get dizzy, and you must press all the buttons rapidly to get out of it. I'm not sure if there are guard breaks, since the AI does not block much. The super guage has been added, as it was not there in the original version. The bar fills up as you attack opponents, and once it is full you can unleash your devastating super combo which takes up about half the opponent's life. Each character has only 1 super. What makes the game so different than current Street Fighters is the large amounts of normal attacks you have. For example, a crouching foward punch, may be different from a crouching back punch. This adds a whole ton of variety, and almost each normal attack is good for certain purposes. One normal may be good for anti airs, while another is really good for sweeping, and knocking opponents down. IMO, normals are actually stronger and more effective than special moves and super combos. You will need to learn what punches and kicks will link together, and which won't. This will make you an effective fighter. Control feels really different then all other Street Fighter games besides SF Alpha on Game Boy. It is hard to get used to tapping a button to use a light attack, and therefore makes linking attacks a bit tougher. The R button is fine to use, but the L gives be trouble. This is because it is hard to press the L button and all the required movements. Luckily, Capcom has been smart enough to add a Button Config Option, that will allow you to change the buttons to your liking. There is a new combo system mode that I think is cheap and dumb. It is called the assist mode. You activate assist mode by pressing the select button in battle. It basically helps you players who can't do special moves with less button pressing. For example, in normal play, Down, Foward, Punch would be Ryu's fireball. However, in assist mode, you only have to press foward punch. This makes it incredibly easier, not to mention incredibly cheap. There are enough modes in SSF2TXR to keep you playing for a long time, espicially if you never played the SNES version. Everytime you play any of the modes you will get vs. points (well most of the modes anyway). When you reach a certain amount of vs. points, things will be unlocked. For example 5000 points my unlock something. However, at the end you can only collect 9999 points maximumn. This was a big fault as you can reach this score incredibly fast, and therefore lowering the replay value. Arcade Mode allows you to play against the computer and beat a series of 10 characters including the boss. You can select your character and the speed you want it at. Speed modes include: Normal, Turbo, Turbo 2, or Turbo 3. The difference between each speed mode is quite noticable, and may make the game a bit harder. At the end of each battle, if will show you the number of vs. points you earned, your highest combo hits, and your total score. This mode is most likely where you will spend most of your time. After you beat the boss, you see your character's ending. Training Mode is where you train yourself and learn character's moves. You can practice linking punches, special moves, and Super combos. The super combo bar is always filled, so you can constantly keep practicing your Super Combos. The enemy will regain life, after a while of inactiveness, and he cannot die. I don't think you can earn vs. points in this mode, but it is a welcomed feature since you will definetely need to practice with some characters. Options allow you to adjust the difficulty settings and things like that. You can also change the buttons in this mode, and speed. Options mode will only effect Arcade Mode, except the button config which will effect every mode. There is also two modes you can unlock by getting enough vs. points. The first mode is called Survival Mode (I think). In this mode you can see how fast you beat the bonus stages, and it will record your best time. Also, there are new battles that vary from beat 5 people with one life bar, to beat 100 people with 1 life bar. It is a very good challenge, once you beat the 5 and 10 character battles. It starts out really easy, as the first person can be killed with one hit. However, their life bars increase over kills, and you only get a small amount of life after you defeat each of them. 100 characters is crazy, so you'll have to practice up before you even try. The second mode you can unlock is the Time attack mode. In this mode, you can see who can beat certain people in the least amount of time. For example, you can see how fast you can beat one player mode, or how fast you can beat Akuma. It's very simlilar to the arcade mode, but it's added so there is no point in complaining. Later on, with more vs. points you can unlock Akuma, a Gallery Mode, and Evil Akuma (I think). The new art for each character is brilliant, as they are all re-drawn for the new game. Although SSF2TXR is a good package, there are still a few flaws. Control feels awkward at first, and still does. But I guess there wasn't any other way to make it better. Music also could've been a lot crisper in my opinion, and the assist mode is really disturbing. There is also some very noticable lag after fireball attacks connect. I'm not sure if it was done on purpose or by accident, but it doesn't bother me too much. IMO, my review is a bit biased. as I am truly a big Street Fighter fan, and many will probably think of this as just a re-make. I also feel that Capcom should've added a lot more features. Therefore, I suppose that only people who have not owned the SNES version or are true SF fans will truly enjoy it. Otherwise, you may want to give this game a try, as there are a few noticable changes. Overall Score: 8.4 -Third Yao Strike- |