Street Fighter Zero 2
PlayStation and Saturn * Capcom

Review by Jon T. Rex
9.0 (Saturn) 8.5 (PlayStation)

This game never dies. Every time Street Fighter gets old, a new version with all new hype hits the streets. The cast of the first Alpha returns with a few familiar faces and a few new tricks up their sleeves. Any fan of the series will be happy, as this sequel improves upon the original in many ways.

Five more characters join the Alpha fray, bringing the total up to 18! The three hidden characters, M. Bison, Akuma, and Dan, return and they are now immediately selectable without any tricks. From Street Fighter 2 come, oddly enough, Dhalsim and Zangief. One would think they would pick more popular characters like Honda or Cammy, but they seem to fit in anyway. From the original Street Fighter comes Gen, an old man with two completely different fighting styles. He can switch styles in the middle of a fight, which comes in handy for confusing your opponent. Rolento is a boss from the old arcade game Final Fight, and he has a rather unique fighting style. Finally there's Sakura, a young school girl who seems to have a thing for Ryu.

Of course, all rest from the first Alpha are still here, and many of them have been tweaked to make the game play more balanced. Tougher characters like Guy and Akuma were toned down, and Rose, Sodom, and Adon were made a bit easier to control. Ken and Ryu still seem to be favorites, since they rarely change at all and everyone knows how to use them.

Another new tidbit found in part two are Custom Combos, replacing the old traditional Street Fighter combo system. Using the Super Combo power meter as a timer, when these moves are activated, the character goes ballistic with a flurry of moves that the player can chain together any which way he pleases. It lasts until the player is hit, or the timer runs out. With a bit of practice, this feature can lead to some serious damage. While many people will gripe over the loss of the older, regular system, it does add a little flavor to a tiring theme.

The backgrounds have improved tremendously. Now everyone has their own background, and they're much, much better than those found in the first Alpha. They actually move, and give an atmosphere, like all backgrounds should. The character animation remains very smooth and cartoon like, although neither version is quite as good as the arcade game. Then there's the introduction. The Saturn version is identical to the arcade game, which is very cool to watch. The PlayStation version is a slightly grainy video clip of the arcade screen. Overall, the graphics are excellent in both versions, but the Saturn seems a little nicer.

The music is an arranged soundtrack, and there is no longer an option to change it back to the original. It's more or less the same thing, but it is not played directly from the CD as it was in the last Alpha. The voices and sound effects actually seem clearer and cleaner in the PlayStation version. For some reason, the Saturn version's sounds are a bit muffled. It's not bad, but it is something you'll notice easily. Even still, they both sound great in full blown stereo!

All in all, both versions of Street Fighter Zero 2 are high quality versions of the high quality arcade game. The Saturn version comes out on top though, due to the fact that it loads considerably faster than the PlayStation version. Also found only in the Saturn version is the hidden "Dark" Ryu from the arcade, as well as a new Survival mode. Granted, this may change before the US release, but as it stands, Saturn wins this round. After all is said and done this is still Street Fighter, although it's possibly the best one yet.


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