Capcom had thoroughly gotten under my skin with this game. After loyally and faithfully playing nearly every prior incarnation of Street Fighter II (CE not withstanding), Capcom finally gave me one helping too many. I had had enough.
That's not to say I never played the game or that I never gave it a chance. Oh, I did, but despite all the new additions and revamping Capcom made
it was not enough. I was not impressed.
Sporting an all new (very cool) attract mode featuring Ryu throwing a fireball at the gamer, SSF2 starts out splendidly. Upon inserting my quarters, I looked over all the newly drawn (definitely improved) more realistic character portraits -- another good sign. And as positive momentum builds up, I heard the new announcer and cringed. Upbeat, cheerful, Street Fighter's master of ceremonies now sounds like a male cheer-leader, utilizing weird vocal inflections for no other reason than to spice up the sound of the phrase, "Round one! Fight!" (brought to you crisply by Q-Sound.) On the subject of sound -- what happened to Blanka's voice? He sounds like a guy in front of a microphone doing his bad impression of a sick rooster.
Upon playing, the game never convinced me of my initial speculation: that most of the highly publicized additions/alteration amounted to nothing more than superficial changes. A new shinier package, if you will. "Ken's fierce dragon punch features fire!" So what? "They changed the look of the boat in his background." Yeah, and
? "A new scoring system!" How many players actually cared about their score? Not me. "Eight colors!" Um, bright yellow? Granted, theses additions are nice -- don't get me wrong -- but are they (alone) worth playing Street Fighter II all over again? Even a revamped SF2? Fortunately, the gameplay did receive alterations as well. Old characters received new moves -- Vega has a new attack where he glides off the edge of the screen with claw leading, Ryu has a new fireball, Balrog can charge across the screen and strike low. Old moves behaved differently -- Ryu and Ken's aerial hurricane kicks now follow an arc versus the straight line from Hyper Fighting, Dhalsim's teleport is more forgiving, Ken's fierce dragon punch hits 3 times instead of 2, and also a failed SPD from Zangief will generate a "miss" animation that leaves the grappler momentarily vulnerable. Just a few examples.
Among most notable changes: four new characters enter the fray, refreshingly unique from the existing characters while still somewhat cliché and stereotypical (in other words they compliment the existing pack of cliché and stereotypes quite nicely.) Introducing Fei Long from Hong Kong, the almost obligatory Bruce Lee rip off who sports a series of quick succession punches, a flaming kick, and for some reason always looked rather small juxtaposed to Ryu, Ken, Guile, or Chun Li. Dee Jay, the dancin' Jamaican with rhythm, dreadlocks, and a crouching roundhouse that is the bane of my existence (especially when the CPU uses it as an anti-air attack.) T Hawk, the grappling Indian from Mexico with a frightening arsenal of uber-defensive
aerial moves (?!). And the Brit, Cammy, the girl in pigtails with camouflage paint (tights?) on her legs whose cannon drill kick if misused turns into an invitation for heavy punishment.
The new characters bring along their own stage and music, ranging from a partying beach in Jamaica to a bridge overlooking an English Castle to a group of onlookers on a Mexican street to a balcony in Hong Kong featuring a menagerie of animals. The accompanying tunes match Street Fighter II's overall upbeat rock tone with appropriate cultural touches, and I believe these four additions mark some of the best in the Street Fighter universe (although I'll bet many disagree with me on this point.) Cammy's stage contains my favorite music track of all the Street Fighter II music.
The one-player experience remains relatively unchanged. The player still faces off against a total of twelve opponents -- the final four being the same song and dance as before (Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and Bison ... not necessarily in that order on Japanese machines.) For this gamer, though, after thoroughly playing through Street Fighter II: The World Warriors and Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting in both arcades and at home
despite the numerous additions offered in Super SF2 (some of which I hated, some of which I loved) I'd had enough Street Fighter for a time. In retrospect, I wound up skipping every other major release of Street Fighter to prevent irreversible SF2 burnout.
