There really are enough reviews for Street
Fighter games. If you were to tally all of the reviews written by various game
magazines, the total would probably be somewhere in the hundreds, if not the thousands.
Just on Digital Press alone there are reviews for the SNES version, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Genesis, Playstation, Dreamcast, and Saturn games. This brings
us to the Genesis version of Super Street Fighter II, the final 16-bit Street
Fighter.Let's skip the formalities. Street Fighter II is the fighting game to end all fighting games. The first Genesis version, Special Championship Edition, was a decent port of the undeniable classic arcade game. It had a few issues due to the hardware limitations, but it's obvious that Capcom went all out for this one.
Digging deep within the bowels of the Genesis hardware, Capcom has totally redone the backgrounds with some outstanding color. Hardcore Genesis fans have probably never seen these being pulled from the pallette before. The character sprites remain relatively untouched however, a disappointment considering the excellent re-working of the backgrounds.
Even with 40+ megs crammed inside this cart (even a few Neo-Geo games are that packed!), the sounds still suffer. The voices seem to have been upped by about a level, but the music has a taken a dive. We're talking a 500-foot bungee jumping accident kinda dive. It's almost unbearable to hear these instantly recognizable tracks being pushed through the Genesis' sound chip. It's ghastly to say the least.
![Super Street Fighter 2 - The New Challengers (U) [b1][h2]_000.jpg (22152 bytes)](../dpsightz/genesis/Super_Street_Fighter_2_-_The_New_Challengers_U_b1h2_000.jpg)
The addition of a few new modes doesn't exactly revolutionize the
genre or the series for that matter, but there is an exclusive here. The Super mode
challenges gamers to tackle every character in the game, not skipping four or five like
normally. A few extra endings are available by completing this challenge, but it's nothing
terribly note-worthy. The usual tournament, team, and other assorted options are also in
here. What's missing? How about a speed option? Players accustomed to SF II Turbo
will be in a world of hurt with this one. Why is there no speed option? So they could
upgrade the series to Super Street Fighter II Turbo.
Look, there's no need to discuss the gameplay or controls. Both are immaculate. Then again, most of these games are. This is a great port, but Capcom took a shot when this game bombed and sat on store shelves for months on end (or so the rumors say). People simply weren't willing to drop $50 on an upgrade once a year and this game proved it. Regardless, this is a must own for fighting game fans who can't part with their venerable Genesis. Take away the sound issue and you have the best of the two versions on the 16-bit consoles.
