Street Fighter 2 Turbo : HD Remix

Anniversaries are specials occasions where we come to celebrate the turning of a year. Whether it is a birthday, a death, or a wedding we come to show our love and respect for that individual or event we’ve come to cherish. 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of a game that revolutionized arcade fighting and has gained cult status. That game is none other than Street Fighter 2. Though this year Capcom has learned to count (after so many Street Fighter 2 titles) everyone is looking forward to the release of Street Fighter 4. Though to tie you over with nostalgia and get some money in their pocket, Street Fighter 2 has gotten re-release to make build-up for the hype machine. Though Street Fighter 2 has always appeared in every console generation, there’s always some kind of tweaking or addition to the series. That’s where Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix on PlayStation Network, comes into the fold (also available on Xbox Live).

One of the buzzwords I’ve seen online that Capcom is adopting in their marketing plans is “Capcom-unity”. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix adopts that mantra in calling on the community to contribute to this remake. For one, you’ll notice off the bat is the graphics. The graphic sprites have been redrawn in HD resolution by the team at UDON Comics. The colours and character animations are super slick; it’s almost as if I was playing a digital comic book. It was odd though to see the background animations are still using the 3 frame animations. Some people might not like the new HD colour job on the characters, that’s why in options you can go back to Classic mode. Yet, I then question why you would want to buy something that would look like mud on your HDTV. To make better use of a rich palette of colours, they decided to give these psychedelic palettes to each character. I like my Blanka with orange hair and green skin. Not two-tone blue hair and light yellow skin. I can see the need to do the colour swap in multiplayer mode to tell apart duplicate character selects, but for a single player, the default colour palette would be fine.

For the music, the community comes to the rescue again in the form of O.C. Remix. I didn’t know at the time who or what O.C. (Overclocked) was until I visited their site and was blown away by what I heard. Most of the classic tunes from each character’s stage are re-mastered in a techno/dance-infused Dolby 5.1 surround sound treatment. It gives that nostalgic 16-bit Q-sound chip modulation from back in the arcades that nice HD treatment to it. The pure bass and up-tempo electronic beats get you pumped up to throw down. For those of you on the PlayStation Network, you’ll be able to download 5 exclusive MP3 tracks by some hip-hop artists from the likes of DJ Qbert, Redman, Hieroglyphics, and others. I wish these songs were incorporated into the game or the game enabled custom soundtracks.

Gameplay is your standard SSF2 formula but I never knew there was a science or philosophy to the mechanics of this franchise. Enter renowned Street Fighter tournament player Dave Sirlin. Another contributor and now consultant from the community, Sirlin has gone into this chapter of Street Fighter to tweak certain character moves. The results are a more balanced fight. So there’s no disadvantage for certain characters, everyone has a shot to winning through to M. Bison. You’ll also see in the options setting a series of DIP switches to disabling certain character moves back to traditional Super Street Fighter 2 or vice versa. I was looking forward to playing this game online for the 1st time. I’m not sure if it’s the rust, or not knowing the full roster of character moves. Whatever it may be, I was getting pounded online. A better matchmaking setup would have been better, instead of feeding me to the lions online. That’s something they’ll address in Street Fighter 4. Quick matches were easy to set up in the lobbies. Yet I wish you had the option to continue fighting the person you met online. After the round was complete, the lobby would close and you’ll have to search again online for a competitor. There’s also a tournament bracket setup so up to 8 players can form up. It can be hard to sync up with some people online though. There’s also voice chat support, but no one seems to be speaking. It’s great for those who love to trash talk with people on your friend list. Control-wise it’s up to your preference. I’m okay with the D-pad on a Dualshock3 control. Using the analog stick feels too taboo for me, as I’m afraid of snapping it off.

I was like that as well when they released Street Fighter Alpha 3 on PSP. Though I recall Capcom made a D-pad cover for 360-degree movement control. In general, the DualShock3 maps the buttons well, and you can customize them in the options screen. I don’t have to lower should trigger buttons (L2 and R2) for anything. The general character moves list is included inside the game and gives you the alternate mapping from Classic to HD mode. I know some die-hards will only play with an arcade stick. Unfortunately, arcade sticks aren’t going to be available until Street Fighter 4 is released (I’m also skeptical because they’re made by MadCatz this time around).

In this final round of discussing Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, it’s definitely a good pickup for the die-hard legion of fans. for some purists out there, they can only look at Street Fighter characters as 2D sprites. Well if you’re only going to look at that style, it might as well be in HD at 1080p. I know for some the new look of “roid raged” fighters showing up in Street Fighter 4 might be turning off some fans (as seen by early screen pics). The gameplay depth is strong in this iteration of the series. I was blown away by some of the moves that people were pulling off in my online matches. It makes me what to hone my skills some more. Also, remember this is the Super Street Fighter 2 roster of characters. If you’re a fan of the Alpha series you might be missing out on some of your favourite characters. So if you’re looking to join the Street Fighter renaissance bandwagon and are willing to pay $14.99 for the download, this is a good buy. Also helps with prepping your Street Fighter 4 training, almost like a compliment piece.