Basking in Arcade-style Nostalgia
So there was this game called Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix released on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network this past week. Personally, I'm a Street Fighter fan from way back in mid-1992. I was a little know-nothing tyke when I first laid eyes upon Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (the first in a series of five, for those of you counting) in a deli when my dad took me with him to get lunch on his break from work. The appeal of the game then came from its sheer ingenuity. I had never seen a game like it. Really, none of us hadn't.
Like the series or not, you have to respect Street Fighter for one thing: it single-handedly made the fighting game genre viable. You know a game did something right when it spawned a number of look-alikes that would release one after another for years and years, one of which even caused Capcom to sue (Fighter's History -- which was very much a rip-off despite Capcom losing the case). Heck, that legacy carried on for as long as SNK made 2D fighters into the era where even most hardcore gamers had stunned them for how stagnant the genre had become.
While the series was known for its very responsive and fluid controls, it was also very complicated. Street Fighter II is known as one of the games that moved arcades from the place for everyone to strictly a hardcore gamer's den. A game with eight degrees of motion and six buttons for combat wasn't something a person could pick up and fool around with to get the hang of; and that's not even getting into the complex motions required for super techniques. But really, the number of us that were totally planted into the hardcore gaming square ate it up as much as the machine's ate our quarters.
If you're the kind of person who remembers Street Fighter II from the second iteration of the halcyon era of arcade gaming, you'll definitely want to pick this one up if you own a 360 or PS3. It really means a lot to us to relive the nostalgic experience with a very nicely retooled, and well-balanced, version for a mere $15 asking price. Though I'll warn you: it's seriously a "by fans, for fans" title. If you're not really that well versed in the Street Fighter universe and you're looking to get into it, you may want to hold off until Street Fighter IV makes it's way out on February 17th.
Like the series or not, you have to respect Street Fighter for one thing: it single-handedly made the fighting game genre viable. You know a game did something right when it spawned a number of look-alikes that would release one after another for years and years, one of which even caused Capcom to sue (Fighter's History -- which was very much a rip-off despite Capcom losing the case). Heck, that legacy carried on for as long as SNK made 2D fighters into the era where even most hardcore gamers had stunned them for how stagnant the genre had become.
While the series was known for its very responsive and fluid controls, it was also very complicated. Street Fighter II is known as one of the games that moved arcades from the place for everyone to strictly a hardcore gamer's den. A game with eight degrees of motion and six buttons for combat wasn't something a person could pick up and fool around with to get the hang of; and that's not even getting into the complex motions required for super techniques. But really, the number of us that were totally planted into the hardcore gaming square ate it up as much as the machine's ate our quarters.If you're the kind of person who remembers Street Fighter II from the second iteration of the halcyon era of arcade gaming, you'll definitely want to pick this one up if you own a 360 or PS3. It really means a lot to us to relive the nostalgic experience with a very nicely retooled, and well-balanced, version for a mere $15 asking price. Though I'll warn you: it's seriously a "by fans, for fans" title. If you're not really that well versed in the Street Fighter universe and you're looking to get into it, you may want to hold off until Street Fighter IV makes it's way out on February 17th.
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