Super Street Fighter II Turbo

Bring the Arcade Action to your PC!

There is a whole slew of fighting games now in the arcades and on the PC, but there is just one that started that all off - Street Fighter.

Street Fighter started it all off. Then came Street Fighter II which got crowds to start dumping quarters into that machine. Then came the other versions of Street Fighter II - Turbo and Champion. Those also drew big crowds. Super Street Fighter II was Capcom's big upgrade to the SF2 games. It added four new characters and some better special moves. But the speed of the game just did not appeal to the crowds. It drew smaller crowds than the other versions. So Capcom upgraded the SSF2 version. And the version that came out of that upgrade has got to be the best of all the SF2 series' games. Super Street Fighter II Turbo (SSF2T).

Ryu continues to be the icon of all the Street Fighter games. But joining him are four new characters: Cammy, Fei Long, Dee Jay, and T. Hawk.

Round 1, Fight!

A few months ago Mortal Kombat II was released for the PC platform. But I stayed away from it, I prefer the more "classy" fighting that comes from Street Fighter II. There will obviously be comparisions between the PC version of MKII to the PC version of SSF2T. But, trust me, there is no comparision here. The SSF2T/PC beats out MKII TKO. The sprites in SSF2T are arcade sized, no shrunken sprites to account for speed. No, not here, the sprites are left real size, and the game does not slow down either. MKII/PC offered CD-quality music, but when it came down to it, it didn't have it. SSF2T/PC offers CD-quality music (on the CD version) and it comes through on that promise. All music is played off the CD (so you better have that audio cable between your CD-ROM drive and your sound card). The graphics in SSF2T/PC have more color and are brighter and are just more pleasing to look at. SSF2T/PC also offers background animation and parallax. Parallax is very cool, because the background is no longer just one piece of bitmap. The background is made of different layers, and they all move according to how far they are to the player. It makes the game look exactly like the arcade version.

The Translations Translations

Don't get SSF2T/PC mixed up with the previously (horrible) translation of the Street Fighter 2 game to the PC (by Hi-Tech). SSF2T/PC was translated from the arcades by Eurocom, and it is the best translation yet. It is an exact copy of the arcade version, it even includes the hidden character, Akuma.

Also, don't get the Eurocom SSF2T/PC mixed up with Hi-Tech's SSF2 release. Hi-Tech is going to try again at translating the arcade version of Super Street Fighter II (notice, no "Turbo"). But, hey, why would someone buy Hi-Tech's SSF2, when they can go with this perfect translation of SSF2T/PC?

The Game

The characters are almost the same as the original SF2 game, except (like I said before) the addition of the four new characters. SSF2T/PC offers (like the arcade) three speeds of game play. (1) seems to be too slow, it's almost like playing just regular SSF2. (2) is what I play at most of the time, it's fast, but not too fast. (3) is way to fast for me (atleast on the PC release, using the keyboard is different from using a joystick and 6 buttons.)

There are two playmodes in SSF2T/PC, arcade and challenge. In arcade, it's just like the arcade play, one can play the game by themselves (or until someone joins in.) In challenge, it's a two person type game play in which there are stats keep on each player.

The game is very memory hungry. But, it offers a swapfile way to play. With a 4 meg RAM machine, it might be a bit on the slow side because the swap file will be about 12megs. With a 8 meg RAM machine the swapfile is just about 8 megs and it runs really well. On a 16 meg RAM or higher machine, the game doesn't need a swapfile. The box says that 30 megs of hard disk space, but the game only takes up 17 megs or space -- the rest of the open space is left for a swapfile. So realistically, on a 16 meg machine, you need only 18 megs of harddrive space or so.

And let me say this, keyboard play, although it sounds awful, is actually pretty easy to master.

Good, but not Perfect

Although, this has got to be the best translation of the arcade game, and now one of my most favourite PC games, it is not perfect. If you have a Sound Blaster that is version 1.5 or higher the game will crash if you have the sound card selected. The fix for this is on the net, or you can just play with no sound. I had to upgrade from my Sound Blaster 2.0 to a Value Edition SoundBlaster 16 to get sound from SSF2T/PC. Also, for all of you who have sound cards that aren't supported, you will also have to pick up the sound patch because SSF2T/PC only recognizes true SB sound boards and not emulated SB sound boards.

There are semi-game glitches in here too. They aren't bad, but they are noticeable to SF2-players. An example would be Akuma's Fierce Dragon Punch, executes the teleport in SSF2T/PC and not the Fierce DP.

Some complain that the sprites are too big. That because they are so big the timing of the gameplay is thrown off. To me, the sprites are just fine, they might be on the big side, but it's not that noticeable to affect my gameplay.

The Bottom Line

SSF2T/PC is the best PC fighting game around. I payed $32 for it, and it is worth every penny. No more shoving quarters into an arcade machine for me. There are high requirements for this, especially on RAM and diskspace, but if you have those, this game will serve you well. There is a $15 6-button joypad offer inside for those of you who can't play SSF2T on the keyboard. If you want a good fighting game, and you want it on your PC, Super Street Fighter II Turbo is the game for you.

Review By GamesDomain