Street Fighter Alpha 2

The Good
Graphically, sound-wise, musically, control, everything's here that's on the 32-bit versions. All is good and is fun to play. Even the intro is completely here.

The Bad
Slower than the other versions, though can get used to it. What really gets me is this is a cart, and yet there's access time. On a cart? What? I thought the principle of the cart was to extend the basic elements of the game as simulated RAM, and the RAM would just keep things like the high score and other user-input data. But no, there's access right before every round starts, and that's annoying.

The Bottom Line
Still avoiding the optical disc revolution, then buy this game by all means. If you can get used to the access time, you can enjoy one of the best fighting games on the SNES.

The Good
Almost everything about the game ticks, far too many to mention. The graphics are well-designed for 16-bit standards, the animations are smooth (despite the missing frames of animation), the vast majority of the arcade voices and tunes are here and, the best of all, near-flawless controls. I can pull off any Special or Super/Ultra move with the greatest of ease and almost any given time. It's also the only time in which characters like Sakura, Charlie, Rose, Birdie, Akuma and Dan appear on a 16-bit console.

One side note: Sagat is considerably faster here than in previous games. His Uppercut is EXTREMELY POWERFUL, inflicting as much as 7 hits, which some people may complain as being cheap, but I find it very useful. the same goes to his super moves.

The Bad
The music. Even though it's well composed, it's not as memorable nor as catchy as seen in previous Street Fighter games, but it has nothing to do with the hardware limitations, as all the other consoles share the same flaw. Also, after the announcer says "Fight!", there's a brief loading time (on a cartridge?), which is not a glitch, but it's something I have trouble getting used to. Lastly, the Waterfall stage is not included due to lack of space, but my complaints end here.

The Bottom Line
Everything that you've seen or played in previous Street Fighter games on the SNES is here. Excellent graphics, great sounds, near-flawless controls, and, although it doesn't match up with its CD-based-counterparts in terms of visuals and sounds, the SNES version has all the ingredients that make a great game and is a must for any SF fan. This game was released in 1996, at the sunset of the 16-bit-era and its days were clearly numbered by then, but this game sure made the console go out with a bang!