Street Fighter II

The Good
I guess there's no need to note yet again the immense impact that Street Fighter 2 had on the videogame world, and back in it's day, being able to play it at home was like owning a frigging Ferrari for any kid. It was for that reason that when the much delayed PC port finally came out I, along with hundreds of Street Fighter fans around the world, rushed out to get a copy. Of course, if I had only known that US Gold had brutally raped Capcom's masterpiece into a whimpering mess of a game, then there's a good chance that today I would be a decent, productive member of society. Instead this thing traumatized me into what I am today. US Gold, I blame you!!!

I guess however, since this is the "good" part, that I should note that the entire cast is there, and so are their moves, taunts, stages, etc...

The Bad
It's hard to believe how bad the DOS port of SF2 is, yet this is the kind of thing that gave PCs a bad reputation as far as action games were concerned. The graphics are horribly grainy and washed out, and to top that off there are so many missing frames you'd swear the animations play at 4fps or so, not to mention altogether missing ones like the breaking barrels, crowds, etc. The sound department is equally botched, with wimpy and noisy translations of the original music tunes and the SFX and voices are so garbled as to be almost unrecognizable (HARr-OOOURGH-KRHRHEN!!) but the worse hit is taken by the gameplay.

What was once a fast and engaging action masterpiece is now rendered a slow and dull monstruosity were characters slug around the screen trying to execute their moves without crashing your computer. Just jump towards your opponent and you'll think you are playing Virtua Fighter, as your character slowly flooooooats from one point to the other. The AI sure as hell didn't seem to be such a pushover in the arcades, and attempting to play a two-player vs match is a thing better left for the daredevil types out there willing to somehow live with the ensuing embarrassment for the rest of their lives.

But you want to know what is the worst thing? SNES owners had access to what's today a legendary port with near perfectly translated graphics, sounds and gameplay while we tried to make do with the shitty version US Gold handed us. AARGHHHHH!!!!!!

The Bottom Line
Probably the worst port in the history of the universe on account of taking one of the coolest games ever at it's peak of popularity and turning it into digital dog excrement. If you think the Spider-Man 2 Movie game is an example of catastrophic porting then give this bad boy a chance and you'll see what catastrophic really means. Anything that can turn Ryu into a poorly animated, slow and wimpy mess is just plain evil dude.

The Good
Street Fighter II was the first and perhaps greatest fighting game of the 1990s. We all had fun playing Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, and maybe even Clay Fighter, but Street Fighter II was pretty much the be-all and end-all of competitive gaming for many years after its release.

There's not much to say about this game that most gamers of the 23-32 age bracket doesn't already know. The characters are memorable and beautifully drawn, the music is lively, and the gameplay itself couldn't really be much better for the era it was produced in. Arguably improved upon by Street Fighter Alpha III, the combo system of Street Fighter II was rudimentary but functional. There's not a lot of showboating that can be done, and that's a good thing if you're not the showboating type of player.

Your basic fights are a mix of throwing fireballs, coming down from a jump with a solid kick, a little aerial combat, the occasional ground throw, and an even rarer aerial throw. No move took off more than the one-third damage of Zangief's Spinning Pile Driver, and that was virtually-impossible to execute for anyone other than the best players.

Single-player mode is satisfying, challenging, and features four memorable bosses: the effeminate Spaniard Vega, Mike-Tyson clone Balrog, 7-foot Muay Thai expert Sagat, and the reprehensible supervillain M. Bison.

The Bad
About the only thing to dislike about Street Fighter II is getting your ass handed to you by a friend. It was such a complete game, and the fighters were so well-balanced, that there was really no excuse for losing.

Another thing I didn't like was that when I visited the United Kingdom back in the early nineties, there were no arcade versions of it to be found. It's tough being 13 years old, stuck on a decrepit island with no SF2 to be found, especially when you're hooked on it from playing it every day for the past six months.

The Bottom Line
This is my second-favorite fighting game of all time, after the flashier and sexier Marvel versus Capcom 2. It is certainly worth a download for ZSNES (a Super Nintendo emulator) if you haven't played it since the nineties.

The Good
It is part of the history of all of us, brings a lot of memories, i felt in love with SF2 in the arcade and im still with that conversion, really great, big sprites, nice digitalized voices, beautiful and colorful backgrounds and one of the best points: the music, every song captured perfectly the personality of each character.

Each character has his story and his reason to end with M.Bison, there are a lot of feelings in there: self-acomplishment, vengeance, showing to the world how cool you are...

The Bad
I always missed playing with the four bosses and some attacks maybe were too powerful and you could kill your enemy with only two or three of these.

The Bottom Line
One of the best games in videogaming history. Select your character and prepare to become a true World Warrior!