Super Street Fighter II Turbo

The Good
What really hits me about this game is the LACK of access time by the system to the disc. It's a lil' bit under a second, and isn't noticed unless you indicate it. That's an hell of an approvement for 1994. Wow! Then there's the opening intro in QSound. If you have your 3DO intergrated into a home theater or such system, and it's Dolby or THX, enjoy the booms rotating around you. QSound is that good! The music is also in QSound, and was kept hidden by Capcom until 1998 (unlockable in Street Fighter Collection 2/Capcom Generations 5) and 2004 (Hyper Street Fighter II). It's a real treat because for once, the music in a game sounds like MUSIC. Back in 1994, this was a HUGE deal, because we've gotten used to MIDI music, and here, this game on 3DO was pumping out what sounded like a live concert. Now, I don't know what the complaints about the Panasonic controllers are, because I used that controller to death with this game, and so did most of my friends. NOT ONE COMPLAINT, like the website and magazines did. It was an amazing controller and the play control was never tighter in a Street Fighter title at the time (surpassed by Alpha 3 in 1999 and 3rd Strike in 2000). The foreground characters' graphics are impressive and huge, and the letterboxing is gone, finally. Also, Akuma is playable, just do the tricks to get to him or play as him. Speaking of which, Akuma is on the CD, and it looks cool. The manual is very cool, too, and in full color. Don't worry about losing your 3DO box, because Panasonic did right by providing a fully published standard CD sized case.

The Bad
What is up with the drab, washed-out backgrounds? This is the 3DO, and the Genesis version of this game has better-colored backgrounds. Yes, the backgrounds are more washed-out than a 64 color machine is displaying. Topping that off, both the Genesis and SNES version had the background do parallax scrolling to keep the perspective in sync to the center of action. Not here, as the backgrounds appear as a flat, 2-D picture. This fooled my eyes till I became used to it, then it stopped bothering me. The sounds during the game are mono and scratchy. Not as scratchy as a Genesis game, but scratchy none the less. I don't know why, again, because Capcom does display QSound in the intro. This, combined with no Sound Test in the options and the tracks only being sixty seconds long, the music sounds a tad strange. And then there's Sagat and Balrog. They've been put into "long-screen" and appear awkward and skinny. They fight normally, but their appearance baffled me at first. They don't look right.

The Bottom Line
Do you own a 3DO? Then it's an unwritten Commandment that Thou Must Own Street Fighter II on Said System! It's that good! I know people who spent the $400+ to get their hands on this system for just this game.