Street Fighter II

The Good
I'm glad I could buy Capcom's Street Fighter II for my DOS system, if this was still 1992. The graphics are dead-on, and the game doesn't eat too much disk space, but . . .

The Bad
. . . the slowest game of 1992, I'd say. Let's see . . . the Super NES is using the same CPU as an Apple II GS, except it's running at 3.75 MHz or so, has very little RAM (kilobits, mind you), and the game is on a 2 MB cart with extreme compression . . . the average 1992 PC is running a 386 or 486 CPU, either which is 32-bit, and the slowest clock speed is at around, if memory serves me right, I think between 10 and 33 MHz . . . yet the game runs slow. Then the digitized sounds have either a "white noise" or is "tiny", depending on if the card is a SoundBlaster 2.0 or 16. Also, no GravisPad support, and the joypad was at least one year old, no more than two, but was the new joypad standard for PC, Mac, and CD-i. To top it off, keyboard is impossible, and the two buttons used on any joystick or joypad relys on you pressing the button longer to select which "arcade" button is chosen for the moves. This leaves you with, well, a terrible experience topped with the bad sounds.

The Bottom Line
If you see a box at CompUSA or Best Buy that reads "Street Fighter Series" for PC CD-ROM, and it's only like $1.99, avoid it like the plague, a world war, intergalactic invasion and the Wrath of God all rolled into one. This game IS THAT BAD!

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.