ok people, here we go with part 2,
the street fighter 2 at gamestop. capcoms classic fighting game
that defined an era, and led to multiple series and spinoffs.
yes, there are tons of reviews out there, but have any gamers,
and i mean dedicated, real, or expert gamers tried these out?
i haven't seen any dedicated reviews yet. only short previews.
i'm not going to bother going over the pro's and con's or the
basic information about the games, sounds, lists, etc. as they are sometimes
personal opinions, or have already been gone over many times already.
i'm not an expert on every game, but i do know my way around them.
these are my opinions.
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tldr version:
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controls are not arcade accurate - they just barely do the job for average players,
they are terrible for intermediate and expert players
games play near arcade accuracy - framerate, and response is decent, graphics are blocky and pixelly of course,
however, there are emulation issues in both super versions.
screen angles are shallow - but are pretty vibrant enough in most cases, contrast and color saturation are ok.
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STOP READING HERE, IF THAT ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS
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the long picky review follows:
i am going to go into boring gameplay details,
response times, and control mechanics for the games i know.
background -
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i have been playing videogames from the days of pong, breakout and space invaders.
i was late to the street fighter 2 party. at my university it was a huge hit.
and there were always lines for the original one. i waited and watched it for
about a year before i finally played it. it was 50 cents to play, and 25 cents
to continue, so that's why i never wanted to play by myself.
also, the players got really good, so a new player wouldn't have any chance, and
didn't get to play against the computer. sometimes the winner would let the poor
player win, just so they could get another round of play.
anyways, all my friends were hooked on it, to the point of going out in the middle
of the night to convenience stores to play it without having to wait for the lines
to die out.
fast forward to later when this champion edition came out.people always wanted
to play the boss characters, and of course to balance the gameplay, they were
toned down, but stil fun to play. i got decent at this version, and have played
pretty much every sequel, mod, and bootleg up to street fighter 5, but i'm not
good at 4 or 5 though.
when it finally came to the home versions, i got the genesis versions, and some
of my friends got the super nintendo version. well, i was at a huge disadvantage,
because i had an arcade stick for the geneis. but to play on the super nintendo,
had to use the stupid pad, with the shoulder buttons which was terrible. so
i always got beat pretty much.
i can beat the computer using ken, ryu, guile and chun li, i'm not good with the
other characters, but can do all the special moves. i can do basic combos, but
not the frame accurate combos or counters. i can beat the game on default,
but not hard settings. i'm not as good on super, or super turbo though.
hardware control experience
----------------------------
i have used arcade controls, joysticks and buttons
i have home versions of those controls, and actually don't use dpads or analog stick
on any console unless i'm forced to.
my preference is always dedicated controls for arcade games, and i own several fight
sticks with arcade buttons. i have bat and ball style joysticks too.
arcade gaming habits
-----------------------
i used to play all 3 of these games in the arcades, so i know the original versions.
i'm only good at the champion version, and am passable on super and super turbo.
i have played pretty much every port, and compilation that has these games on it.
i just got the xbox one Capcom 30th anniversary compilation recently, and having
been playing through all those versions recently too, with an arcade fightstick.
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time spent playing
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on street fighter, i spent 20 minutes with each title, trying out different
characters, and different sides to play.
Street fighter 2 variations
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condition of cabinet - again, the control panel had the bottom portion totally
worn out from people playing, the store guy said it had been there about
a week. the buttons and the rest of the cabinet was in good shape
durability - the cabinets are super flimsy, and shake when you play.
at first i played it by kneeling on the floor and playing that way for
about 5 minutes. then the clerk brought me a chair, and i played the
rest of the time sitting down. again, it just felt wrong.
there were no risers, and i missed standing up.
ergonomics - just like the asteroids cabinet, as i mentioned the sitting down part threw me off,
but i got used to it. the much bigger issue is the hands and wrists, along with the buttons and joysticks.
here the biggest problems are the ball and stick joysticks, which are not the original bat style,
(yes, they can be modded and replaced, but i'm going with the stock for now). the buttons are
also non standard, and click. the spacing of them is ok, but not quite arcade standard.
(and again, those can be replaced also).
the thing that killed my wrists, was that the nice gentle 5-10 degree(?) slope of the
arcade was gone, and now it's just this flat panel. i would definitely hike those up
somehow with supports to make it feel better. granted i didn't play that long, but i
could tell, it would be different after playing for long periods of time.
gameplay -
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street fighter 2 : champion version
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this is the first and most basic version of the game, only including the 4 boss characters
for the first time, and also allowing mirror matches.
i did not have time to finish any of these games with one character to see the endings.
but did get to the bonus stages. so those looked correct.
my timing on the games is good, but not great. i can do basic 3 hit combos, and special
moves for all the characters. when playing guile i was able to land the overhead hit,
sweep, flashkick combo, and sometimes i could dizzy the computer. sonic booms came
out, as did chun li's fast kick and helicopter moves.
getting used to the twisty ball stick was tough. i picked ken as my standard character
for all versions, and also played other characters from both the left and right side
of the control panel.
i was able to execute all the fireballs, helicopter kicks, and uppercuts, but did miss
a few. my problem was that i started on the left side. i can only do my moves from the
right. so i played for awhile until i lost a round, and then switched over to the right
side, where i was able to get most of my moves out about 75% of the time.
i really miss the bat sticks. so that affected gameplay. i didn't notice any lag.
but in order to do frame accurate combos, such as cancels, specials, chains, and hit stuns.
[info from
http://wiki.shoryuken.com/Street_Fighter_2:_Champion_Edition]
you need to be able to accurately and quickly do these moves, i think so far the emulation
is passable, and does encompass that.
i was not able to try out any glitches, but depending on the rom revision, these should still
be in there:
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Secrets
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Beating the game without lose a single round: after the char ending, you'll get a demo mode when each fighter
destroys a crate or an oil drum using one of his/her signature moves, along with aliases and caricatures of the game devs.
Konami Code: strangely enough, the Konami Code can be used in the arcade version of SF2CE.
If you pull the sequence up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right and press MP then LP on controller 2
during the attract mode, you'll get screen info like: number of coins deposited, number of times a certain char was used,
etc.
Bugs
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SF2CE known bugs include:
Bonus Stage infinite hits: This bug freezes the game. Here you can see Honda, Blanka and Vega doing it intentionally.
However, if you're on a 2-player game, the other player remains fully operational, and can cancel the bug just hitting
the frozen opponent.
Vega backflip bug: an old known bug occurs whenever Vega does his backflip move underneath the oil drums at
the third bonus stage. It doesn't interfere in the game.
Corner bug: when one of the players is cornered, the game messes the controllers up whenever the
opponent jump at him turning a reversal attack or even a simple blocking into a guessing game.
The japanese version doesn't have this bug.
thoughts on this game
----------------------
gameplay response was decent, but the balltop joystick and the subpar clicky buttons
made it a chore to play, and execute moves. yes, i could get use to them, but if i wanted
to play seriously, i would switch everything out.
i did not get a chance to play any 2 player games at all, but even if i did, the thing was
stuck in a cramped corner in the front display, so there wouldn't have been much room
at all to play.
overall, this is the best game emulation out of the three, with the least issues,
including sound and graphics.
i felt that due to the subpar controls, that this game is adequate, but overall
not a very good representation of the arcade version.
super street fighter 2 : new challengers
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at this point, most of friends had quit playing fighting games. even in the
arcades things were dying out. but i kept playing, and mostly on home versions,
since it was easier to play, and cheaper.
for super, the new challengers they added 4 new characters, cammy, dee jay, fei long,
and t hawk. i liked cammy and dee jay, but couldn't really play fei long or t hawk.
again, you could select boss characters, and do mirror matches with a lot more colors.
the speed of this game is greatly slowed down, but matches champion edition. people that
played hyper didn't care for the slowdown though.
i can't finish this game, unless its on easy, and since you have to beat more characters
that would take longer. i played ken, ryu and cammy. again, i was able to execute all
the special moves, and do some basic 2-1 and a few 3 hit combos.
i didn't notice any lag, or too many difference. but as pointed out the sound is lacking,
due to some lost sounds on the mono speaker, and same with some music samples.
the AI is smarter on the default so i was only able to make through a few characters,
and also i switched over to the right side, in order to do uppercuts, and special kick moves.
thoughts on this game
----------------------
my feelings are this is a much deeper game than the champion edition, and there
is a ton more strategy to learn, and harder gameplay
however, due to the poor controls, joystick and subpar buttons, its a chore playing
this also. that in addition to the lack of certain sounds and music make the emulation
seem somewhat broken.
overall, i would rank this as a subpar translation of the game, and not a good
represntation of the arcade game.
super street fighter 2 : turbo
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again, this game was brought out to prolong the incredibly long wait for street fighter 3.
so, due to players wanting more options, they added a turbo option, super combos
(which are super moves), a super bar meter, and increased difficulty.
super street fighter 2 turbo is still played competively in competitions to this day.
it has great balance, superior game depth, multiple match ups, hidden character, and
original characters within the game.
i was not able to try any of the special things, which can be found here:
http://wiki.shoryuken.com/Super_Street_Fighter_2_Turbothey list how to play as the hidden character akuma, and get the original
versions of the many other characters in the game.
again, i played ken, ryu, and guile. the speed on this turbo version is set to 2.
it is way too fast. the game is super hard, and unless you know what you are doing,
or play cheesy, you will die super fast against the computer. i was able to build
up my super meter, and get off a few super moves, but that was about it.
thats one notable thing about this game, that is not in any prior edition.
i only got through a couple of characters, switched sides, lost and gave up.
its going to take people a lot of time to get through this game, and guess what.
if you do it without losing a round, you get to play akuma, who is super hard,
and even more challenging then bison at the very end.
i don't know if i will ever get good enough to get that point without savegames,
or using the 2 player cheat, and just continuing.
anyways, the game played well enough, but still had the emulation issues
with sounds missing, just like in the regular version.
thoughts on this game
---------------------
broken record, here.
my feelings are this is a much deeper game than the regular edition, and there
is a ton more strategy to learn, and even harder gameplay
however, due to the poor controls, joystick and subpar buttons, its a chore playing
this also. that in addition to the lack of certain sounds and music make the emulation
seem somewhat broken.
overall, i would rank this as a poor translation of the game, and not a good
represntation of the arcade game.
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Final thoughts
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overall, i would give 1up arcades a grade of C- for effort.
D for quality and longevity, C- for emulation, C+ for graphics.
So an average of C- overall grading, or 2.5/5 stars for the price.
Take into account the games you like, how much you will play them,
and how rough these things will be handled.
To me, i don't want to say they feel like they are breaking apart at any time,
because these were worn out demo units.
If you don't play often, these things will last and look good.
If you do play often, they WILL wear out, the buttons, the controls, etc, eventually.
They should have some kind of riser, or you are really missing out on the arcade
feel of it.
Modding the buttons and joysticks, will do some good perhaps, but unless you're
an expert, you might not even notice the difference in stick/bat and button styles.
i would give it a slightly higher rating if they had used better controls, but
they opted out of that.
i love street fighter 2, (maybe not as much as virtua fighter), but as 2d goes,
i don't think it can be beat. its just sad and unfortunate it didn't get treated
very well with this adaptation. there's just too many missing things, not being
to control it properly with the stock controllers leads to a lot of frustration.
i'm not sure which rom revisions they used for each game, but i'm assuming they
are the latest for each one, with the appropriate fixes for each one.
A valiant, but in the end a very subpar experience, unless you're going for nostalgia,
and love street fighter 2, and are ok with the compromises.
so far arcade 1 up is 2 for 2 for subpar experiences.
i'm pretty sure the other 3 (gauntlet, centipede, and deluxe) will all fare
equally bad or worse.
galaga, pac-man, and space invaders have a small chance of being
decent, but at this rate, there's not much chance of that either.
later
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