SSF2 difficulty settings broken?

[fleskebacon]

I was never a very good SSF2-player, but I usually managed to get to the bonus stage with one credit, at medium difficulty.

Now I'm not even able to get one single victory - on the easiest setting.

And I can't really see any big difference in the opponents from easiest to hardest setting.

Has something happened, or have my skills deteriorated much more than I like to think? 

[fleskebacon]

Ok, so I tried the USA-version (ssf2u), and that one's much, much easier! So that was probably the one I was playing back-in-days.

I thought these versions were supposed to be generally identical apart from their regional licensing, but I guess they're not. The default difficulty on ssf2 was "medium", while in ssf2u it's "medium hard", and even then the USA-version is much easier.

At "easiest" the early opponents in ssf2u hardly moves, blocks or attacks at all, while in ssf2 they're quite aggressive, even on the "easiest" setting.

So I'm happy, after getting a lot of beatings that I didn't deserve...

[lamprey]

That is actually good to know. That'll help me when I get to SSF2!

[fleskebacon]

I was also very pleased to make this discovery! If I had kept playing the Euro-version I would eventually have smashed my entire control panel in anger...

The "officially recognised as best" version of the game would probably be Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. That's the version that gets played the most in competitions and stuff, I think. I haven't really checked the difficulty in ssf2t compared to the USA-version (ssf2tu), because I prefer the original SSF2 in any case.

I like the original SSF2 best because of the slightly simpler game mechanics, lower speed (I'm an old man), and the original colours/costumes for the characters. The USA-version also has the "FBI - winners don't use drugs"-screen, which I kind of like, and add the "correct" difficulty level, for me ssf2u is without doubt the best choice.

Good luck, SSF2 is easily one of the best arcade fighting games ever made!