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This is a game that needs no introduction. Unless you’ve called a rock your home for the past year then you no doubt know exactly what Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is: an enhanced remake of the original Super Street Fighter II Turbo for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that promises balanced gameplay and gorgeous graphics. But for those of you who are skeptical as to whether or not a new coat of paint can make a very old game still feel as fresh as it did when it originally came out, I’m here to say that if anyone can do, Capcom can, and they have.

Presentation and Design
When you first start up the game you’re hit with an amazing heavy metal remix of Ken’s theme, which serves as the theme song for the game. From the menu you get to choose Arcade Mode (Classic or Remixed Mode), Training Mode, Versus Mode (Local, Xbox Live, System Link), or you can change the options or check your achievements and the leaderboards. All are standard fare and everything you’d expect from the 2D fighter, but there are no added modes that are common in today’s fighters such as Survival Mode or Time Attack Mode. The game is as good as ever, but playing alone can get boring with the same old modes. You also have the option to change the game speed, and specifically turn on and off the “remix” gameplay changes such as the chance of the first frame of Ryu and Ken’s Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku being unblockable. They might be nothing to casual players, but the die-hards will surely appreciate this.

Gameplay
No need for much explanation here. The game works almost identical to every other Street Fighter, and even every other 2D fighter for that matter. Two fighters duke it out executing combinations of punches and kicks, special moves, and Super moves. Nearly all the characters’ various moves have been balanced out so that no character is overpowered or underpowered; so if you lose, blame yourself, not the game cheating. Eight stars are no longer used to select the difficulty of the game; this time around when you select Arcade mode you choose Easy, Normal, Hard, or Expert. It shrinks the difficulty scale a whole lot, but it’s nice to be able to change the difficulty every play through without going through the Options menu.
Subtle changes to the gameplay include Ryu’s ability to fake a fireball in which he only performs the animation of the Hadouken, but recovering very quickly to catch the opponent if they just so happened to fall for it. When Chun-Li performs her Spinning Bird Kick she can actually levitate with it which makes it great to use to jump over an opponent that’s holding you in a corner. These and other changes are all in the HD Remix modes, so if you want to play the exact same unbalanced game from 14 years ago, but with the same visual upgrades then Classic modes are there for you.

Graphics
With no question, the highlight of the game is the graphical upgrade. With every single sprite and stage completely redrawn by UDON Entertainment, known for their work on various comics, this is what makes HD Remix stand out from every other downloadble PSN and XBL game. HD Remix is arguably the best looking 2D fighter around (although it won’t hold a candle to the forthcoming King of Fighter XII), but don’t expect the animations to look as fluid as the Street Fighter 3 series. There are no new frames for anything in the game, so even though the sprites are so detailed and the lines are so fine (I mean c’mon, you can see every ripple in Akuma’s angry forehead), the animations are the same as they were in the original game. Even though it’d be nice to see new frames added in the mix to make every movement flow very nicely, that was sacrificed to make sure the game plays the same way, not counting the changes made by Remixed mode.
The option to change all the sprites to their original versions is available; however this only changes the sprites, none of the backgrounds. It would be cool to play the game in its original format from time to time, but the levels still retaining their HD upgrades just doesn’t match with old school sprites so I personally stayed away from that.

Sound & Music

The “remixedness” of the game doesn’t stop at the graphics. OverClocked ReMix, a group whose sole purpose is to tribute and honor music from video games in a variety of ways, has handled the entire soundtrack for the game. They’ve remixed every song in the game to fit perfectly with the up-to-date feel of the entire game. All the sound effects and voices of the characters are the same as the original, albeit they’re clearer.

Online Play
Online works the same as Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting for Xbox 360, with the addition of Tournament Mode. You have ranked matches in which you play against a random opponent once, get destroyed (in my case), and leave the match with no chance to redeem yourself and a lower spot on the leaderboards; Player Match is the same as Quarter Match from Hyper Fighting in which you enter a match with multiple people and take turns taking on the winner of each previous match. It brings back that feel of playing with a bunch of friends at your house or at the arcade, but online. Tournament Mode is for 4-8 players and works as any other tournament. Unfortunately it’s online only, so if you’re thinking of having a bunch of friends over to set up a tourney like back in the day, you’re out of luck. You’ll have to stick to the old “pass-the-controller” method. I experience no real problems playing over Xbox Live. Of the 20+ online matches I’ve played I’ve only had lag once or twice. Connecting to matches is fast and easy and playing online with others is great.

Overall
All in all, this is the same Super Street Fighter II Turbo that you played years ago in the arcades and on your Super Nintendo with a new look and balanced gameplay. It’s a barebones fighter where the main focus is competitive play with others, not the single-player experience. Are you a Street Fighter fan? Are your friends telling you to get this game? Do you have $15 that you were gonna spend on a night at Olive Garden? If you answered yes to these questions then stop reading this and download this bad boy RIGHT NOW. This is a great addition to the Street Fighter catalog even with it just being a 14 year old game made to look better. It might now be a meal to tie you over until Street Fighter IV, but it’s a great appetizer to enjoy until then. Oh, and by the way, to use Akuma in HD Remix Arcade just choose Guile and press up; in HD Remix Versus Mode just choose E. Honda and press up.

+Upgraded graphics and music

+Balanced gameplay.

+Good online play.

+Customization of gameplay.

+Easy to select Akuma.

-Inability to fully revert graphics to classic.

-No added game modes.

-Shin Akuma still being as hard as ever even in HD Remix Arcade mode.

Written By Jonathan V.

1. Karl Phillips says:

   December 6, 2008 at 7:48 pm

   Nice review… definitely one of the highlights of being into XBLA/PSN games… new frames to make it as fluid as SF3 would have been greatly appreciated though but this is still a classic nonetheless

   Reply
2. Edward V says:

   December 7, 2008 at 3:41 pm

   game is dope, I wish I was good at Street Fighter though.

   Reply
3. Kevin W says:

   January 7, 2009 at 10:19 am

   Great review. The game is sick. I’m glad Capcom remade the game!

   Reply

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