It's been a long time coming, but HD Remix is a gift from the heart to veteran Street Fighter fans and was well worth the wait.
It's beautiful to see all
of the original Street Fighters brought back to life in a new art direction and
in full HD! The coloring is particularly well done and the awesome attention to
detail on the character sprites will not soon be forgotten. A lot of the rough
edges that the old sprites had were expertly smoothed out and given a fresh
cel-shaded-esk
re-coloring.
The fact
that these huge character sprites kept the same amount of frames of animation as
the originals (which are 17 years old), often-times makes them appear to move a
bit funny or awkward.
After being completely spoiled with the amazing fluidity of the Street Fighter III
series and the awesome "anime-esk" look of the characters in the Street
Fighter Alpha series; the characters in HD Remix do have some obvious
imperfections. For one, everyone still turns into M. Bison
when they're on fire (or turns into Zangief if they're T. Hawk)...
I was hoping they'd fix that.
I'm sure everyone will
draw different opinions on the way the characters look in general, and if you
want my two cents; Cammy went a little overboard on the eye make-up and Fei
Long's noggin is a bit large...
nitpicking aside, I realize "perfection" in a project like this is damn near
impossible. For what UDON had to work with, they really came
through and fans were treated with the most impressive remake of a classic fighting game, ever.
~TFG
Webmaster
.
REVIEW: SSF2: Turbo HD Remix is the first ever
complete "re-make"
of a Street Fighter game. And what more deserving title than the classic, long-time fan favorite,
Super Street Fighter
2 Turbo, which is the last installment from the immortal SF2 series (originally released in 1991). Every background, character
sprite and frame of animation has been resized to a larger scale and was completely redrawn by the team of talented artists over at UDON
Comics!
Coming from someone who grew up playing all of the incarnations of SF2 in the arcades (and at home) religiously,
and having nearly every frame of animation in this game embedded
into my brain... I, like many other die-hards out there, can fully appreciate
what UDON has done with this timeless classic. Re-drawing and re-coloring every
single frame of animation must have been an immeasurably frustrating and long
trial & error process, but let me be the first to congratulate UDON on their beautiful final
product... it was well worth the effort guys.
Super Turbo never looked
so crispy... and don't forget spinning knuckle goes through fireballs!
The new graphics really stand out, even though
they're based on very old sprite artwork. However, by today's
standards of 2D fighting games, the 2D character sprites are definitely
bigger than most and simply "fill the screen" like no others ever
have. The characters themselves have enough presence and charisma to fill the
screen under normal circumstances, but these beefy &
colorful new sprites simply light up
the room!
HD Remix really does look like a completely new game,
complete with fabulous re-drawn selection screen artwork. That said, the
in-game characters
look more like actual game artwork than character
sprites.
I have to say that overall, I'm very
pleased with nearly every character
in the game as far as looks go. They really nailed the faces and the characters
actually resemble the way Edayan draws them, which in my opinion is one
of the absolute best Capcom artists of all time.
As any Super Turbo player would expect, many of the animations in HD Remix do have a
dated look and can sometimes appear a bit "choppy". The backgrounds, while looking awesomely
sharp, also still contain characters that poorly animate (2 frames)!
It's a forgivable flaw given the nature of what this
game actually is, hence the word "remix". As far as the characters themselves,
they obviously wanted to keep
the frame count the same as in the original game so that it plays exactly as we
remember,
and the good news is, it does!!
What the hell is Jesus
doing in the background?
Capcom kept the gameplay mechanics perfectly intact from the original arcade
version,
but also includes a new HD mode with small gameplay tweaks,
character balancing, extra moves, more combo possibilities and even all new character colors! If you were ever a
fan of the Street Fighter 2 series, there's no reason not to love
playing this visually superior version of one of the biggest arcade
hits of all time. Don't forget that this is the series that sparked the competitive
fighting game community and brought fighting games and arcades in the early 90's to a new level.
Speaking of
arcades, where ever did they go? ...I'll always miss the smell of token machines
and old arcade cabinets. *sigh* How times have
changed. Seems like the best arcade you can go to these days is in your
own home... in that online mode. Heh. I tried out HD Remix's online mode
and had some trouble connecting. Once
I did connect with a few friends, the game ran smoothly for the most part. There's
also a Network Smoothing option which also helps out when any lag pops up.
Overall, it seems like you can play the same type of intense game online as
you can offline. Online options are bare bones, but the essentials are there.
As far as gameplay goes,
you know this game is OLD school. As much as I love playing HD Remix with
my old school buddies; honestly, I'd still rather pop in a game from the
Street Fighter III or Street Fighter Alpha series. Being
able to parry that fireball when your life is down to nothing (so you don't die
of chip damage), or use a wider variety of super moves to mix things up are
fighting game novelties that I dearly miss when playing this classic for any
long period of time. As a 27 year old fighting game connoisseur, I'm old school
myself, but I'm also quite partial to newer, more advanced gameplay systems
these days... and sometimes my thumbs don't feel like working so hard
anymore.... Shoryuken,
Hurricane Kick, Low Jab, Low Jab, Shoryuken, Shoryuken, Hadoken, Shoryuken,
Hadoken, Fake Hadoken, Jump in, Low Jab, Shoryuken...Carpal Tunnel, and
I lost... Dammit, and two more rounds to go.
The big guys are most
definitely bigger than ever!
Options... HD Remix has em! Firstly, there are a nice variety of arcade
style dip switch settings, which allow you to tweak some interesting
details about specific character moves and abilities. You also have the option
to set the stage music back to the original arcade themes, or keep the default
"remixed" themes (most of which sound extraordinary)! And, as funny as it sounds,
you can even switch out the character sprites back to the originals! The old style sprites have a filtered and blurred look
to them, and although they look rather out of place in front of the HD
backgrounds, they come out looking fairly decent... for old ass pixels.
The brand new endings drawn by UDON are also a much appreciated addition to
this solid package! Overall, this game is packed with nostalgia and kicks ass...
it's a must-buy!!!
I was hoping they'd fix that. 
nitpicking aside, I realize "perfection" in a project like this is damn near
impossible. For what UDON had to work with, they really came
through and fans were treated with the most impressive remake of a classic fighting game, ever.
I have to say that overall, I'm very
pleased with nearly every character
in the game as far as looks go. They really nailed the faces and the characters
actually resemble the way Edayan draws them, which in my opinion is one
of the absolute best Capcom artists of all time.
*sigh* How times have
changed. Seems like the best arcade you can go to these days is in your
own home... in that online mode. Heh. I tried out HD Remix's online mode
and had some trouble connecting. Once
I did connect with a few friends, the game ran smoothly for the most part. There's
also a Network Smoothing option which also helps out when any lag pops up.
Overall, it seems like you can play the same type of intense game online as
you can offline. Online options are bare bones, but the essentials are there.
The brand new endings drawn by UDON are also a much appreciated addition to
this solid package! Overall, this game is packed with nostalgia and kicks ass...
it's a must-buy!!!
