Super
Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix REVIEW: Super
Street Fighter 2: Turbo HD Remix is the first ever "remake"
of a classic Street Fighter game and one of the most ambitious fighting
game projects to date. What more deserving title of such a remake than the classic, long-time fan favorite,
Super Street Fighter
2 Turbo, the last installment from the immortal SF2 series (which got
its start 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.
As someone who grew up religiously playing EVERY incarnation of Street
Fighter 2 in the arcades (and on SNES at home), I have nearly every frame of animation
in SF2 embedded
into my brain. Like many other die-hards out there, I can fully appreciate
what UDON has done with this timeless classic. Redrawing and re-coloring every
single frame of animation must have been an immeasurably frustrating and
challenging process, along with much "trial & error"
experimentation. That said, let me be the first to congratulate UDON for
actually pulling this off. The final product is a beautiful sight for any old
school Street Fighter fan... and it was well worth the effort guys.
Super Turbo never looked
so crispy... and don't forget spinning knuckle goes through fireballs!
The all new character sprites and backgrounds really stand out, even though
they're based on "ancient" pixel-based artwork and animations. Even by
today's
standards of 2D fighting games, HD Remix's 2D character sprites are definitely
bigger than most, and fill the screen like no others ever
have. The iconic 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! The new and improved renditions of the classic locations and
backgrounds are also excellent and breathe new life into the game.
HD Remix really does look like a completely new title,
complete with fabulous redrawn selection screen artwork.
The brand new character endings drawn by UDON are also a much appreciated addition.
The
in-game character sprites match all of this new artwork nicely, and each frame
of animation is pretty much its own unique artwork.
Overall, I'm
pleased with nearly every character
in the game as far as looks go. They really nailed the faces and updated facial
expressions. The art style also somewhat resembles the way legendary Capcom
artist "Edayan" draws them (who in my opinion is one
of the best Capcom artists of all time, famous for his amazing work on Rival
Schools & SSF2T Revival).
Due to the nature of redrawing such significantly smaller pixel-based sprites,
the new sprite animations in HD Remix do have a dated look and can sometimes appear
"jittery" or "choppy". The backgrounds, while looking awesomely
sharp, also still contain characters that poorly animate (2 frames ftw)!
It's a forgivable flaw, given the nature of this project. It was obviously a
requirement to keep
the "frame count" for each move the same as in the original, so that
the gameplay remains unchanged. On that front, UDON definitely succeeded.
What the hell is Jesus
doing in the background?
Capcom kept gameplay mechanics perfectly intact from the original arcade version
of Super Turbo,
but also included a new "HD Mode" featuring new gameplay tweaks,
character balancing, extra moves, more combo possibilities. HD Mode also
features some brand new character colors, which is always cool to see. Speaking
of colors, all of the iconic character colors from the likes of Championship
Edition, Turbo, and Super are all remastered in HD Remix.
(Old school fans remember how big of a deal it was to have new alternate
colors for your characters back in the early 90's).
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. How times have
changed. Seems like the best arcade you can go to these days is in your
own home with online mode. HD Remix's online mode isn't perfect and I had some
trouble finding matches and staying connected at first. 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. Unfortunately, online options are bare bones in HD Remix, 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 Alpha1, 2 or 3. Being
able to parry a 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 SSF2T. Even as
someone who grew up in the arcades playing Street Fighter 1 and 2,
I still prefer newer, more advanced gameplay systems
these days. Besides, sometimes my thumbs don't feel like working so hard
anymore..... After playing an old game like Super Turbo for an extended
period of time, you're reminded how much work these old games used to be:
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 2 more rounds to go.
The big guys are
freakin' HUGE in HD Remix!
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 original pixels! 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.
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 World Warriors brought back to life in a new art direction,
and
in full HD. The coloring is particularly well done and the attention to
detail on the character sprites will not soon be forgotten. A lot of the "rough
edges" of the old sprites were expertly smoothed out and given a fresh cel-shaded
style re-coloring.
The
visual overhaul of HD Remix didn't translate without imperfections. The fact
that these huge character sprites keep the same amount of frames of animation as
the originals (which are 17 years old), oftentimes makes them appear awkwardly
jittery.
After being spoiled with the amazing fluidity of the Street Fighter III
series and the cool "anime-esk" look of Street
Fighter Alpha characters, the classic characters of HD Remix do have some obvious
flaws. 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 with the new graphics... and if you
want my two cents, Cammy went a little overboard on the eye makeup 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 for the fans. In any case, HD Remix is one of the most impressive remakes
of any classic 2D game I've ever played. It's pretty much a must-own for any
fighting game fan with a PS3 or 360.
~TFG
Webmaster
Overall, I'm
pleased with nearly every character
in the game as far as looks go. They really nailed the faces and updated facial
expressions. The art style also somewhat resembles the way legendary Capcom
artist "Edayan" draws them (who in my opinion is one
of the best Capcom artists of all time, famous for his amazing work on Rival
Schools & SSF2T Revival).
It's a forgivable flaw, given the nature of this project. It was obviously a
requirement to keep
the "frame count" for each move the same as in the original, so that
the gameplay remains unchanged. On that front, UDON definitely succeeded. 
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.
How times have
changed. Seems like the best arcade you can go to these days is in your
own home with online mode. HD Remix's online mode isn't perfect and I had some
trouble finding matches and staying connected at first. 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. Unfortunately, online options are bare bones in HD Remix, but the essentials are there.
I was hoping they'd fix that. 
