I’m sure that the vast majority of those of you reading this articles will have no doubt played (one of) the original Street Fighter II(s). Whether you chose a SNES, Mega Drive, Amiga, CD-I or stuck it out with the arcades, you will have no doubt at least sampled the delights of the title that has gone down in history as the “greatest fighting game ever”.

            So, fifteen years on and Capcom have decided to re-release the original Street Fighter II in all it’s many forms on a new breed of unsuspecting gamers, and to the delight of many, many old hands. The first thing I have to say is that, in almost every aspect, this is exactly the same Street Fighter II that most of us as kids spent a Christmas crying when we realised the first SNES release had been delayed till December 30^th!

            The game features all the original characters, including the bosses and the four new additions seen in Super Street Fighter II, a total of 14. When beginning the game, you are asked to select which edition you wish to play and your choice of character, speed of play and moves available is dictated by which you choose, as they all remain quite faithful to their original counterparts. This does, however, create a slight disturbance in 2-player, when one player may choose “Normal”, and the other may choose “Super”, the two players could play as the same character with differing strengths and weaknesses as well as moves, often putting the earlier character concepts at the disadvantage.

            The other features seen in game are, at best, limited. There’s the usual “movies” section to view the FMV you’ve unlocked, and also the Manga film adaptation of the Street Fighter II story. This film on its own would be a major selling point, if it wasn’t for the poor-quality PlayStation2 DVD playback and the frankly ridiculous decision to censor the film, even with the titles’ 15 certificate.

            As the game attempts to stay faithful to the original, the graphics are, to be honest, ridiculous. Capcom haven’t even taken the effort to add a few extra frames of animation to make the characters moves look smoother, nor crisp-up the visuals, nor improve the controller response, making the title feel sluggish and rather shoddy at times as the SNES controls which have obviously been used don’t mesh to well the PlayStation2’s “angular” D-pad.

            It seems that the only real “updating” that Capcom seem to have found beneficial to the game is re-producing the original musical score. Why? This “upgrade” is more than an infringement on the original playability of the game. The score has been replaced with dance remixes or more “jangly” tunes. Stop. If you’re not going to change the gameplay at all, why change the music? I can see no logical reason for Capcom making this decision.

            If you remember Street Fighter II from the glorious 16-bit days, please, don’t be tempted to re-live the wonder of the early 90’s by buying this inferior cash-in. Get on eBay and buy yourself that SNES and original copy of Street Fighter II you’ve been thinking about buying for the last year-or-so. For those of you who were too young, or just somehow missed the original release, there are two releases on the Game Boy Advance that are far superior, Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival and Street Fighter Alpha 3. Remakes are one thing, offering SNES games as hidden extras is another. Repackaging SNES games and charging £20 for the effort is something altogether different. If the film had been intact and had good picture quality, the title might have had a redeeming feature.