Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival

Overview

Sixteen fighters from across the globe battle in sixteen exotic locations from Thailand to Jamaica. Each has special moves, special powers, and one goal in mind: to be the greatest street fighter in the world. Welcome to Capcom's Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo Revival for the Game Boy Advance!

One of the longest running franchises in the gaming industry, the Street Fighter series has spawned a multitude of versions. From its inception in the arcades, the series has reached another landmark with an almost flawless port of one of its more successful versions, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, originally released for the Super Nintendo Gaming System. Capcom has taken the entire game and miniaturized it to a near-perfect translation on the Game Boy Advance. Whether you play as Ryu or Ken, the fighters who wield the Dragon Punch and Fireball moves; Chun Li with her Spinning Bird Kick; Guile with the Sonic Boom; or any of the other fighters from Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo Revival; the title of best fighter in the world is at stake.

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

This is the classic 2D fighting game, synonymous with the Street Fighter series. Two characters go head to head in an all-out side-scroll brawl. Players execute punches and kicks through a combination of moves on the D-pad (thumb joystick) and A, B, and shoulder buttons. Sixteen separate directions can be motioned on the D-pad and fighters choose either punch or kick at various intensities -- Light, Medium and Heavy. Depending on the motion of the D-Pad and which button is pressed -- B (Tap) for Light Punch, B (Press) for Medium Punch, Left Shoulder Button for Heavy Punch, and so on for kicks - players can execute regular and special moves. Each move, when contacted properly, removes a little of the opponent's life bar. Special moves, which are flashier and more powerful, cause greater damage and remove more from the life bar. Stringing together moves and special moves can elicit more damage and more points. Each successfully executed move also fills a Super Combo Gauge at the bottom corner of each fighter's area. Filling this gauge completely gives the fighter an extra special move that could rain serious damage on the opponent. Two out of three rounds wins the match, and the fighter travels to the next exotic location to battle progressively more difficult combatants.

It is in the button layout that this game falls short. The B and A buttons are used for Punch and Kick respectively. But in order to perform a light versus medium attack, hitting the button requires either a light tap (Light Attack) or firm press (Medium Attack). This becomes difficult when trying to perform a combination of moves and the significant differences needed between "TAP" and "PRESS" are all but lost. Using either button becomes just that, using the button at whatever pressure adrenaline permits. Understandably, the Game Boy Advance offers few options to fix this problem. Gamers will have to see if Capcom will change this in their release of Street Fighter Alpha 3 for the GBA.

Beyond this one issue, the controls and gameplay have the amazingly familiar feel of the Super Nintendo when it first hit the streets. For those gamers who remember the feel of the original Super Nintendo controller, the GBA gives that familiar Street Fighter feel sans the two extra buttons from the Super Nintendo. They even put in the transition challenge stages, such as destroying the BMW and shattering the falling barrels in the warehouse. All in all, this is a fantastic conversion of controls and gameplay.

Multiplayer Support

Want to play head to head against a friend? Of course! Well, keep the following in mind -- you'll need two Game Boy Advances, one link cable and two Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo Revival cartridges. Once you have all these necessities, you are set for some fun 2D fighting! Just be sure not to hurt your GBA by pulling out the link cable out of sheer frustration when you lose.

Graphics

Playing this game side by side with the original Super Nintendo version, it was amazing to see how almost perfectly the graphics were matched. From Ken's flaming Dragon Fist to the M. Bison's full screen Knee Press Knightmare super combo, Capcom faithfully reproduced every move. The backgrounds are fantastic, detailed and colorful -- and moving! The backgrounds move while the fighters battle everything from hundreds of bicyclists to Harrier jets. The hand-drawn art of the various characters is exquisite and beautifully rendered on the GBA screen. Wonderful!

Audio

The audio is hit and miss. Action sounds, from the punches and kicks to the exclamations made by the fighters, are an exact match to the original and are clear and distinct on the GBA. The music, while nothing stellar in the original, loses even more credibility when filtered through the one-inch GBA speaker. The sounds of the fighters give the audio better than average quality overall.

Bottom Line

Capcom has created an over-the-top conversion of this tried and true 2D fighting game. It is a strong game with excellent gameplay and beautiful graphics. The controls leave something to be desired, yet satisfy just enough. For those who need a flashback to the days of arcades and Super Nintendo, Capcom puts gamers in the GBA Time Machine and sends them back to a time of innocence and peace when fighting games moved from side to side and looked more like comic books than movies. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo Revival is an excellent conversion of the original Super Nintendo game, and a must for GBA gamers with a penchant for fighting games.

As a side note, Capcom seems to have cornered the market on taking an original title (Street Fighter) and continually extending it with every update of the game (Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo Revival).