Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix (hereafter referred to as HDR) is
Capcom's revisiting of one of the most balanced, most played, and most
long lasting fighting games ever created. Fourteen years of tournament
play and 4 previous arcade iterations have lead up to this latest
version of the original SF2. That's a lot of testing, balancing, and
fireballs.
Capcom has succeeded in their goal to make every
match up in the game more fair, more interesting, and more likely to be
won or lost on the skill of the player, not the quality of the
character. Additions like E. Honda's Jab Headbutt make his previously
frustrating matches against fireball characters more fun, while the
degrading of his ochio throw makes players less reliant on setting up a
certain trap for a guaranteed win. Every character has been scrutinized
to reduce match ups that favor one side.
The HD Remix part of
the game involves the character art, which has all been redrawn in
crisp HD quality. HDR preserves the original animations for gameplay's
sake, but makes the characters and backgrounds more detailed than ever
before. An extra soundtrack of fan made remixes is included as well -
ranging from the bizarre (Balrog) to the more traditional (Guile).
Purists can use the original sound, aspect ratio, and character
sprites; new backgrounds are mandatory.
The biggest selling
point of HDR though, beyond the balance tweaks, beyond the new art, is
the unbelievably good online play. HDR's balance and depth make it the
perfect game for online play. It's easy to hop on and play a few
matches, or get lost in the melee for hours. HDR uses a system of
online play that smooths the experience by predicting user input and
rolling back events if needed to compensate for lag. The experience is
almost perfect on a decent broadband connection. In my 300 or so
matches put in so far, I'd say less than 10 had any incidences of
slowdown or rollback occurring.
There is one problem with the
game's typically excellent online play, though. When you're able to get
into a match and play, the game is nearly perfect. The problem lies in
connecting with other players. Xbox 360 users get a slightly better
experience, but both it and the PSN version are known to drop players,
fail connecting to matches, and have difficulty starting a game. There
are also some glitches that blank out graphics for the lifebars for
both players, silence the music, or throw you into an online match
facing an empty black screen. These happen infrequently but seem to get
worse the longer the game is played at once.
HD Remix is
closer to a perfect fighting game experience than any other game before
it. The new graphics make the game look fresh, the re-balancing makes
the game feel fresh, and the online play assures that this is a game
you will be enjoying years down the road. No fighting game fan should
be without this game.
