The Top Shelf: The Second Round 024: Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition
by mento
Welcome to The Top Shelf, a weekly feature wherein I sort through my extensive PS2 collection for the diamonds in the rough. My goal here is to narrow down a library of 185 games to a svelte 44: the number of spaces on my bookshelf set aside for my PS2 collection. That means a whole lot of vetting and a whole lot of science that needs to be done - and here in the second round, that means narrow...
Welcome to The Top Shelf, a weekly feature wherein I sort through my extensive PS2 collection for the diamonds in the rough. My goal here is to narrow down a library of 185 games to a svelte 44: the number of spaces on my bookshelf set aside for my PS2 collection. That means a whole lot of vetting and a whole lot of science that needs to be done - and here in the second round, that means narrowing our laser focus to one game per week (at least). Be sure to check out the Case File Repository for more details and a full list of games/links!
Extra Note: We've entered Shelftember! In this much-vaunted month, we will be processing one of the second round entries every day. I'll be spending one hour apiece with each game - inspired by DanielKempster's backlog-clearing series "An Hour With..." - and determining its fate from there.
Look, I don't need to find out what Street Fighter 2 is like. I've played a dozen versions of the thing over the years, and this Hyper edition is not so much a new entry but a compilation of the numerous variants the game has gone through: Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (the original), Street Fighter II`, Street Fighter II` Turbo, Super Street Fighter II, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo. It's not so much a compilation in the traditional sense where all the games are separate items on a menu, but rather one that includes the option on the character select screen to, say, play the Ryu from the original Street Fighter II against the slightly different Ryu from Super Street Fighter II Turbo. The portraits also change to suit your edition choice, but the opponents you face don't: Super Street Fighter II addition Dee Jay was my first opponent as both SSFIIT Ryu and as vanilla Ken (the real Vanilla Ken, as all true Hadokindred know, would later appear in a special ice-cream advergame tie-in variant named Sorbet Street Fighter: Gelaturbo).
In addition, the game also includes with it all the opening cinematics, the soundtracks for the CPS1 and CPS2 arcade board editions as well as the redbook audio version first heard in the FM-Towns and 3DO versions of Super Street Fighter II/Turbo, and the 1994 Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie film in its entirety. I didn't recall ever seeing a full movie on a video game disc before (or since, I suppose), and while I own the movie separately on DVD somewhere it sure seemed like a great value-add for this compilation. Could you imagine seeing the first season of DuckTales on the retail release of the WayForward DuckTales: Remastered remake? Or heck, the first seasons of all the TV shows featured in The Disney Afternoon Collection pack? (I think I'm good for the Mega Man TV show appearing on any of its recent compilations. Keep that show and its Peter Lorre Cutman in the past where it belongs.) For as shaky as the PS2 emulation scene could occasionally be (I'm not adept enough at fighter games to know if this game has enough in the way of lag or dropped frames to be significant), I think that generation set a high point for retro game compilations that we've since drifted far away from now that decades-old games are regularly being sold piecemeal for $5 each. I'm as deferential to retro gaming as anyone, but it's kind of insane to drop as low as £20 for 30 great (well, 10 great and 20 interesting) Taito arcade games to what Nintendo's Virtual Console is demanding for Balloon Fight. A conversation for another time, perhaps.
Beyond all that... well, it's Street Fighter II. Every variant of it, but it's still the same fast-paced fighter that captivated a generation and led the way forward for the genre. It's become so ubiquitous that kindergarteners receive primers on down-forward circle motions between learning the alphabet and coloring-in. I'm happy to spend an hour indulging in tossing around shoryukens and sonic booms, trying to remember how to make Akuma appear, and realizing that I either suck at these games now or that the clunky D-pad on this cheap third-party controller is entirely inadequate (safe to say it's probably both). It's also worth pointing out that the European version of this game did not get bundled with Street Fighter III: Third Strike, so there'll be no insane parry combos from me today. It's not a set that has any deep meaning for me, since I never really got into fighters and the only reason it's on the schedule for the second round is because I accidentally skipped it the first time, but I have to admire its solid execution on honoring one of the most influential games of all time.
Result: Eliminated.