Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival Review

If you ever step foot in an arcade over the past 10 years, or owned any of the 2D consoles, chances are you have played Street Fighter in one form or the other. It’s one of the most successful fighters ever created, and with good reason, it’s fun. The port over to the GBA works flawlessly and is as great as ever. This is definitely one of the best handheld fighters to date for the GBA. Everything from the graphics, to the control, to the sound has been faithfully ported to deliver another GBA classic remake.

There is a great little intro movie at the beginning in the normal anime style. The menus all are functional and feature a revamped graphical style. There are no more tired old menus, the new ones feature animation, and at times a great fire background; I was not disappointed in the least. The selection of characters is wide, and includes Shin Akuma and Akuma(although I have hardly noticed any difference), 2 players that were not available in the classic Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo on the SNES.

The graphics are stunning for the handheld. Everything is fluid, and easy to look at. You can tell that a few frames of animation have been taken out of each characters moves, but it was done to allow the game to fit in the smaller cartridge. You probably wouldn’t notice unless you went back and played the old game though. Some of the backgrounds look a little washed out, example being Blanka’s or Akuma’s, but it’s easily forgivable. The character selection screen features an awesome fire background, one of the coolest effects in the game. In addition you’ll get the awesome new super moves that look pretty nifty also. The character’s portraits are all hand drawn and look stunning. I was truly impressed by the great new look. Everything outside of the actually fighting, has been totally remade, and looks great.

The music is classic and unchanged. It has been slightly downgraded to work with the GBA, but sounds good nonetheless. The shouts and sound effects are still there, and sound good as well. It sounds significantly better with headphones, as with all GBA games.

This is fighter heaven. Back in the day this game was practically everyone’s favorite fighter, and in direct competition with the shallow yet popular Mortal Kombat. Even to this day they are creating new Street Fighter games that are practically unchanged. If you have never played a Street Fighter game, the basic premise is to use combinations of punches, kicks, jumps, dodges, and special moves to damage your enemy until his health meter has reached zero. The game has the potential for someone to continually get better and better after years of playing. The special moves are executed by completing a simple combination of buttons. You must defeat your enemy 2 times out of 3 to move on to the next, eventually getting to the final boss, and winning to see your character’s ending.

Upon viewing the menu screen you will be given 6 choices, if you have unlocked everything; Arcade, Options, Survival, Training, VS, and Time Attack. Arcade is the main game that you will play, and the only mode available at an arcade. It is basically a long line of matches leading to the boss, ending with a unique ending for your character. Options is where you can tweak your controls and round preferences. Survival pits you against a huge amount of opponents one after another until you die or defeat them all, and can become especially fun when competing against a friend. Training mode allows for you to practice you fighting skills against a standstill opponent. V.S. is for someone playing against a friend via the cable linkup. It basically is a head to head fight against your friend. Finally, Time Attack allows you to fight certain opponents in different situations, and offers the same kind of gameplay as the survival mode. A few of these modes are unlockable and require a lot of playing in Arcade mode before you can use them.

Control is the only aspect hampered by the port over to the GBA. Rather than having 6 buttons, the GBA has four. Meaning, you will only get a Hard Kick/Punch and a Light Kick/Punch. Executing special and super moves can get frustrating, and will often have you attempting the move several times before you get it. Such as Ken, Ryu, and Akuma’s Fireball moves, which I found got frustratingly difficult to pull off when it counts. It’s something that can be overcome with a good amount of practice.

The character selection is something to be impressed about. There are 17 characters (not including the duplicate Akuma on the selection screen) to choose from. Each character has his own stage to fight on.

You will never get bored with this one as long as you own it. There is so much to be done, and to master every character would take a great deal of time. The challenge of the Arcade mode on a high difficulty will never go away as long as you play it. Survival and Time Attack modes are a great retreat from the normal Arcade mode, and if you have a friend to play with, V.S. mode can be extremely entertaining.

The GBA linkup feature is utilized well, and only one game pack is needed for 2 player V.S. The game is essentially the same as the normal Arcade mode but fighting another human, which is much more fun than any computer could ever make it.

There is never a time where you officially ‘beat’ the game. You play until you feel like stopping. Completing arcade mode takes little more than 15 minutes to complete on a good run. You’ll find yourself playing for a while to earn all of the play modes and Akuma, which are all pretty rewarding. Even after there is nothing more to unlock, you’ll come back again and again to go through another round of Arcade mode with your favorite character.

To play all of my favorite 2D classics is basically the reason I purchased my GBA. If you currently own a GBA and no fighters, this is definitely the one to own until the arrival of Street Fighter Alpha 3. Even if you owned it on your SNES or Genesis, I would recommend picking this one up immediately. It’s a great nostalgic piece that you will enjoy coming back to every time you turn it on.