Hyper SF II Review

There are unfortunately a few glaring and somewhat baffling errors that have been made in this compendium edition of everyone's favourite fighter. The first of these is that there is no save feature present at all, which means no permanent high scores - a great shame for those intent on chasing the glory of the number one spot amongst friends. This also leads to another grating problem - option configurations cannot be saved between play sessions (which can irritate given that the default button layout places both heavy punch and kick on the R1 and R2 buttons, instead of the more traditional layout of L1, R1). This is simply unacceptable in this day and age and that such a basic feature was overlooked is much to the detriment of all involved, genuinely spoiling some of the enjoyment of the game.

Deejay - rubbish?

Furthermore, as was previously mentioned, the Playstation controller is not the most comfortable pad for 2D fighters; fireball and dragon punch movements are sometimes clumsy to articulate and frustrations are compounded by a rock-hard arcade mode and odd default button layout. Anyone wanting to get any more out of the game would be advised to play with an arcade stick.

Thirdly, and while this is not an awful indictment, it must be noted that while this celebratory edition of the game is accompanied by numerous additional features, they are hardly exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination, lacking even basic fodder such as an artwork gallery. Given Capcom's great favour for un-lockables and secrets, it is odd that there is nothing on offer here to unlock or discover.

Super-Ken, AWAY!

Despite these criticisms, there is little to which you can fault the irrepressible Street Fighter 2 with - the overall package isn't the coolest that we might have expected, but playing Hyper SF2 will make you realise how utterly compelling the game remains to this day, especially in the multiplayer arena, providing hours of brilliantly balanced competitive play. It is an extremely competent release that will please fans, and hopefully newcomers will still appreciate the strategy and purity of the game. However the fact remains that not being able to save is a tragic oversight and pitting the various disparate fighters against each other is largely a novelty offering. Arguably there are better versions of the game already in existence, and that's without the presumption that the ever cheeky Capcom won't try their hand at another ultimate release of one of the most timeless games ever created somewhere else down the line.