Street Fighter 2 1995 By: Capcom

Overview:

Now obviously, this is a port. Come on, let's face it, if you haven't heard about, seen, or played Street Fighter (the best fighting game of all time) you have been sleeping under a rock. I'll be honest with you, I wasn't expecting much from a Game Boy port of a truly classic and expansive game, and maybe it was my low expectation for this port, but I was exceedingly pleased with this game's quality. I was genuinely surprised to play this game and feel a small arcade experience. However, this game does have a pitfall or two, and that's why you are reading this, right?
Street Fighter, if you don't already know, exploded onto the Arcade scene in the early 90's, and it was a monster that couldn't be contained. Soon after, Capcom realized they had a cash cow, ported to everything imaginable, made movies, cards, even whole TV sets. Today is no exception. This is one of the few games to have such a large collection of products and ports even to this date, and it keeps growing. And in 1995 Capcom knew what they had to do. They needed Capcom spread along every console they could find, no matter how small. Thus Street Fighter landed on the Game Boy!
Again, if you don't already know, the story has you play as one of 6 heroes (down 2 from the original) or 3 evil bosses, to control the world as World Warrior. Each character's story is unique, so you'll have to play through to get the full experience. In all, your goal is to either stop M. Bison or help him achieve victory. Of course the only way to do this was to bring out the best of the best fighters and pit them in a tournament to see who was truly worthy.
The game play in this game is astonishingly solid. I was impressed by how well my button commands were handled and how tight the controls truly felt on this small primitive system, compared to the arcades. Since some combos and moves require detailed button combinations I was expecting lack-luster performance, but what I got was control and stability. When I wanted to perform a Hadoken, I got it!
This was very exciting! I was easily whooping the CPU. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell if I was easily beating the CPU because I am that good (not to brag but I have won local Arcade tournaments in this game) or if they had made the CPU players less difficult to make up for the tiny screen and limited play. In my belief it was the latter of the two. This would make sense out of how quickly I put to rest the final bosses. Then again, characters seemed to have less health in this port as well.
As tight as the controls are, one thing that the GB couldn't handle was the action on the screen. A bit tight and confined, made the characters occasionally disappear off screen, especially when jumping. Not good when you need to land or dodge a kick to the head. It also felt a bit slow or clunky, certainly because the GB couldn't handle the usually lightning paced game play. Two minor frets that I am willing to overlook since everything performed so well, so beautifully.
Speaking of beauty, this game's graphics are top notch on this tiny system. You won't find too many other games with such great graphics. Each character is finely detailed and their move sets largely intact. Again, surprising. Hadokens, Sonic Booms, Kicks, Boxing Punches, are all rendered amazingly well and don't slow down the system (even if it is already slow). The backgrounds are colored wonderfully with a hint of the arcade. The sounds are superb, with almost exact translations of the Arcade music, just don't go in expecting to hear the effects for throws, grunts, and special moves. Regardless, it's amazing to hear what they crammed into this thing.
With some very minor flaws, this game still felt like an arcade experience and still felt decently paced, with a whole lot of fun to last you a long time. If you've never played Street Fighter I suggest the SNES version first, but this is nostalgic and definitely should be played by any type of fan!
Street Fighter 2 Down, Down-Right, Right+Punch's it's way to World Warrior with a 9 out of 10 (Perfect!)

Directions:

Choose from nine of the World's top Warriors as you fight your way to stop or defend the world's uprising enemy, M. Bison! Pick from, Ryu, Ken, Chun-li, Blanka, or Guile, the Light Side. Or Balrog, Vega, Zangief, or M. Bison as the Dark.
Use punishing combos of punches, kicks, throws, jumps, and each character's unique special moves, to out-down each opponent on your quest as World Warrior. Learn to block on the fly to take minimal damage, and counter quickly to enhance your damage dealt. Choose your warrior wisely, as each character has unique strengths, weaknesses, and talents. Quickly learn each character's pros and cons and use them to your advantage throughout the game to make things a little easier on your warrior. Master each characters' Special Moves to increase the damage, and lay them on thick and watch as your enemies are eliminated quickly. Perfect Ryu's Hadoken blast, Chun-Li's super kick, Guile's Sonic Boom and so many more and you'll have an edge on everyone you face.
Handle your opponents quickly, intelligently, and safely and score big! Progress through the levels, defeating each warrior that stands in your way to face M. Bison and achieve your goal.