Well, the game is called "New Challengers" for a reason: there are four new fighters here to check out, which gave Capcom excuse enough I suppose to put Street Fighter II back on the shelves. So I'll bite. Let's take a look at 'em. You've got Thunder Hawk (in the game referred to as T. Hawk to save precious text space), a native Mexican who nonetheless sits down and says "hao" when he wins a match. Totally Native American, dude. There's Dee Jay, a Jamaican kickboxer who wants to launch a rap career on the side. Great. There's Fei Long, a complete Bruce Lee ripoff who's there because Bruce Lee is awesome. And finally you've got Cammy, an English special forces member with a shady past somehow relating to M. Bison. But let's be real - she's actually there because Chun-Li needed some female companionship on the roster, and no other reason.Now at first the thought is "Cool, new characters, that's neat." But once you pick one up to play one I guarantee you'll just go "Ugh, this guy sucks," and return to an old favorite. That's not because the new fighters actually do suck, but because they're new. It'll take some playing and practice to get used to them, and after you play single player and watch them destroy you I think you're going to be willing to check them out. Fei Long is the most useful out of them though, based on his speed and moves, for what it's worth. But no surprise there; it's Bruce Lee. Seriously.
I think maybe I'm still a little averse to them though because they just don't feel right (Fei Long being an exception). Look at this picture. I'm sorry, but that's just not Street Fighter to me. Capcom would keep pushing Cammy on us in later games, and I admit eventually I was won over...but these two clowns can go and I wouldn't miss them at all. Which is why it's good to know that Super Street Fighter II does more than simply adding a few new bodies and calling it a day.For one thing, the graphics and sound are noticeably improved over previous versions. Not that graphics are the be-all and end-all by a long shot, but the game certainly is nicer to look at. Also along those lines, all fighters now have eight different colors to choose from instead of just one or two. While a lot of these colors remain ugly, options never hurt anyone. And some days maybe I'm in the mood for a lavender Balrog. Don't judge me man. You don't know me. Oh, and speaking of Balrog - he's no longer Mike Tyson. I know, it's equal parts relief and heartbreak. They let him keep a tooth chipped, but otherwise the resemblance is gone. Had to happen sooner or later I guess. And part of improved sound means new voices for some of the characters, like Guile. Problem is they didn't complete the vocal makeover; when he suplexes someone he still makes his old deep grunt, but when he says "sonic boom" it's in the most non-threatening, casual tenor possible. In fact, it's obvious they just got the same guy who does the announcer work for the game to double as Guile's voice, and it's laughable. I suppose now at least we know why those guys at his army base just let him get beat up, so there's a silver lining.
Of course, there are gameplay changes as well. The first thing to catch your eye will be the game speed. The "Street Fighter on cocaine" speed from Hyper Fighting has been mercifully removed, and the game now runs at its normal tempo again. Speed junkies might be a little upset, but don't worry - it's not like Capcom won't update the game again, right? Moves have also been almost entirely rebalanced, with some glitches fixed along the way. There are occasional anomalies (like Ryu's arms getting about 25% longer whenever he shoots a hadouken), but they don't really drastically affect matches at all. Certain moves have been tweaked in a number of ways. Ryu can launch a flaming hadouken now and Ken can do a flaming dragon punch. Chun-Li's fireball has a different size and shape. Vega can now punch in mid-air. E. Honda can't infinitely hand-slap you in a corner anymore (thank God!). Zangief has a new slam. M. Bison has a follow-up attack to his Head Stomp. Throws have had their damage reduced so that they're no longer match-winners in and of themselves...though they're still stronger than anything else you've got in your arsenal.
And hey, since they needed to make new endings for the four new characters, why not address the others as well? Sagat, Vega, Balrog, and M. Bison never really had proper endings anyhow before, so they've fleshed that out appropriately. There are some little changes to some of the other characters too, all for the better (though the endings in general remained the same for all of them). Vega's ending actually says he "returns to his mansion to praise himself." Hilarious. And credit where credit's due - Fei Long's ending has him at least acknowledging that he's a Bruce Lee ripoff, and the ending revolves around honoring Bruce. Makes you a little more comfortable that they're not just trying to pass him off as original. Strangely, if his ending is any indication, Dhalsim is a pretty lousy Hindu. First off, he's chilling at home eating and talking to his kid. I didn't think ascetics were allowed to do any of the above. Moreover, when his kid asks him about a picture of Dhalsim as champion of the tournament, Dhalsim goes "Oh that's just your dad in his past life." Dude, I don't think that's what it means. I'm pretty sure you have to legit die and be reborn to call something a past life. You are basically the worst Hindu holy man ever.Oh right, the game. Where was I? Yeah, the difficulty. It's up, my friends. Definitely up. The computer still has no qualms whatsoever about chaining a bunch of moves together that have no business being chained. Of course this still includes charge moves that don't require any actual charge time on the part of the CPU. Beyond that though, the computer will cross you up (attacking you in quick succession from both left and right so as to negate the ability to block) regularly, it'll break sustained grabs right away while for your part you just get stuck in them, and it'll spam fireballs all freaking day with Ryu or Sagat. Sagat's AI had been shouting nothing but "Tiger" since Hyper Fighting, but now he's clever enough as well to bait you with his projectiles until you try to jump over them - at which point he'll say his awkward "Tiger!...uppercut!" that sounds like two separate sound clips hastily merged together, and knock you out of the sky. Lesson learned: don't jump in toward Sagat. Ever.
At least this time around they've given you your own brand of cheese to beat the CPU at its own game. Yes my friends, the Psycho Crusher is back in full force and this time around it's just unstoppable. Remember the all-powerful leg sweep from Mortal Kombat? Yeah, it's that good. With proper timing you can just launch back and forth across the screen, hitting every single time, getting perfects against any opponent you might face. Even the boss, himself also M. Bison, is helpless against the fury. I don't know if it was an oversight or if Capcom intentionally made the move a world-killer for testing or something, but whatever. I'll take it. It's not nearly so invincible in multiplayer of course, and it's not like the computer's going to complain that I'm being cheap.Really, compared to Hyper Fighting, this game is a huge improvement. But considering Hyper Fighting was a big step backward, that means Super Street Fighter II is only a minor improvement over the last really solid version of the game, Champion Edition. Some of the old gripes never went away (charge moves still don't command reliably, despite having three incarnations to fix it), but there's enough new here to like, and enough done right that it's heartily recommended. You probably won't like T. Hawk or Dee Jay, but that's okay - nobody does, and nobody's forcing you to be them. So I can safely say that Super Street Fighter II was the best version of the game yet at its release, and you know what that means. It means it's time for us to celebrate in the appropriate Russian fashion.
Oh....oh dear.
Bottom Line: 16/20
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